Agricultural Biotechnology Council

This article is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's spotlight on front groups and corporate spin.

The Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC) is a UK corporate lobby group funded by major biottechnology companies and run from the offices of a PR company, Lexington Communications.

On its website it describes itself as "promoting biotechnology in sustainable agriculture ... We represent the interests of companies involved in agricultural biotechnology research and the commercialisation of GM crops in the UK. We aim to create the conditions in which the UK farmers can safely and appropriately adopt this technology, for the benefit of consumers, the rural economy and the environment, thus helping to deliver a more sustainable future in agriculture."

According to Joker.com, the domain name for the group was registered on May 3, 2001 by Lynsey Vickers of Lexington Communications. The phone number listed on the registration for her - 020 7395 8949 - was a Lexington number. The original phone number for ABC was 020 7395 8944.

Members

On its website, ABC lists members as comprising:

• BASF
• Bayer CropScience
• Dow AgroSciences
• Pioneer (which is part of DuPont
• Monsanto
• Syngenta

Personnel

• Dr Julian Little, Chairman (Little is from Bayer CropScience)

Contact details

PO Box 49710,
London,
WC1V 7WX
Phone: 020 7025 2333 or 07909 521 949
Fax: 020 7025 2301
Email: enquiries AT abcinformation.org
Web: http://www.abcinformation.org

External links

• "Biotech industrys ABC and CropGen run by same PR flaks", Spinwatch, October 4, 2004.
• "Profiles: ABC - Agricultural Biotechnology Council", GM Watch, undated, accessed January 2008.