Rowett Research Institute

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The Rowett Research Institute is one of four publicly-funded Nutrition Research Institutes in the UK

The Institute was established in 1913 with John Boyd Orr as its first Director. It is an independent Company with Charitable status and receives funding from the Scottish Government Rural and Environment Research and Analysis Directorate.

Rowett Research Services Limited

The Institute created Rowett Research Services Limited, a private company that is, in its own words "the knowledge transfer arm of the Rowett Research Institute and offers technology transfer, collaborative and contract research to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, food and related industries." It offer " customer service centred approach that combines technical, project and intellectual property management together with marketing skills to facilitate commercial development of intellectual property and foster links between industry and the science community." [1]

Rowett Research services is then further broken down into four companies.[2]

The Companies

People

The Institute has a governing body

Chief Executive of ANM Group Ltd in November 1990. The Group consists of Aberdeen & Northern Marts, Scotch Premier Meat Ltd, Highland Country Foods Ltd, Yorkshire Premier Meat Ltd, Aberdeen & Northern (Estates) Ltd, Highland Cuisine Ltd, H & I Livestock Ltd,and EASIGOE Ltd. Managing Director of Farmdata Ltd Director of Financial Control Services Ltd Member of Grampian Food Forum, Was awarded an OBE in 1999 for services to agriculture, food and marketing.
Member of the scientific advisory boards of Biovitrum, Prosidion and Glennmark Pharmaeuticals.
Previously Chaired the Scottish NFU’s Pigs Committee and the Scottish Pig Industry Initiative.

Served on the Boards of Grampian Pig Producers,Moray Firth Livestock, Quality Meat Scotland and Checkmate International PLC.

Chairman of the Board of Rowett Research Services Limited


Pusztai GM Controversy

Dr Arpad Pusztaiworked at the Rowett Institute between Between 1995 and 1998 he experimented on genetically modified potatoes developed by the biotech company, Cambridge Agricultural Genetics. They later changed their name to Axis Genetics. The potatoes had been field-grown at Rothamsted, and were intended for commercial use. The potatoes were modified with a gene that caused the potatoes to express snowdrop lectin, a protein which Arpad knew to be toxic to insects but harmless to mammals. Initially Pusztai and his team observed a lack of correlation between levels of the lectin in the potato leaves and their toxicity to insects. Subsequently they experimented by feeding rats on raw and cooked genetically modified potatoes, using Desiree Red potatoes as controls. One of the controls was unmodified desiree red potatoes mixed with snowdrop lectin. The rats fed on the genetically modified potatoes showed lower intestine damage and harm to their immune systems. These effects were not observed in rats fed on unmodified potatoes, or unmodified potatoes mixed with snowdrop lectin. The team concluded that the effects observed were a result of the genetic modification, not the snowdrop lectin. The Rowett institute was initially proud of these discoveries, and encouraged Pusztai to publicise the discoveries widely. In 1998 Arpad Pusztai informed an ITV world in Action documentary that he had observed problems with the safety of GM potatoes. On 10th October, the day that the documentary was due to be broadcast he was invited onto an early morning television debate, but informed beforehand by the Rowett institute that he was not permitted to discuss details of the experiment. A spokesman for Monsanto made false claims about the experiments, including a claim that the potatoes had been modified with toxic Jack Bean lectin, to which Arpad Pusztai could only respond "no comment". In reality, Jack_Bean lectin had not been used in the experiments. That morning, the Rowett institute received two phone calls from 10 Downing Street. [1] According to Professor Robert Orskov OBE, who worked at the Rowett for 33 years and is one of Britain's leading nutrition experts. The phone calls went from Monsanto, the American firm which produces 90% of the world's GM food, to Clinton and then to Blair, and then to Rowett direcor Philip James.[2] 'Clinton rang Blair and Blair rang James,' says Professor Orskov. Phone calls to Arpad Pusztai's office were diverted, and Arpad Pusztai was suspended and legally gagged, along with his wife and colleague Dr Susan Bardocz. His data was confiscated and his team were disbanded. The potatoes were subsequently destroyed, along with all details of their modification (a commercial secret of Cambridge Agricultural Genetics, which subsequently ceased business). There followed a cover up and sustained attempts to discredit Arpad Pusztai, involving a lot of deliberate misinformation: Initially the Rowett institute claimed that they were not doing any research on GM crops. Later the Rowett institute claimed that Arpad Pusztai had voluntarily retired, and apologised for his "mistake". According to this version of the story, the experiments had never been performed and a student had accidentally confused control data with experimental data. Later the story changed again, it was claimed that Pusztai had modified the potatoes with toxic Jack Bean lectin. Sir Robert May encouraged this myth when he told Radio 4's Today programme: "If you mix cyanide with vermouth in a cocktail and find that it is not good for you, I don't draw sweeping conclusions that you should ban all mixed drinks." Similar statements were also made by the Agriculture Minister Jack Cunningham the Rowett institute also announced that they were publishing Arpad Pusztai's data online so that the public could draw their own conclusions, but omitted much of the data making the remainder statistically meaningless [3] In 1999 Arpad Pusztai and Stanley Ewen published their results in The Lancet (link below). The Pro GM lobby put strong pressure on The Lancet not to publish, including a threatening phone call to The Lancet editor [4]Pignut 04:48, 2 October 2007 (UTC)pignut


References, Resources and Contact

Contact Details

  • Address: The Rowett Research Institute, Greenburn Road, Bucksburn,
  • Aberdeen AB21 9SB, Scotland.
  • Tel: +44 (0)1224 712751
  • Website: www.rowett.ac.uk

References

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ [ http://www.rowett.co.uk/rri_companies.html]
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