GM campaign group Genewatch UK has claimed Defra has worked with the GM industry to create positive PR and press coverage of GM, using research from 'cherry-picked' pro-GM scientists.
The group has published a dossier of correspondence and meetings between the UK government and the GM industry, obtained using a series of Freedom of Information requests.
A series of four meetings between science minister David Willetts and Syngenta during summer 2013, with an agenda of “science and research” or “the Agri-Tech strategy”, suggest that the government is collaborating with the GM industry to shape future strategies, Genewatch said.
When asked by FPJ, a government spokesperson said: “We listen to all views on GM technology, including those from the industry.GM technology has the potential to benefit both the environment and the economy.”
'These documents expose government collusion with the GM industry to agree PR messages and blacklist critical journalists,” said Genewatch’s executive director Helen Wallace.
Among the claims, Genewatch said that scientists are used to promote claims that GM crops are necessary to feed the world and that GM regulation should be weakened, in return for promises of R&D investment.
“Scientists have been cherry-picked to push GM industry PR, as it seems the government has made promises of research funds tied to public-private partnerships with Monsanto or Syngenta dependent on supporting commercial cultivation of RoundUp Ready GM crops in Britain,' said Wallace.
Wallace said that, in turn, this means that evidence that non-GM farming in Europe has outperformed GM farming in the US is ignored.
“GM crops cover over 12 per cent of the world’s arable land and no crop would ever be grown in the UK until it had passed robust safety controls,” the Defra spokesperson said.
Genewatch added that delays in responding to FoI requests and provision of partial information in some cases, highlights the extent to which the GM industry's role in government policy is being kept hidden from the public.
“It is difficult to conclude this is anything other than a political deal, offered in the vague hope of a return in R&D investment from Monsanto or Syngenta as an anticipated payment for colluding in the industry’s PR,” a Genewatch statement said.
Genewatch released the documents in the run up to yesterday’s vote that saw EU nation states vote on the right to permit, or ban, the cultivation or sale of GM products.
The proposal has been met with fears from organic trade bodies and campaign group, who said it gives pro-GM countries the ability to go ahead with commercial GM plantings despite opposition from other member states or neighbouring countries.
Genewatch UK describes itself as a non-profit organisation that monitors developments in genetic technologies from a public interest, human rights, environmental protection and animal welfare perspective.
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