Myth Makers

An A-Z of the people and groups behind the push for GM. It includes links to the web portal GMWatch SpinProfiles - our in-depth guide to the networks of power, lobbying and deceptive PR around the GM issue.

Bill Macfarlane Smith
UK
Honorary research fellow at the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI) and part of pro-GM lobby group CropGen.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: CropGen, John Hillman, Scottish Crop Research Institute

Bernard Marantelli
UK
Former Monsanto PR man who helped PR firm Lexington Communications with its work for the the biotech industry lobby group, the Agricultural Biotechnology Council.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: Agricultural Biotechnology Council, Mike Craven, Lexington Communications, Monsanto

Mike May
UK
With Alan Dewar, May featured in a conflict-of-interest scandal over GM crop trials.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: Alan Dewar, Rothamsted Research

Robert May
UK
Former UK government chief sientific advisor who was president of the Royal Society 2000-2005. Co-authored one of four reports rushed out to attempt to discredit the research of Dr Arpad Pusztai.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: Royal Society

Alan McHughen
USA
Canadian GM researcher at the University of California, Riverside who repeated Dennis Avery's E.coli myths about organic food.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: American Council on Science and Health, Dennis Avery, Hudson Institute

Sue Meek
Australia
Meek was Australia's first GM regulator. Her long career involved various posts promoting biotech.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also:

Matt Metz
USA
Microbiologist who played a part in attempting to discredit Ignacio Chapela's research showing GM contamination of Mexican maize.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: AgBioWorld, Gregory Conko, Liberty Institute, Barun Mitra, Channapatna S. Prakash

Henry I. Miller
USA
Avid GM promoter with multiple links to rightwing lobby groups like the Hudson Institute. Also founder director of the US Food and Drug Administration's Office of Biotechnology.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: Gregory Conko, American Council on Science and Health, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Michael Fumento, Hudson Institute, Steven Milloy, Elizabeth Whelan

Steve ('The Junkman') Milloy
USA
Former Monsanto lobbyist and founder and publisher of the Junk Science website.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: Cato Institute

Barun Mitra
India
Founder and director of the anti-regulation think tank, the Liberty Institute. Lobbied for the entry of GM cotton into India.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: International Policy Network, Sharad Joshi, Liberty Institute

Patrick Moore
USA
Founding member of Greenpeace who now works as a spin doctor for corporations engaged in environmental destruction.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: AgBioWorld

Monsanto
USA
Biggest seller of GM crops with terrible legacy of toxins and pollution.
Profiles: GMWatch Profile
See also: Bivings Group

Marc Van Montagu
Belgium
President of the European Federation of Biotechnolgy (EFB), which has an extensive corporate membership.
Article: UN launches biotech network for developing countries
See also: PRRI

Julian Morris
UK
Key player with Roger Bate at the pro-corporate think tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs. Director of the International Policy Network.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: Roger Bate, Institute of Economic Affairs, International Policy Network, Martin Livermore, Barun Mitra, Philip Stott

Shane Morris
Canada
Irish-born Canadian government bureaucrat. Internationally condemned for co-authoring a paper that's been described as a "flagrant fraud", and for legal threats against the GMWatch and GM-Free Ireland websites after they reported on the scandal.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: Doug Powell

Vivian Moses
UK
Chairman of the biotech industry lobby group CrogGen. On the advisory panels of Sense About Science and the Scientific Alliance.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: CropGen, Scientific Alliance, Sense About Science

Philip Mullineaux
UK
Principal research scientist at the John Innes Centre and former GM regulator.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: John Innes Centre, Chris Lamb

Luke Mumba
Zambia
Interim chairman of the pro-GM Biotechnology Outreach Society of Zambia.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: Biotechnology Outreach Society of Zambia, T. J. Buthelezi

Mary Murphy
USA
Email front for black propaganda attacks on GM critics. Traced to the Bivings Group, a PR firm that worked for Monsanto.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: AgBioView, AgBioWorld, Bivings Group, C. S. Prakash, Andura Smetacek
Articles: Immoral Maize, The Fake Persuaders

Noreen Murray

UK
Professor emeritus at the Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Edinburgh, fellow of the Royal Society, and member of the council of the Biotechnology and Biolgical Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Chair of the Royal Society group that rushed out a critical "peer review" of Arpad Pusztai's research on GM foods, even though the group did not have the full data.
Profiles: GMWatch SpinProfile
See also: Biotechnology and Biolgical Sciences Research Council, Derek Burke, Royal Society, Anthony Trewavas