Science in the Corporate Interest

ran Blair's 1997 and 2001 election campaigns, Good Relations David Hill, also ran the PR for Monsanto in the UK.

Shedding more doubt on the self-proclaimed scientific neutrality of the Royal Society, was the fact that despite its public pronouncements on Pusztai's "flawed" research, the Society never went on to conduct a "non-flawed" version of the important study. This suggested that their interests lay perhaps in something else than scientific rectitude.

Following the publication of Pusztai's article, The Lancet was severely attacked by the Royal Society and the biotechnology industry, whose pressure eventually forced Pusztai's co-author, Prof. Stanley Ewen, to leave his position at the University of Aberdeen. 11

Science in the Corporate Interest ... The Pusztai case, as devastating as it threatened to be to the entire GMO project, was one among several cases of suppression of independent research or of direct manipulation of research data proving the potentially negative effects ofGMO foods on human or animal health. In fact, this practice proved to be the rule.

In 2000, the Blair government ordered a study to be carried out by a private firm, Grainseed, designed to demonstrate which GMO seeds might safely be included on the National List of Seeds, the standard list of seeds farmers may buy.

Internal documents from the UK Ministry of Agriculture were later obtained by the London Observer newspaper, and revealed that some strange science was at work in the tests. At least one researcher at the Grainseed firm manipulated scientific data to "make certain seeds in the trials appear to perform better than they really did." Far from causing the Ministry of Agriculture to suspend the tests and fire the employee, the Ministry went on to propose that a variety of GMO corn be certified.12

In another example of British state intrusion in academic freedom and scientific integrity, Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, senior academic scientist at the Open University and later Director of the Institute of Science in Society, was pressured by her university into taking early retirement. Mae-Wan Ho had been a Fellow of the National

Genetics Foundation in the US, had testified before the UN and World Bank on issues of bioscience, had published widely on genetics, and was a recognized expert on GMO science.

Her "mistake" was that she was too outspoken against the dangers of GMO foods. In 2003, she served on an international Independent Science Panel on GM plants, where she spoke out against the slipshod scientific claims being made about GMO safety.

She warned that genetic modification was entirely unlike normal plant or animal breeding. She stated, "Contrary to what you are told by the pro-GM scientists, the process is not at all precise. It is uncontrollable and unreliable, and typically ends up damaging and scrambling the host genome, with entirely unpredictable consequences!' That was more than enough for the GMO lobby to pressure her into "retirement." 13

To protect the so-called integrity of state-funded research into the safety of GMO foods and crops, the Blair government put together a new code of conduct. Under the Government's Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council code (BBSRC), any employee of a state-funded research institute who dared to speak out on his findings into GMO plants, could face dismissal, be sued for breach of contract or face a court injunction.

Many institutes doing similar research into GMO foods, such as the John Innes Centre's Sainsbury Laboratory, the UK's leading biotechnology institute, had received major financial backing from GMO biotechnology giants such as Zeneca and Lord Sainsbury personally. As Science Minister, Lord Sainsbury saw to it that the BBSRC got a major increase in government funding in order to carry out its biotech police work of suppressing scientific dissent.

The board of the BBSRC was made up of representatives oflarge multinationals with a vested interest in the research results, while public interest groups such as the Country Landowners' Association were kept OUt.14

In March 2003, a rare case of dissent took place in the Blair government lobby against allowing the free introduction of virtually untested GMO products into the UK diet. Dr. Brian John submitted a memorandum to the British journal, GM Science Review, entitled,

"On the Corruption of GM Science." John stated, "There is no balance in the GM research field or in the peer-review process or in the publication process. For this we have to thank corporate ownership of science, or at least this branch of it .... Scientific integrity is one loser, and the public interest is another."15

Dr. John went on to critique sharply the Royal Society in the area of GMO science, in which "inconvenient research simply never sees the light of day:' He added, "The prevention of academic fraud is one matter; the suppression of uncomfortable research results is quite another:' John further pointed out that the International Life Sciences Institute Bibliography on GMO safety investigations was overwhelmingly biased towards pro-GMO papers, either from Government sources or directly from the biotech industry themselves. "Very few of them involve genuine GM feeding trials involving animals, and none of them so far as I can see, involves feeding trials on humans."16

Pusztai's research at the Rowett Institute was one of the first and last in the UK to involve live animal research. The Blair government was determined not to repeat that mistake. In June 2003, amid the furor in the British House of Commons over the decision to back George W. Bush's war in Iraq, Tony Blair sacked his Environment Minister, Michael Meacher. Meacher, later openly opposing UK involvement in Iraq, was in charge of his Ministry's three-year study of GMO plants and their effects on the environment. Openly critical of the prevailing research on GMO crops, Meacher had called on the Blair government to make far more thorough tests before releasing GMO crops for general use. As Mr. Meacher was becoming an embarrassment to the genetic revolution, the response was the French Revolution's-"Off with his head."

As determined the Blair government was in its support of the GMO revolution, its efforts paled in comparison to those of its closest ally across the Atlantic. The United States, the cradle of the GMO revolution in world agriculture, was way ahead of the game in terms of controlling the agenda and the debate. The US GMO campaign of the 1980's and 1990's however had roots in policies going decades back. Its first public traces were found during the

Vietnam War era of the late 1960's and into the second Nixon Presidency. Henry Kissinger, a Rockefeller protege, was to playa decisive role in that early period. He had introduced the idea of using "food as a weapon" into United States foreign policy. The "food weapon" was subsequently expanded into a far-reaching US policy doctrine.

