LORD SAINSBURY, the science minister, with family business interests in
genetically modified (GM) food, met senior officials from **Monsanto**, the
American GM giant, while playing a key role in government discussions on
biotechnology.
Lord Sainsbury of Turville held a confidential discussion with three
**Monsanto** executives in his private office at the Department of Trade
and Industry on 14 December, three weeks after he attended the first
meeting of the Cabinet's Ministerial Group on Biotechnology and Genetic
Modification known as Misc 6.
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.
John Redwood, the opposition spokesman on trade and industry, last night
accused Lord Sainsbury of being misleading over his role in government
discussions on GM issues and has called on him to resign.
"Lord Sainsbury has promised us that he has had nothing to do with GM food
in government, so I don't see why he is having a meeting with **Monsanto**
on this particular date - the day before the 15 December meeting which he
chaired," Mr Redwood said.
"Lord Sainsbury, who is a shareholder and investor in GM companies, had
made it clear in some of his statements that because of that he has nothing
to do with GM food issues in government," he said.
"We now learn he has had a meeting with **Monsanto**. So what I want to
know from Lord Sainsbury is which story is he going to stick to?"
A statement from the DTI said: "Lord Sainsbury meets numerous companies and
other non-governmental organisations in his capacity as Science minister.
Last year he agreed to meet **Monsanto**, at their request, to discuss
issues relating to research and development in the biosciences."
At the 14 December meeting, Lord Sainsbury met Ann Foster, **Monsanto**'s
director of public and government affairs in the UK, Hugh Grant, president
of the company's agricultural division in St Louis, Missouri, and Robert
Horsch, general manager of Agracetus, a GM research company owned by
**Monsanto**.
Dr Horsch is one of **Monsanto**'s leading scientists in genetically
modified plants and is named on the company's patents controlling the use
of herbicide resistant crops.
Ms Foster said the meeting with Lord Sainsbury included a discussion on GM
crops and food. "It's perfectly normal for companies, it's perfectly normal
for interested parties to meet ministers," Ms Foster said.
(Copyright 1999 Newspaper Publishing PLC)
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail