A leading professor has stepped down from his role in a UK government group set up to look at public opinion on GM food in protest over efforts to “rig” findings, according to reports.
Prof Brian Wynne was vice chairman of a group set up by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to gauge the public’s thoughts on GM food.
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However, Wynne has resigned from his role in protest at the use of taxpayers’ money to promote “propaganda” in favour of genetically modified food, according to the Daily Telegraph.
It is understood Wynne thought the public consultation was being “rigged” in favour of the controversial technology and was “an arm of propaganda to try to push the opinion of the British public in the right direction”.
“In that sense it is in line with so much public policy in Britain that assumes the public is anti-science,” Wynne, a sociologist at Lancaster University, told the newspaper.
He said within a few months it became clear that the consultation was “rigged” to soften up public opinion ahead of government efforts to lift restrictions on the technology.
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By GlobalDataHe subsequently resigned when it became clear that the consultation was biased in favour of GM and that the emphasis on science rather than corporate control of seeds meant that the concerns of the public would not be heard.
