Genetic Engineering

GM-NO?

by Laura Miller — March 2, 2004 - 12:00am

"A consortium of the nation's biggest agribusinesses Monday reported pumping $150,000 in last-minute contributions into a campaign to defeat a Mendocino County initiative that would ban genetically engineered farm products," the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports.

Main Source: 
Santa Rosa Press Democrat, March 2, 2004

B-M's Biotech Front Group Exposed in the UK

by John Stauber — January 25, 2004 - 12:00am

"Few could question the sentiment behind the campaign: a fight against cervical cancer. A clutch of famous women, including Liz Hurley, Caprice and Carol Vorderman, signed up to support a crusade to introduce a new NHS screening test that could save the lives of thousands of women. The campaign is due to reach the House of Commons on Wednesday, when MPs will be lobbied on the issue.

Main Source: 
The Observer, January 25, 2004

GM Watch Exposes 'The Biotech Brigade'

by John Stauber — December 18, 2003 - 10:10pm

A new global directory on the massive and deceptive PR push behind genetically engineered food is now available free online from the British organization GM Watch. The directory examines many of the key PR operators, front groups, corporate-friendly
scientists, lobbyists, media scams and and political networks that are active in this field. The directory provides extensive information on professional media manipulators, many of whom are active over a wide range of environmental, agricultural and trade issues.

Main Source: 
GM Watch

BP & B-M in the UK: Greenwashers Under Fire

by John Stauber — October 22, 2003 - 11:00pm

In Britain "Burson-Marsteller, the public relations agency used by the oil, GM, tobacco and chemical industries, is to represent the government's pollution watchdog, in a move that environmentalists yesterday described as 'barmy'." B-M's clients have included biotech behemoth Monsanto, and B-M's spying on food activists in the US in 1990 inspired the founding of PR Watch.

Main Source: 
Guardian, October 23, 2003

Who Twists the Helix

by Laura Miller — March 17, 2003 - 12:00am

The "Who Twists the Helix" international conference taking place at the University of Cambridge this week is one of many meetings around the world marking the 50th Anniversary of the discovery of DNA. The conference bills itself as "a trans-disciplinary exploration of the powers that could decide our genetic futures" that includes a "Genetic Futures Jury," a panel of non-specialist citizens who will vote on the key issues discussed at the conference.

Main Source: 
http://www.peals.ncl.ac.uk/Twisted_Helix/index.htm

Ozeki's New Novel Features Biotech Food Flacks

by John Stauber — March 16, 2003 - 12:00am

Ruth Ozeki's second novel, All Over Creation, is praised today in separate reviews in both the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times. Her first novel, My Year of Meats, skewered the beef industry's PR efforts to promote its product in Japan and examined the health hazards of growth hormones. This time Ozeki again looks at food and PR, specifically the the genetic engineering of potatoes.

Main Source: 
SF Chronicle, March 16, 2003

The Covert Biotech War

by Sheldon Rampton — November 19, 2002 - 12:00am

PR Watch has posted previous reports on the biotech food industry's use of the Internet to fake independent criticism of anti-GM groups. Now George Monbiot, who has also reported on deceptive biotech practices, takes a look at recent efforts to use hunger in Africa as a marketing hook for genetically modified foods.

Main Source: 
The Guardian (UK), November 19, 2002

Thailand Hires Lobbyist to Defend Its Rice

by Sheldon Rampton — October 2, 2002 - 11:00pm

The government of Thailand has hired the lobby firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand to protect its rice crop from U.S. biotechnology researchers. Advocates of biotech foods claim that they will solve world hunger, but farmers in Thailand are afraid that it will do the opposite. Genetically modified Thai jasmine rice threatens to ruin them financially by enabling U.S. rice growers to steal the market for one of the country's primary exports.

Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily, October 3, 2002

$4.6 Million to Fight Biotech Food Labels

by Sheldon Rampton — September 29, 2002 - 11:00pm

"Conkling Fiskum & McCormick is counseling a coalition of heavyweight food biotechnology companies in a push to defeat a November ballot initiative in Oregon requiring labels for genetically-modified foods in that state," reports O'Dwyer's PR Daily.

Main Source: 
O'Dwyer's PR Daily, September 30, 2002

Greens Accused of Helping Africans Starve

by Sheldon Rampton — September 12, 2002 - 11:52am

U.S. AID Administrator Andrew Natsios has accused environmentalists "of endangering the lives of millions of famine-threatened Africans by encouraging their governments to reject genetically modified U.S.

Main Source: 
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020830-2441442.htm
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