Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo is the chancellor of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the official voice of Catholic science. Alas, he appears to have no idea how far his organisation has been hijacked by the genetic modification (GM) companies and their chums. This week, the academy is hosting a "week of study" about food, and Sorondo says the intention has been to gather "an objective" group of experts. Ho-hum. Of the 40 people invited, all are well-known GM enthusiasts, claims Spinwatch, an independent organisation that "monitors the role of public relations and spin in contemporary society". One of the participants, Eric Sachs, is a Monsanto employee; another, Robert Paarlberg, is an adviser to Monsanto's CEO; and several others work for companies heavily backed by Monsanto. So who could have invited this esteemed group to Rome? It seems the organisation was left to Ingo Potrykus, developer of GM "Golden Rice". This is the man who accused opponents of GM of "crimes against humanity".
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Monsanto may find its crops hard to plant in Britain, but it has found willing partners to plant the seeds of scientific ideas. The British Biochemical Society (BBS) is pleased to announce that it is accepting £113,000 from the Monsanto Foundation - the philanthropic arm of the giant American GM company - to "provide new resources in support of secondary school science". The cash will go to the SciberBrain website (SciberBrain.org), from which teachers are invited to download genetics master classes for their budding boffins. The BBS is quite confident that the information will be balanced, and that it will tackle "some of the key ethical issues in the UK science curriculum for 12- to 16-year-olds". Sadly, Eco Soundings cannot assess its content yet because the promised site is still being updated. Watch this space.
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Monsanto Hanging Out at the Vatican, Funding School Science Programs in Britain
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GM hijacks Vatican in unholy alliance
Seed funding
By John Vidal
The Guardian - UK, May 20, 2009
Straight to the Source
