UK2020
UK
Think tank used by disgraced politician and former environment minister Owen Paterson to lobby for GM crops. Paterson's brother-in-law Matt Ridley was the sole advisor to UK2020.
Articles: Disgraced MP at centre of UK's lobbying scandal was close ally of GMO lobby
Partners in crime: Owen Paterson and Matt Ridley. Or why you can't keep a bad man down
Links: Owen Paterson, Matt Ridley, Cornell Alliance for Science, EuropaBio, Syngenta, ISAAA
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
USA
The US government uses USAID to actively promote GM crops and industrial agriculture, particularly in Africa and Asia. In 2024, it emerged that USAID had channelled over $400,000 to v-Fluence, a PR agency run by former Monsanto director Jay Byrne, via the Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS). This was for services including "enhanced monitoring" of critics of "modern agriculture approaches" (i.e. GMOs and pesticides). As part of "enhanced monitoring", the private social network Bonus Eventus was established as a means of sharing the resulting 3,000 plus derogatory profiles of "critics", as well as other agrochemical industry propaganda, developed by v-Fluence, with the 1,000 or so invite-only members of the network, which among others included policy makers and regulators from around the world.
Profiles: Powerbase
Article: USAID in Africa: For the American Corporations
Briefing: Making the World Hungry for GM crops
Links: Agricultural Biotechnology Support Program (ABSP), CABIO, Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS), Andrew Natsios, Joel Cohen, CS Prakash, Judy Chambers