GM industry funds UK parliamentary group to promote GM

GeneWatch UK warned today that the GM industry is funding a major push to return GM crops to return GM crops to Britain by promoting misleading claims in parliament that they are needed to "feed the world". George Freeman MP's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture is being used by Monsanto and other GM companies to lobby on behalf of their business interests.

Funders of the APPG include the industry body the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC), which represents the major GM crop companies (BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, Pioneer (DuPont), Monsanto and Syngenta). Other funders include the National Farmers Union (NFU) and the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (ADHB) (1). The funding is provided via Front Foot Communications, which is run by the Secretary of SCIMAC, a grouping of industry organisations along the UK farm supply chain, established in 1998 to support the introduction of GM crops in the UK.

In July 2011 the Prime Minister and the Science Minister David Willetts appointed Freeman as Government Life Science Advisor and he has been a vocal advocate of GM crops.

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