e93biotechlobby

EXPOSING THE BIOTECH LOBBY

The biotech battle is increasingly becoming an epic saga of victories and defeats with no conclusion in sight. While many may have celebrated the successful completion of a Biosafety Protocol in January, a sobering loss was registered soon after as the European biotech industry revelled in the defeat of a liability regime proposal in the European Parliament (the revision of EU Directive 90/220). The biotech industry's success in defeating legislation designed to protect the environment and public health is largely due to a highly organized, well-funded and influential web of lobby groups and coalitions.

europabio: forcefeeding europe
In the face of a massive consumer backlash to genetically modified (GM) foods in Europe, the two main industry groups, the Senior Advisory Group on Biotechnology (a working group of the European chemical industry federation CEFIC) and the European Secretariat for National Bioindustry Associations, decided to pool their resources and merge to form EuropaBio -- Europe's largest and most influential biotech lobby group. EuropaBio is made up of some 600 companies encompassing the largest biotech corporations in Europe (including the European offices of US companies such as Monsanto), national industry federations and lobby associations throughout the 15 EU member states, and coalitions of small and medium-sized biotech start-up companies. According to the PR firm Burson-Marsteller, one of the main "coaches" for EuropaBio's lobby strategy, EuropaBio has an "indispensable direct role in the policy-making process".

This was confirmed by EuropaBio's success in pushing the highly controversial "Life Patents Directive: -- allowing for the patenting of genes, cells, plants, animals, and human body parts -- through the European Parliament, achieving a complete shift in Parliamentary opinion. This was done by investing millions of dollars in public relations efforts promoting "patents for life". Patient interest groups (groups of people under medical care) were funded and manipulated to lobby for patents under the slogan "no patents, no cures" -- implying that without patents, companies would not invest in the research and development necessary to produce medicines. On the day of the vote, a number of people in wheelchairs demonstrated outside the Parliament building in Strasbourg in an emotional appeal to parliamentarians. Perceiving a strong and unified position regarding patenting of life by patient interest groups (as opposed to only the biotech industry), parliamentarians voted in favour of the Directive. The lobby campaign has been described as one of the largest in the history of the European Union. The resulting "Life Patents Directive", which is now being challenged in the European Court of Justice, thoroughly enshrines the rights of corporations above those of farmers or communities.

After its recent successful campaign to kill Directive 90/220 on corporate liability for GMOs in the European Parliament, EuropaBio proudly declared, "Europe says 'Yes!' to Biotech". The media, in its account of the recent debates surrounding the issue, failed to ask one critical question: If biotechnological products are safe, why doesn't industry want to accept liability?

us biotech industry
BIO, the US counterpart of EuropaBio, represents the largest and most powerful biotech corporations in the world. BIO focuses on all aspects of "improving the business climate for biotech" through lobbying every relevant institution including the already heavily industry-influenced US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Congress and the state legislatures. BIO recently held its annual "legislative day", where some members of Congress and other government officials met with 150 top executives from US biotech firms. The annual event gives the biotech lobby an opportunity to outline their views on a range of subjects from health care policy to biowarfare for "research" purposes.

As part of its strategy to "educate" government officials and the media, the Immunex corporation, a BIO member, designed a board game in which lawmakers and investors can "learn" about the issues faced by a typical biotech company. An example of the kind of question asked: "One of your senior scientists raises a disturbing question about a key research project, and the company's scientific advisory board decides that the concern is valid. What do you do? Stop the development process and undertake a costly review of the facts, which could jeopardize your position in the race towards commercialization? Or continue forward in the hope that the finding will correct itself during later experiments?"

Meanwhile, other US lobby groups add unique dimensions to the biotech debate. The American Soybean Association, representing the largest agribusiness soy and GM soy producers in the US, has dispatched three trade missions in the past year to discuss bioengineered crops. "The whole issue of biotech is one we were monitoring long before it became an issue that impacted us directly," says Kathy Detwiler, senior Vice President at Seattle's EvansGroup Public Relations which represents the American Soybean Association. "We have met directly with over 100 of the largest food manufacturers and food service companies, sharing the latest scientific information with them, and we coordinate our activities very closely with the Food and Drug Administration."

Monsanto, the US biotech giant, finances consumer hotlines, produces videotapes, and prints brochures on crop biotechnology. The company also sponsors crop biotechnology press conferences with external scientists, paying their travel expenses. And they have often provided free trips to the United States for European journalists to "learn" about genetic engineering.

Buying scientific credibility is a common practice in the industry. Last year, scientists from Cornell University concluded that Monarch butterflies feeding off common milkweed plants in the US often died as a result of ingesting pollen from nearby genetically modified ("genetically improved" according to the industry) Bt corn fields. In response, a consortium of agricultural companies hired several scientists to present counter information to this damaging report at a November 1999 meeting in Chicago.

un: the last frontier for biotech
On the international level, the United Nations is increasingly being targeted by lobby groups such as the International Bioindustry Forum (IBF). The IBF, an umbrella group of national and regional associations such as EuropaBio, BIO, BIOTECanada, and the Japan Bioindustry Association, is concerned by the growing culture of regulation resulting from widespread public concern and the backlash against biotechnology, particularly GM food products. By bringing the world's most powerful and influential biotech companies, such as Unilever, Monsanto, Nestlé, Novartis, Pfizer, and DuPont together, the IBF lobbies to prevent the adoption of potentially industry unfriendly agreements in the UN, and to transform the UN and its agencies into promoters of biotechnology.

UNIDO, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, has been the IBF's closest partner in its drive to fulfill its Agenda 21 obligations through the "environmentally sound applications of biotechnology to achieve sustainable development". UNIDO now runs a task force on biosafety issues at the request of the IBF, as part of a strategy to demonstrate that the biotech industry is responsible and concerned for safety and thus does not require regulation.

Recent reports that the UN's World Food Programme uses GM foods for its emergency relief efforts is cause for great concern, as is the increasing industry penetration (backed by the influential World Bank) into key agencies such as the World Health Organization, the UN Environment Programme, and the Food and Agriculture Organization and its influential CODEX Alimentarius (which sets world food standards and is relied upon by the WTO to adjudicate dispute cases).

Exposing the activities of these pro-biotech groups and directly challenging their activities is the first step towards countering their influence in local, national, regional and international politics and putting an end to the epic saga that is the biotech battle.

Adam Ma'anit, Corporate Europe Observatory