A Not-so-ethical Royal Society Joins the Attack

A Not-so-ethical Royal Society Joins the Attack With his scientific reputation already severely damaged, Pusztai finally managed, in October 1999, to secure the publication of his and his colleague's research in the respected British scientific journal, The Lancet. The magazine was highly respected for its scientific independence and integrity, and before publication, the article was submitted to a six-person scientific review panel, passing with 4 votes in favor.

The Lancet editor, Dr; Richard Horton, later said he had received · a "threatening" phone call from a senior person at the Royal Society, who told him that his job might be at risk should he decide to publish the Pusztai study. Prof. Peter Lachmannn, former Vice President of the Society, later admitted to phoning Horton about the Pusztai paper, though he denied having threatened him.

Investigative journalists from the Guardian newspaper discovered that the Royal Society had set up a special "rebuttal unit" to push a pro-GM line and discredit opposing scientists and organizations. The unit was headed by Dr. Rebecca Bowden, a former Blair environment ministry official who was openly pro-GM 0.10

The paper discovered that Lachmann, who publicly called for scientific "independence" in his attack on Pusztai, was himself hardly an impartial judge of the GMO issue. Lachmann was a scientific consultant for a p'rivate biotech company, Geron Biomed, doing animal cloning similar to Dolly the Sheep, and was a non-executive director of the agri-biotech firm, Adprotech. He was also a member of the scientific advisory board of the GMO pharmaceutical giant, SmithKleinBeecham. Lachmann was many things, but impartial in the issue of GMO science he definitely was not.

Lord Sainsbury was the leading financial contributor to Tony Blair's "New Labour" party in the 1997 elections. For his largesse, Sainsbury had been given a Cabinet post as Blair's Science Minister; His science credentials were minimal but he was a major shareholder in two GMO biotech companies, Diatech and Innotech, and was aggressively pro-GMO.

To cement the ties further between the Blair government and leading biotech companies, the PR firm director who successfully