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GM FOODasons to reject it...’ Policy director Peter Melchett explains: “Our fundamental argument against GM as a technology and GM crops as products is that the technology gives rise to uncertainties and risks.” Yet a large part of the group’s messaging also revolves around downplaying the whole issue. “GM has been superseded [by other crop-rearing techniques such as marker-assisted selection],” Melchett believes. “I don’t think the GM lobby is that strong. The pro-GM lobby [in Europe] was essentially the UK and Germany, and Germany is now highly sceptical. Sarkozy has turned against GM.” However, much of FoTE’s lobbying is at local level, its ongoing GM-Free Britain campaign targeting local authorities and concentrating on the impact of GM crops in their area. “We will do what we can to lobby the UK government but Labour made up their minds many years ago on GM,” Oxborrow says. “The government’s move towards a more favourable stance on GM crops is not based on any evidence of their success or viability.” 1Market determination This view doesn’t wash with Julian Little, comms and government affairs manager for Bayer CropScience. Little is also chairman of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (for which Lexington Communications is the secretariat). The ABC represents companies such as Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, Syngenta and BASF, as well as Bayer. He believes Labour’s greater public interest in at least debating the merits of GM‘A new round of hype’ GM science is complex and Pearsall is concerned that what Scimac sees as unfair strictures placed on GM growers will continue to make the technology a commercial nonstarter. “There is a worrying trend in other EU states [which are] using co-existence to introduce technical measures that bear no scientific scrutiny whatsoever. There is also an upfront levy on prospective GM crop growers which we see as a tax on innovation,” he goes on. “[In Westminster] we want to ensure that frontbench spokesmen in each political party are aware.” The UK government has recently supported the idea of reigniting a wider public debate on GM. But Friends Of The Earth (FoTE) argues that Labour’s stance makes no sense. “This is a new round of hype,” says Clare Oxborrow, FoTE’s senior food campaigner. GM advocates say that modified crops provide a potential solution to climate change and world hunger, by giving higher yields, requiring less water or producing less carbon to grow, for instance. “But no GM crop has been sold as higher-yielding,” protests Melchett. “They say it gives you more product per tonne of carbon but it has very limited potential.” “Nothing has changed,” agrees Oxborrow. “It’s more of the same herbicide-resistant plants that have been on the market for the past 12 years or so.” In Europe, FoTE concentrates its lobbying on members of the sorts of regulatory committees that have just failed to agree on bt 11 and bt 1507. “These are where the decisions are being made,” says Oxborrow.2 1 A banner against GM crops is displayed in front of the European Council building in Brussels last November 2 ‘Keep our fields GM free’: Anti-GM demonstration by Friends of the Earth in Westminster in 2004 3 Police move in on protesters who ripped up parts of a field of GM crops in Warwickshire seven years ago 4 EuropaBio’s Nathalie Moll speaks in October last year at a congress of European farming lobbies Copa-Cogeca“There are all kinds of inconsistencies in the way that European policymakers frame their policies” – Daniel Pearsall technology comes down to two things. “The first is that 18 months ago there was a big push by government in terms of reducing the carbon footprint,” he says. “Biotech, and its applications in agriculture, reduces greenhouse gases.” “The second is the spectre of food security, i.e. there is not enough food to go round globally. When it’s plentiful and cheap, you have no interest in new technology; but when food inflation goes through the roof...” He leaves the sentence unfinished before arguing that safety should not be an issue. “Despite the cries of doom, GM has been around for 12 years and two trillion meals have been eaten,” he suggests. “[But] consumers have to see the benefit.” Melchett thinks that this may be exactly why pro-GM lobbyists will continue to have their work cut out in this debate. “GM has always been determined by the market,” he concludes “Not government, not the chemical companies and not the EU.” PAN34April 2009 | PublicAffairsNews | 27 APRIL 2009www.publicaffairsnews.cinside this issueCelic departs HSBC for Prudential role By IAN HALLPreparing for power How would the Tories tackle their first 100 days? page 18 ‘The register does not work’ View from Brussels PAGE 13 A picture of health? Helen Bradburn pagES 20-21 Ed Vaizey Kevin newsRail regulator bags external affairs supremo Ken Young joins from the Pensions Regulator, which replaces him with former aide to pensions minister Rosie Winterton