Comments on GMWatch

• George Monbiot, journalist, broadcaster and author, UK:

I have been following and making use of GMWatch's work since 1998. Over the past 20 years, I have worked with scores of NGOs and individual whistleblowers, who have provided much of the information I've used as an investigative journalist. But I have never come across any as well-organised, effective and hard working as GMWatch.

I have now written four major investigative pieces on the back of their findings, each of which has caused a storm in the media. I have yet to find fault with any of the factual information they have supplied.

Here are a few of the other things they have achieved.

Their work has been a constant inspiration and a primary source of information for the movements opposing GM crops. It is hard to see how these campaigns could have sustained their effectiveness without the information GMWatch has provided.

They have assembled the world’s most comprehensive database on the impacts and the politics of genetically engineered crops.

Their documentation of the corruption of science and the means by which corporations have manipulated public opinion and government policy has transformed the environment movement's understanding of the world in which it operates.

Their investigative work is second to none. They have uncovered an extraordinary network of fake citizens and fake citizens’ movements established by the PR companies working for the biotech, pharmaceuticals and tobacco industries.

They have shown how almost the entire infrastructure of communication between science and the public in Britain has been captured by a bizarre ultra-rightwing cult. It’s one of the oddest and most alarming stories I've ever come across.

As a result of these exposures, they have forced the scientific establishment to begin to question some of its funding arrangements and political compromises.

They turn out an extraordinary volume of web pages, articles, letters and bulletins. Very seldom does a day go by without a new update or commentary. They are highly readable, irreverent and accurate ...

As they have done all this in their free time, I really have no idea how they manage it. But it reveals an unwavering dedication.

• John Stauber, founder Center for Media & Democracy (publishers of PR Watch), USA:

GMWatch is one of the world's most important and effective organizations fighting for the protection of the human and natural environment.

• Professor David Miller, Professor of Sociology at Strathclyde University, UK:

If you want to know who is behind the push for GM, start educating yourself at the GMWatch website.

• Devinder Sharma, food and trade policy analyst, India:

GMWatch is the real watchdog relentlessly exposing the machinations of the politician-industry-scientist nexus that is exploiting the hungry stomach for garnering more profits. It is to my mind, the modern version of Mahatma Gandhi's My Experiments With Truth.

• Dr Ignacio Chapela, microbial ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley and the scientist who exposed the Mexican maize scandal:

GMWatch's work is extraordinarily important. You are a great source not only of information but analysis, and I know that many people, including professionals in this field, look up - and look forward - to your mailings. I do believe that were it not for your intelligent tenacity, we would be much more deeply plunged in darkness about all the irregularities, abuses and plain crookedness of so many bankrupt promotors of AgBiotech.

• Dr Shanthu Shantharam, President of Biologistics International, formerly with Syngenta:

I subscribe to GMWatch. It is annoying like hell to see all the nonsensical, diabolical and scheming spin put on every story... I must admit that somewhere there is an element of truth in what they write about, but just an element.

• Jeffrey M. Smith, author of Seeds of Deception, a bestselling book critical of GM foods:

GMWatch is remarkably effective and informative. Its comprehensive coverage and penetrating commentary provide activists and the public around the world with essential knowledge about the GM debate. GMWatch does such a good job, I have stopped trying to compile news for my own electronic newsletter. Instead, I put out a syndicated column and recommend to my subscribers to get the news events from GMWatch.

• Professor Philip Stott, in his EnviroSpinWatch blog:

GMWatch (formerly known as NGIN) is one of the more unpleasant groups involved in the GM debate. I took it as a Badge of Honour to be given their Pants on Fire Award.

• Dr Tom Wakeford, biologist and action researcher at the Policy Ethics and Life Sciences Research Institute, University of Newcastle:

GMWatch provides an intelligent and humorous challenge to the uncritical celebrations of the virtues of GM crops that dominate the media. I know that GMWatch's work is particularly valued by people working to defend the rights of marginalised farmers both in the UK and abroad.'

• Don Maroc, Cowichan News-Leader, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada:

You have created an incredible research tool, especially for us journalists. Thank you, this will put a sharper edge on everything I write from now on.

• Patrick Mulvany, Senior Policy Adviser, Intermediate Technology Development Group:

GM Watch provides excellent coverage of information and analysis on key genetic engineering issues as they relate to the Global South. GM Watch is my first port of call for any current and historic references on GM impacts on development.

• Professor Sir Peter Lachmann, leading Fellow of the Royal Society and past president Academy of Medical Sciences:

[GM Watch are] rude and aggressive.

• Dr Brian John, a co-ordinator of GM Free Cymru:

The GMWatch website ... is to my mind the single most influential item in our campaigning armoury. ... it gives us a fresh and accurate insight into the reasons for the decline and fall of GM corporations and GM science.

• Julian Morris, director of the International Policy Network:

[GMWatch] ... has together with some larger NGOs actually created an antipathetic environment towards what could be a very beneficial technology. [It] has, I think, poisoned the waters.

• Zac Goldsmith, editor, The Ecologist'Italic text:

Behind every pro-GM report you can bet there's another, more sinister story, and without GMWatch, it would be nearly impossible to sort the facts from the propaganda. At The Ecologist magazine we would be lost without it.

• Dr Charles Benbrook, Northwest Science and Environmental Policy Center, USA:
• For my work GMWatch has been a major gateway to Europe. Once one of our new studies gets cited by GMWatch, the emails and calls start coming in from scientists, farm leaders, activists, and the media.

• Ronnie Cummins, National Director, Organic Consumers Association, USA:

GMWatch is essential reading for anti-biotech activists all over the world.

• Olaf Bayer, researcher/campaigner, Genetic Engineering Network, UK:

The GMWatch website is a really valuable, easy-to-use resource that unravels the tangled web of the pro-GM spin machine and makes it easy to understand. I wish it had been around a year ago when I was struggling to write stuff on the UK GM crops industry and PR and failing.

• Andrew Taynton, Safe Food Coalition, South Africa:

GMWatch is one of the most useful information services in an age when we need to counter "paid science" and massive public relations spin by vested interests who put profits before human safety and our planet's sustainability.

• Rick North, Project Director, Oregon Physicians For Social Responsbility's Campaign For Safe Food, USA:

I checked out your website. I had no idea you had so much useful information. You are providing an incredible service to all of us wanting to know what is really going on in the GM battle.

• Keisuke Amagasa, NO! GMO Campaign, Japan:

GMWatch serves a critical role in countering the power and propaganda of the biotech industry. It is part of the life blood of our global alliance to protect our food and agriculture - communicating our successes, identifying emerging issues and catalysing resistance. Thank you GMWatch!

• Alex Avery, Hudson Institute, USA:

Personally, I distrust everything that comes from NGIN [GMWatch].