Lord David Sainsbury
UK
GM enthusiast and science minister in Tony Blair's government 1998-2006, plus a key donor to Blair's Labour Party.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Sainsbury Laboratory, Gatsby Foundation
Sainsbury Laboratory
UK
Plant genetics research institute on the site of the John Innes Centre (JIC), backed by Lord Sainsbury's Gatsby Foundation.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: David Baulcombe, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Gatsby Foundation, John Innes Centre, Jonathan Jones, Lord David Sainsbury, Mike Wilson, Derek Burke
Science 2.0
USA
Blog owned by Hank Campbell, the former President (2015-2018) of the Monsanto-funded American Council on Science and Health. David Zaruk is the Chairman of Campbell's Science 2.0 Corp nonprofit which, in the view of the journalist and NYU professor Charles Seife, is a link in a "shady network of for-profits and non-profits helping Monsanto." Science 2.0 has stirred controversy by posting racist, anti-semitic, eugenic propaganda.
Article: Hank Campbell’s Maze of Monsanto-Loving Science Blogs
Science 2.0 refuses to remove Nazi eugenics blog posts
See also: Hank Campbell, American Council on Science and Health, David Zaruk, Alex Berezow, Henry I. Miller, Cameron English, Deniers For Hire
Science for Sustainable Agriculture UK
Pro-GMO "policy and communications platform" launched in 2022. Initial "start-up" funding from the Gatsby Foundation but later funding planned to include a variety of sources, including "commercial businesses". No details of staffing given but its Advisory Group contains many long-established UK promoters of GM crops, such as Matt Ridley, Julian Sturdy MP, Graham Brookes, Paul Temple, Julian Little, Johnathan Napier and Lord Rooker. The timing of its emergence suggests it is intended to take advantage of the opportunities to shape food and farming policies post-Brexit.
See also: All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture,
Shetkari Sanghatna
India
A farmer union founded by Sharad Joshi that has worked with the biotech industry to promote GM crops.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: India’s intelligence agencies investigate corporate backers of group distributing illegal seeds
GM in India: Faking it on the astroturf
See also: Sharad Joshi, Kisan Coordination Committee, Farmers for Freedom (India), Federation of Farmers Associations, Chengal Reddy
Science Media Centre
UK
Pro-GM and pro-industry lobby group. Part-funded by industry, including Monsanto. SMC Director, Fiona Fox, part of Living Marxism network.
Profiles: Powerbase
Article: Smelling a Corporate Rat
UK’s Science Media Centre lambasted for pushing corporate science
See also: Fiona Fox, Living Marxism, LM group, Royal Institution, Susan Greenfield, Maurice Moloney
Scientific Alliance
UK
Anti-environmental, pro-GM, pro-corporate lobby group launched by PR firm Foresight Communications and quarrying magnate Robert Durward.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Vivian Moses, Foresight Communications, Robert Durward, Colin Berry, Martin Livermore, Tony Trewavas
Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI)
UK
Agricultural research centre that has formed research partnerships with Bayer, CropScience, Syngenta, and GlaxoSmithKline. Formed part of the consortium that carried out the government's GM farm-scale trials.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Bayer, BioIndustry Association, John Hillman, Syngenta, Mike Wilson
Scottish Enterprise
UK
Enterprise and investment agency sponsored by the Scottish government. Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant is on its advisory board, which has also included representatives of other biotech companies. Launched Your World magazine, a pro-GM publication that was distributed to Scottish schools.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Biotechnology Institute, Hugh Grant, Monsanto, Your World magazine
Sense About Science
UK
Pro-GM and pro-industry lobby group that has been funded by corporations whose interests it defends against critics. Has worked in cooperation with people from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Royal Society, the John Innes Centre, and CropGen to promote GM crops. Its key staff have included members of the controversial LM network/LM group as have members of its working parties.
Profiles: Powerbase
Article: Seeding Doubt: How Self-Appointed Guardians of "Sound Science" Tip the Scales Toward Industry
Two-faced science, Strange bedfellows, Invasion of the entryists
See also: Tracey Brown, Ellen Raphael, Dick Taverne, Derek Burke, CropGen, Fiona Fox, Mark Lynas, Frank Furedi, Tony Gilland, Brian Heap, Peter Lachmann, Living Marxism, LM group, Vivian Moses, Martin Livermore, Colin Berry, Tony Trewavas
Shantu Shantharam
India
Former Syngenta man and key player in industry-linked Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education (FBAE).
Article: An unreliable witness
See also: C Kameswara Rao, Ron Herring
Robert (Bob) Shapiro
USA
Became Monsanto’s President in 1993 and CEO in 1995. Shapiro launched the company's Roundup Ready crops. Subsequently served on the board of Elizabeth Holmes' company Theranos.