The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) has recruited the Pensions Regulator’s head of communications to head its newly created 18-strong newsAlstom brief for Bell Pottinger Public Affairs Alstom has brought in Bell Pottinger Public Affairs to provide UK lobbying advice. The agency appointment, believed to be the first time the company has handed out a major retained UK PA contract, follows the appointment of a new UK comms director a newsCentrica lures Defra aide Novozymes plans by ian hallFTSE 100 energy giant Centrica has lured Justin Johnson from Defra, where he was specialist adviser to environment secretary Hilary Benn MP. Johnson has taken the role of public affairs manager, reporting to director of public affairs and Euro New-biz round-up Your essential monthly digest of organisations appointing or changing consultanciesSMARTA.COM • G4S • ASSOCIATION OF LICENSED MULTIPLE RETAILERS • AMGEN • LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY • UCAS Kaup. Singer Fried. depositors’ action group – Bell Pottinger An ‘action group’ of deposito newsEx-Brunswick partner claims HSBC role Banking giant HSBC has made a brace Her role with HSBC marks a a senior appointments to bolster return to an in-house banking job: its international public affairs. before Brunswick she was interim The group has appointed Joanna director of corporate affairs newspeople moves www.publicaffairsnews.cONLINE 20MAREustice joins Allan’s Portland Portland PR last month recruited one of www.publicaffairsnews.c clients, splitting his time between the ONLINE 26MAR the best-known and longest-serving agency and his duties in Cornwall. names in the Conservatives’ PR MediaHow political rivals are faring in the presscommons incheS: Miliband, Clark and Hughes rival PARLIAMENTARIANS’ press coverage – number of mentions 16 Ed Miliband 8 Mar: Sunday papers note that Miliband will warn the Scottish Labour conference that the party and the country face testing timesmed Consultation tracker Your essential monthly digest of new consultations of interest to the public affairs communityON-DEMAND TV • ECO-TOWNS • TICKET TOUTING • GAMING TABLES • ‘CARBON NEUTRALITY’ • MEDICAL DEVICES • APPRENTICESHIPS CONSULTATIONS LAUNCHED IN THE PAST month BBC Trust – ‘Project Canvas’ european news‘EU quarter’ revamp hailed PA pros welcome news that Rue de la Loi area is set to be given makeover BRUSSELS: Lobbyists have given the values they defend and promote on the thumbs-up to news that Brussels’ international stage”. generally ugly ‘European quarter’ is Edelman’s London-based european newseuropean News in brief – EXTRA B-M PREPARES EP ELECTIONS PREDICTOR: Burson-Marsteller (B-M)’s Brussels office is this month launching a website – www. predict09.eu – that will offer updated weekly predictions, based on polling data, of the result of European Parliament elections. The el european newsConference dominated by ‘downturn’ talk BRUSSELS: the EIGHTH EUROtive Andrew Hawkins are pean Centre for Public reproduced below. Affairs (ECPA) annual The conference was conference saw top Eurodominated by talk of the pean professionals gather impact of the recession, at the Berlaymont Are you prepared for the changes about to take place in Brussels? As a political and public affairs communications specialist, Dods can help you to keep track of the personnel and institutional changes that are on the horizon. With this in mind we provide specific services focusing on the elections think-tank newsByrne and Gove at IPPR/PwC debate The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has teamed up with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to launch a three-year work programme that aims to set out the ‘practical steps’ needed to create a ‘smarter, more effective’ state. Their ‘Towards a Smart BAR . RESTAURANT . CAFÉ Located moments from the Houses of ParliamentCatering for events 10-180 people Exclusive Hire Meetings and Conferences Bar and Café Area Four Millbank, London SW1P 3JA Four Millbank, London SW1P 3JA Tel: 020 7233 0032 Tel: 020 7233 0032 Fax: 020 7233 0010 Fax: 020 7233 0010 E opinion – leadereditor’s COMMENT Scottish market typifies agency sector as ’09 q1 ends very time I ask someone working for a PA consultancy how they are coping during the recession, answers seem cloned from the same template: “...clients still need public affairs advice, even if the economy’s lousy. opinion – pan panelQHOT TOPIC: AFTER THE ELECTION... [ Jo Tanner Director, IN-HOUSE PRTHE QUESTION: What would the first 100 days of a Cameron government bring? With the Conservative Party maintaining a healthy lead in the polls, Tory strategists are planning for how to adjust to power after more th opinion – columnistsed vaizeyMP COMMENTkevin maguireJOURNALIST COMMENTWhy it’s becoming tougher to ‘Transparency’ provides lowbe a parliamentary candidate hanging fruit for hungry hacks t’s quite common these days to find prominent figures from the public affairs sector making the move into frontlin Profile – HELEN BRADBURN‘There is a huge amount of potential to do more here’ After 11 years at the NHS Confederation Helen Bradburn left for the top PA and comms role at the Health Foundation. Adam Hill finds her ‘thinking her way’ into the new role here is an electric piano in one of changes of em PROFILE – HELEN BRADBURNPA person now,” she says – after another longish pause. These exchanges are typical of Bradburn’s conversation: thoughtful rather than polished, querying rather than bullish, with responses seeming to arrive newminted rather than off a corporate production line. She should ge PA CONSULTANCIES IN SCOTLANDScot to trot As London-headquartered Mandate Communications recruits well-known Scottish lobbyist Craig Harrow to open an office in Edinburgh, Public Affairs News maps out the consultancy scene north of the border FLEISHMAN-HILLARD Opened in Scotland in Dec 1996 Top PA pe PA CONSULTANCIES IN SCOTLAND M c EWAN PARTNERS Was GJW Scotland in 1999, then McEwan Purvis; has been McEwan Partners since 2007 Directors are Sam McEwan, Jayne Swanson and Jacqueline Jamieson Four staff ‘85 to 90 per cent’ of turnover is from PA Independent, but part of FIPRA network First minister PHARMACEUTICALSPharma chameleons Counterfeit medicines and ‘market access’ are just two of the issues exercising PA professionals in the drugs sector, writes Adam Hill n 2007, more than four million counterfeit medicines were seized at EU borders, a contraband haul up 51 per cent on the previous yea PHARMACEUTICALSthe European Commission and due to be read in the European Parliament this spring. It aims to standardise the current ad hoc arrangements on patients’ rights when they receive medical treatment in other member states. Another is an EU directive on information to patients, taking in is GM FOOD‘Countries have different rea ‘Frankenstein food’? Or an idea whose time has come? Adam Hill reports on the groups battling it out over GM technology there was more discussion in Brussels,” says Moll. “It depends on the local agenda; countries have different reasons to reject it.”AEuropean re GM FOODasons to reject it...’ Policy director Peter Melchett explains: “Our fundamental argument against GM as a technology and GM crops as products is that the technology gives rise to uncertainties and risks.” Yet a large part of the group’s messaging also revolves around downplaying the whole iss EVENT PARTNERNOMINATIONS ARE NOW CLOSEDMONDAY 11 MAYTHE SHORTLIST WILL BE ANNOUNCED ONFOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AND TABLE BOOKINGS CONTACT:EMMA STEPHENS Dods, Westminster Tower, 3 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SP +44 (0)20 7091 7677@emma.stephens@publicaffTHURSDAY 2 JULY 2009 www.publicaffairsn recruitment PC ad(PAN)030-4-09-c 3/4/09 11:34 Page 1appointmentsEnterprise Insight Head of External Relations to £45k (possible part-time arrangement available, £ pro-rata) Enterprise Insight increases entrepreneurial behaviour in the UK by equipping people with the confidence, skills and ambition t “Over many years I have drawn upon Steve Atack’s expertise in international executive search for public affairs appointments. 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This is a position for a robust and well-rounded communications professional wit ePoliti .com Parliament Policy CommunicationPolitical EPolicy Con suCa mventspaigltat ion snC ove ragei Parla menNe tarywsParli am Briefi entary ng Pa persYour route into Parliament ePolitix.com driving the UK’s online political communicationOur services include: Parliamentary news Campaign coverage classifiedThe magazine for MEPs, by MEPs theparliament.com subscribe online POLITICS, POLICY AND PEOPLETo advertise here call......Emma Stephens 020 7091 7677 April 2009 | PublicAffairsNews | 35 bridge_195_60 copy.pdf 16/12/2008 10:57:14classifiedCMPOLITICAL INTELLIGENCE Dods Monitoring is a specialist political information provider delivering real-time monitoring to the political and policymaking community, from multinational corporations to trade associations, government agencies to chari reviewsWAITING FOR THE ETONIANS byNick Cohen | £12.99 | Fourth Estatehe last Etonian prime minister, Harold Macmillan, formed his administration more than 50 years ago in January 1957. When asked what represented the greatest challenge for a statesman, Macmillan famously replied: “Events, my dear bo out and aboutmy life Sophie Sutcliffe Corporate affairs executive News International Newspapers Where do you live? Shad Thames, next to Tower Bridge. So it’s a very civilised 20-minute ‘commute’ to work and ideal for trips to Borough Market on a Saturday. What’s your media diet? Wake up to the Today out and about All group shots are captioned left to right. To include photos of your event, send images to ian.hall@publicaffairsnNewsreader Alastair Stewart OBE (an Action for Children ambassador) and Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families Beverley Hughes MPMarket Research Societ Best In Class James Nason Warwick Smith Chris Lowe Richard Sutcliffe-Smith Robbie MacDuffMerging to makeContact: firstname.surname@coll