All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture was established in March 2008 to provide a forum for Parliamentarians and other interested parties to debate and highlight the value of science and technology in agriculture.

Genewatch warns on conflicts of interest

GeneWatch UK warned in January 2012 that the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture was being used by Monsanto and other GM companies to lobby on behalf of their business interests. Funders of the group include the industry body the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC), which represents the major GM crop companies (BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, Pioneer (DuPont), Monsanto and Syngenta).

GeneWatch noted revelations in the Times that many All-Party Parliamentary Groups are being funded by commercial interests, and Environment Secretary Owen Paterson's speech in favour of commercial growing of GM crops in Britain.

George Freeman, MP, who chairs the parliamentary group, was appointed as Government Life Science Advisor by the Prime Minister David Cameron and the Science Minister David Willetts in July 2011. Genewatch said Freeman chaired a meeting between the GM industry and ministers on 26 June 2012 to discuss a plan prepared by the ABC to promote GM crops in Britain.

"It is clear that ministers have done a dodgy deal with the GM industry to promote GM crops in Britain and that lobbying in parliament is not led by the interests of constituents" said GeneWatch UK director, Dr Helen Wallace. "This is a bad deal for consumers and for farmers who will have to pay the extra costs of segregation to maintain more valuable non-GM supplies. In the USA, resistant superweeds and superpests are on the increase as a result of growing GM crops. Farmers are locked in to paying ever higher prices for patented GM seeds as companies withhold non-GM varieties."

Officers

As of January 2013:

• George Freeman MP - Chair
• Earl of Selborne - Vice-Chair
• Lord Christopher Haskins - Vice-Chair

Funding

According to the Group's website:

The Group’s activities are supported by a range food, farming and research organisations including: Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC), Agricultural Biotechnology Council (abc), Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), British Society of Plant Breeders (BSPB), Crop Protection Association (CPA), Maltsters Association of Great Britain (MAGB), National Association of British & Irish Millers (nabim), National Farmers Union (NFU) and National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB).