The GMO Biotech Sector can’t win the Scientific Debate. Co-optation, Deception and Collusion
By Colin Todhunter
British
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Owen Paterson is a staunch
supporter of the GM sector (1). Despite criticisms of him being an
industry puppet (2) and content to ignore the devastating, deleterious
health, environmental, social and agricultural impacts of GMOs (3), both
he and other officials like the EU’s chief science advisor Anne Glover
(4) have been more than happy to act as mouthpieces for the GM sector by
making false statements and claims about the benefits and safety of
GMOs that fly in the face of scientific findings.
Paterson’s
support for GMOs is being carried out in partnership with a number of
institutions, including the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC),
which is backed by GM companies such as Monsanto, Syngenta and Bayer
CropScience (5).
Evidence
recently emerged of meetings and briefings involving ministers and the
ABC and its industry backers, despite no such meetings with groups
worried about the impact of GM on human health and the countryside. In
response, GeneWatch UK made a Freedom of Information request to find out what was said at the briefings. Paterson’s
department refused to give details. GeneWatch lodged a formal complaint
with the Information Commissioner in the hope that ministers will be
forced to admit how GM companies are driving government policy. The
evidence strongly suggested that the Government is colluding with the GM
industry to manipulate the media and plot the return of GM crops to Britain.
Paterson’s
department refused to provide details of a telephone conference between
the department and the ABC on June 10 last year. Ten days later, Paterson made
a speech calling for opposition to be dropped and claiming GM crops and
food were ‘probably safer’ than the conventional equivalent. It also
refused to release a “message on media suggestions” sent by the ABC to
the ministry last April, or details of discussions between Monsanto and
the ministry two months before. In addition, his ministry would not
provide details of a meeting and emails between former environment
minister David Heath and the ABC.