LIKE MANY OTHERS IN THE UK, I REGRET being an almost exclusive client of Sainsbury's, which is connected to Lord Sainsbury of Turville. Based on the following couple of news items, the Sainsbury family is a big pusher of Monsanto's GMO agenda (Professor Jonathan Jones, the head of the Sainsbury Laboratory at the John Innes Centre, is also funded by Monsanto to push its agenda). The new items are:

1. GM FOOD: FACTS NOT CROPS [via Glyn Moody]

   The European Commission has recently approved growing genetically modified crops for the first time in 12 years, putting the GM lobby's profits over public concerns -- 60% of Europeans feel we need more information before growing foods that could threaten our health and environment.





2. Lord Sainsbury calls for new debate on GM crops [via ThistleWeb]

   A former science minister has called for the debate on genetically modified crops to be reopened, arguing they are vital for a growing global population.
   
   Ahead of his speech at the British Science Association festival, Lord Sainsbury warned it would be foolish for the UK to rule out the technology.

• GM row: Lord Sainsbury in Monsanto talks

  His meeting with Monsanto, attended by civil servants, raises fresh concerns about the extent of his role in dealing with GM issues within government and the potential conflict with his private business interests.
  
  The day after the Monsanto meeting, Lord Sainsbury chaired a government- sponsored biotechnology seminar with consumer associations, environmentalists such as Friends of the Earth, and one of the Monsanto officials he had met the day before.





• Letter: Sainsbury must go

  When we continued to call on him to do the decent thing and resign, Lord Sainsbury continued to insist that he had nothing to do with GM food issues in government. Now The Independent has revealed that, as minister, he met with Monsanto the US GM crop giant, and discussed GM crops and food.





• GM crops set to make Sainsbury millions

  THE science minister Lord Sainsbury could make millions of pounds from his investments in firms researching genetically modified (GM) crops, including one company closely associated with Monsanto, the controversial American biotechnology company.
  
  [...]
  
  In November 1999 Paradigm signed a deal with Monsanto, which is paying it €£30m and up to €£9m more in performance bonuses, to work on novel genes. Paradigm will also get royalties if any of the genes are used in commercial products. It is royalties that offer the biggest chance of high returns.





• UK Testing GM Potatoes That Offer No Benefit to Farmers or Eaters

  The person heading the project is Jonathan Jones, who runs the Sainsbury Laboratory. During none of his promotion of the project have his ties with Monsanto been noted. The Guardian reports that Jonathan Matthews, the spokesman for GM Watch, pointed out:

  The frontman for the latest GM push in the UK is being portrayed as a dedicated public servant doing science in the public interest, but it now appears he not only has vested interests in the success of GM but even commercial connections to Monsanto.

  It turns out that Jones not only has links to Monsanto, he has direct financial interests. He founded Mendel Biotechnology, whose most significant customer—and also collaborator—is Monsanto. Yet, he didn't provide that information in a recent tirade against opponents of GM, which he wrote for BBC. He went so far as to call them, "fussy eaters". When confronted with his lack of transparency, he stated to the Observer that he hadn't tried to hide his connections.





• Sainsbury denies conflict of interest

  It is the same gene at the centre of a food scare following tests on rats that were fed GM potatoes. Lord Sainsbury said the virus is owned by Monsanto.

1. How the Gates Foundation Privatises Africa
2. With Microsoft Monopoly in Check, Bill Gates Proceeds to Creating More Monopolies
3. Gates-Backed Company Accused of Monopoly Abuse and Investigated
4. Reader's Article: The Gates Foundation and Genetically-Modified Foods
5. Monsanto: The Microsoft of Food
6. Seeds of Doubt in Bill Gates Investments
7. Gates Foundation Accused of Faking/Fabricating Data to Advance Political Goals
8. More Dubious Practices from the Gates Foundation
9. Video Transcript of Vandana Shiva on Insane Patents
10. Explanation of What Bill Gates' Patent Investments Do to Developing World
11. Black Friday Film: What the Bill Gates-Backed Monsanto Does to Animals, Farmers, Food, and Patent Systems
12. Gates Foundation Looking to Destroy Kenya with Intellectual Monopolies
13. Young Napoleon Comes to Africa and Told Off
14. Bill Gates Takes His GMO Patent Investments/Experiments to India
15. Gates/Microsoft Tax Dodge and Agriculture Monopoly Revisited
16. Beyond the 'Public Relations'
17. UK Intellectual Monopoly Office (UK-IPO) May be Breaking the Law
18. “Boycott Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in China”
19. The Gates Foundation Extends Control Over Communication with Oxfam Relationship
20. Week of Monsanto