Comments on GMWatch

George Monbiot, journalist, broadcaster and author:

I have been following and making use of GM Watch'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 GM Watch.

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 GM Watch 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. Please examine their site www.gmwatch.org and the new one, www.lobbywatch.org .

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.