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Food Standards dialogue on GM rocked by 2nd resignation 02.06.10
Two prominent members of the UK Food Standards Agency’s GM public dialogue have resigned, accusing the initiative and FSA chair Jeff Rooker of pro-GM bias writes Claire Robinson :Source-Spinwatch
On 26 May 2010, GeneWatch UK’s Director, Dr Helen Wallace, resigned from the Steering Group for the FSA’s GM dialogue. The Steering Group met on 27 May to agree a GBP450,000 bid and GBP50,000 evaluation for its public dialogue on GM crops and food. Additional money will be spent on paying the civil servants and consultants who will be managing the exercise.
Wallace’s departure was followed within days by a second resignation, that of Professor Brian Wynne, who cited a "dogmatically entrenched" pro-GM position on the part of the FSA.
The GM public dialogue budget was approved by the former Government and is overseen by the FSA, which is chaired by the former Labour agriculture minister Jeff Rooker.
A Genewatch press release said Freedom of Information requests and internal documents show that the dialogue is an integral part of the GM industry’s PR strategy. This involves claiming non-existent future benefits (’GM will feed the world’) whilst portraying step-by-step contamination of GM-free shipments into Britain and Europe as inevitable and lobbying to weaken regulation.
Wallace writes in her resignation letter that tender documents from one of the companies bidding to run the GM Dialogue showed they have been working with a multinational agrochemical and seed company “to develop concepts which link agri-business with important global issues (such as climate change, water scarcity, deforestation, etc) and position the company as a positive force.
The same company’s tender sets out how they will avoid engaging with anyone with strong views on GM and avoid publicity.
In her letter of resignation, Wallace said:
“I joined the Group with some scepticism and it has now become clear to me that the process that the FSA has in mind is nothing more than a PR exercise on behalf of the GM industry. In my view, this would be a significant waste of £500,000 of taxpayers’ money.
“Freedom of Information requests that have been passed to me show that the FSA met with the industry group the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC) on 21st September 2009 to discuss a “GM public engagement programme”. On 1st October 2009, the ABC advised the FSA, “abc welcomes the opportunity to provide suggestions on the individuals and groups that would add value to the FSA GM engagement Steering Group. We support this activity and understand the importance of this initiative; however we believe GM must be presented as an option within the wider context of food security as part of a solution to feeding a growing population. It is important that when consumers are thinking about GM, they are considering the future as much as the present”. The industry also suggested edits to a draft FSA report to the Food Strategy Task Force, which claims that lack of demand and rising costs will drive out non-GM feed supplies and that GM and non-GM feed should no longer be segregated. In a subsequent report, DEFRA and the FSA support the industry’s line that ‘zero tolerance’ of unapproved GM crops in the EU threatens food supplies.
Dr Wallace said: "Taxpayers will be shocked that a former minister is blowing public money on a PR exercise on behalf of GM companies".
Only days after Wallace’s resignation, on 31 May, the vice chairman of the FSA steering group for the GM dialogue, Professor Brian Wynne, resigned too. Wynne told The Telegraph that the public consultation was "rigged" from the start to soften up public opinion and steer it in favour of GM:
"Apparently No. 10 was lobbied by the food industry on GM, the so-called public dialogue was agreed to and passed onto the FSA," he said.
Wynne said that he resigned when it became clear that the consultation was biased in favour of GM.
"It is as much about pushing the public into a particular perspective as it is about listening to the public and finding the right kinds of information," he said.
The steering group has a budget of around GBP500,000 to carry out the public consultation in what Prof Wynne described as an "abuse" of public money.
"I am not prepared by default to aid and abet this kind of systematic failure of institutional integrity in what is a crucial public arena, involving deep questions of science and public good," he said.
In his letter of resignation, Wynne challenged Jeff Rooker’s claim that the public is “anti-science”, saying that this “false conviction” undermined FSA’s claim of an “impartial no-policy stance on GM”.
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