Notes

1. Author's interview with Dr.Pusztai, 23 June 2007. 2. Ibid. 3. The exact words were "the rats had slightly stunted growth when tested after 110 days of feeding and the response of their lymphocytes to mitogenic stimuli was about half that of controls." A second press release from the Chairman of the Institute's governing body, published on 10 August 1998, the same day as the lTV's World in Action TV interview with Pusztai, asked for an assurance from the European Commission "that any GMOs be adequately tested for any effects that might be triggered by their consumption in animals or humans". In addition, "The testing of modified products with implanted genes needs to be thoroughly carried out in the gut of animals if unknown disasters are to be avoided;' cited in Alan Ryan et al., Genetically Modified Crops: the Ethical and Social Issues, Nuffield Council on Bioethics, pp. 140-141. 4. The Royal Society, Review of Data on Possible Toxicity of GM Potatoes, June 1999, Ref: 11199, p. 1, in http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk. S. The Royal Society itself had extensive ties to the corporate sponsorship of industrial biotech firms such as Aventis Foundation, BP pic, Wellcome Trust, Astra-Zeneca pic, Esso UK pic, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, cited in Martin J. Walker, Brave New World of Zero Risk: Covert Strategy in British Science Policy, London, Slingshot 2005, pp.173-193. 6. Jack Cunningham, Minister for the Cabinet Office, Statement to House of Commons, 21 May 1999, in http://www.publications.parliament.uklpa/cmI99899/ cmhansrd/vo990S211debtext/90S21-07.htm. 7. Tony Blair, press comment, Remarks Prior to Discussions With Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom and an Exchange With Reporters in OkinawaTranscript, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, 31 July 2000, in http://www.gpoaccess.gov/wcomp/. Blair's comments during his meeting with Clinton then were:" ... this whole science of biotechnology is going-,--I mean, I'm not an expert on it, but people tell me whose opinions I respect that this whole science of biotechnology is perhaps going to be, for the first half of the 21st century what information technology was to the last half of the 20th century. And therefore, it's particularly important, especially for a country like Britain that is a leader in this science of biotechnology ... " 8. Robert Orskov, quoted in Andrew Rowell, "The Sinister Sacking of the World's Leading GM Expert-and the Trail that Leads to Tony Blair and the White House", The Daily Mail, 7 July 2003.

9. Andrew Rowell, Don't Worry, it's Safe to Eat: The True Story of GM food, BSE and Foot and Mouth, London, 2003, and Rowell, "The Sinister Sacking ... " op. cit. Arpad Pusztai, Letter from Arpad Pusztai to the Royal Society dated 12/05/1999, provides a personal account of the scientific events, in http://www.freenetpages.co.uklhp/A.PusztailRoyalSoc!Pusztai ... htm. The official Rowett Institute version of the Pusztai events is on http://www.rowett.ac. uklgmoarchive. The same site reproduces the entire Pusztai 1998 analysis of the GMO potato experiments with rats, SOAEFD Flexible Fund Project RO 818: Report of Project Coordinatoron Data Produced at the Rowett Research Institute (RR!), 22 October 1998. Arpad Pusztai, "Why I Cannot Remain Silent", GM-FREE magazine, August/September 1999. Subsequent to Pusztai's firing, he sent the research protocols to 24 independent scientists in different countries. They rejected the conclusions of the Review Committee and found that his research was of good quality and defended his conclusions. Their report was ignored in media and government circles. 10. Laurie Flynn and Michael Sean, "Pro-GM Scientist 'Threatened Editor", The Guardian, 1 November 1999. 11. Stanley Ewen and Arpad Pusztai, "Effect of Diets Containing Genetically Modified Potatoes Expressing Galanthus Nivalis Lectin on Rat Small Intestine': The Lancet, 16 October 1999. A detailed scientific defense of Pusztai's work was given by former colleague, T. C. Bog-Hansen, who became senior associate professor at the University of Copenhagen. See http://plab.ku.dk!tcbh/Pusztai. Geoffrey Lean, "Expert on GM Danger Vindicated", The Independent, 3 October 1999. For a thorough account of the witchhunt against Pusztai: George Monbiot, "Silent Science", in Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain, Pan Books, London, 2000. 12. Anthony Barnett, "Revealed: GM Firm Faked Test Figures," The Observer, 16 April 2000. 13. Anastasia Stephens, "Puncturing the GM Myths': The Evening Standard, 8 April 2004. Despite the pressure, Dr. Mae-Wan Ho continued to be one of the few scientists to speak out on the dangers of GMO plants. 14. Norfolk Genetic Information Network, Scientists Gagged on GM Foods by Public Funding Body with Big Links to Industry, press release, 1999, http://www.ngin.tripod.com/scigag.htm. 15. Dr. Brian John, "On the Corruption of GM Science", Submission to the GM Science Review, 20 March 2003. The UK Government closed the journal, curiously enough, in 2004. It had been founded in 2002 to deepen debate on the issue of GMO plants. 16. Ibid.