Articles: “Definitive historical account” of Monsanto provides motherlode of valuable material
Linked to: Robb Fraley, Hugh Grant
Michael Shellenberger USA
Former PR professional, co-founder of the Breakthrough Institute with Ted Nordhaus, and candidate for Governor of California in 2018 and 2022. Techno-fix lobbyist who promotes fracking, nuclear power and GMOs to power and feed the world, CAFOs and geoengineering to fix the climate, and urbanization to save the land. One of the authors of An Ecomodernist Manifesto. Shellenberger left the Breakthrough Institute in 2015
Article: The New Denial is Delay at the Breakthrough Institute
See also: Breakthrough Institute, Ted Nordhaus, Mark Lynas, Owen Paterson, Matt Ridley, Julie Kelly, Tamar Haspel
Norrey Simmons
New Zealand
Co-founder of the PR firm Communications Trumps (now part of Four Winds Communications), which helped GM firm Novartis and the New Zealand government cover up GM contamination of corn (maize).
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Communications Trumps, Four Winds Communications, GenePool, Life Sciences Network
Richard Sithole
South Africa
Farmer who was flown around the world by Monsanto's PR firm to lobby for GM crops for Africa.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: AfricaBio, T.J. Buthelezi, Monsanto
Al Skogen
USA
Chair of front group Growers for Biotechnology.
Article: Grooming wheat growers for Monsanto
Andura Smetacek
UK
Fake citizen used to post attacks on GM critics to C.S. Prakash's AgBioView listserv. Attacks subsequently traced to Monsanto's PR firm Bivings and to Monsanto itself.
Profiles: Powerbase
Articles: The Fake Persuaders, Corporate Phantoms, The Covert Biotech War, Immoral Maize
See also: AgBioView, AgBioWorld, Bivings Group, Mary Murphy, Channapatna S. Prakash
Joe Smith
Australia
Former national Gene Technology Regulator, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority, and current President of the International Society for Biosafety Research, has been appointed chair of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council of Australia (ABCA), which CropLife, the National Farmers Federation (NFF) and AusBiotech founded a decade ago to promote the agricultural biotech and chemical industries.
Article: Australia's revolving door: Former GMO regulator gets job with GMO industry lobby group
Stuart Smyth
Canada
The Industry Funded Research Chair in Agri-Food Innovation ("investing partners" include Bayer, CropLife and Syngenta) at the University of Saskatchewan
Profiles: USRTK
See also: Henry I Miller, Cami Ryan,
Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC)
UK
Food, drinks, and telecom industry-funded lobby group that works with the Royal Institution to train journalists how to report controversial scientific issues.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Susan Greenfield, Royal Institution
South African Committee on Genetic Experimentation (SAGENE) South Africa
As South Africa's first GM regulatory body, SAGENE drove through GM approvals at a rapid rate. Its members Muffy Koch and Jennifer Thomson have also been members of the industry-backed lobby group AfricaBio.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: AfricaBio, Muffy Koch, Jennifer Thomson
Southern Africa Regional Biosafety
South Africa
A USAID-funded programme that promotes in-country biosafety capacity building that is, smoothes the entry of GM crops.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: AfricaBio, Muffy Koch, USAID
Philip Stott
UK
Industry-friendly academic who edits his own anti-environmental website and blog. Promotes GM crops and climate change skepticism and undermines industry-critical research.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Roger Bate, European Science and Environment Forum, Institute of Economic Affairs, Julian Morris, Spiked
StopLabelingLies
USA
Website, run by lobbyist Steve 'The Junkman Milloy', that criticises anyone who draws attention to the risks of industrial products and activities as trading in 'food scares'. StopLabelingLies replaced a similar website called NoMoreScares.com.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Cato Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Steven Milloy, The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition
Sustainable Development Network
UK
Pro-corporate lobby group that appears to have been generated by Julian Morris and/or Roger Bate. Organised a pro-GM march at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Roger Bate, European Science and Environment Forum, Institute of Economic Affairs, International Policy Network, Julian Morris, Kendra Okonski
M.S. Swaminathan
India
Considered the godfather of the Green Revolution in India, Swaminathan heads his own M.S.Research Foundation, which does research into organic as well as GM agriculture. Swaminathan provides an acceptable face for GM crops in the Third World.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Norman Borlaug
Syngenta
Switzerland
The largest agribusiness company in the world and a powerful player in the introduction of GM crops. It was formed after the merger of Astra AB and Zeneca created AstraZeneca, which with Novartis then spun off its seeds and crop protection businesses into the Syngenta joint venture. It's now part of ChemChina. 40% of Syngenta's pesticide sales, and half its best selling products, come from "highly hazardous" pesticides, putting them at the core of its business model
Profiles: EU lobby profile, LobbyFacts, Sourcewatch, Powerbase, Corporate Watch
Report: Highly hazardous profits: How Syngenta makes billions by selling toxic pesticides
Articles: Syngenta and the war and hunger profiteers
Syngenta facing dozens of lawsuits over GMO seed
Secret files suggest chemical giant feared weedkiller's link to Parkinson’s disease
See also: Zeneca, Agricultural Biotechnology Council, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, Jim Dunwell, Ed Dart, Nigel Poole, Peter Doyle, John Innes Centre, Alan Raybould, ILSI
Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture
Switzerland
Its declared goal is contributing to sustainable food security for small-scale farmers, but directors of GM giant Syngenta dominate its board of directors.
Profiles: Powerbase
See also: Andrew Bennet, Syngenta