Former Greenpeace chief joins Monsanto's PR firm

The Independent
January 08, 2002
By Marie Woolf, Chief Political Correspondent

LORD MELCHETT, the former head of Greenpeace, who led its campaign
against genetically modified crops, has accepted a salaried job with a
public relations firm whose clients include Monsanto, the GM giant.

The leading environmentalist, who stood down as executive director of
the campaigning charity last year, starts work next week as a
consultant with Burson-Marsteller, which has represented some of the
world's most notorious polluters, including the Exxon Corporation,
Union Carbide, and the US company Babcock and Wilcox.

Lord Melchett will head a committee advising companies on how to deal
with controversial issues such as GM food, toxic waste and child
labour in the developing world. The company said he may also give them
advice on how to cope with environmental protests. His acceptance of
the contract has caused unease among his former colleagues at
Greenpeace, even though the Eton-educated peer, who was once arrested
for destroying a field of GM crops, asked the permission of the
organisation's new head before accepting the job. Stephen Tindale, who
took over from Lord Melchett as Greenpeace's executive director, said
he was certain that Lord Melchett would not compromise his ideals.

The American-owned PR firm represented Union Carbide, the US company
which in 1984 leaked more than 40 tonnes of toxic gas in Bhopal,
India, killing 2,000 people and injuring hundreds of thousands.

It also advised Babcock and Wilcox after the company's nuclear reactor
failed at Three Mile Island in 1979, the United States' worst nuclear
accident.

Lord Melchett said he would be prepared to engage with his old
adversary Monsanto, but he insisted: I am not going to change my
stance. GM food is a technology that has no future. The environmental
villains are the people we want to change or stop.

Burson-Marsteller's is one of the world's leading PR companies. Its
website boasts of its unrivalled track record of helping corporate
management handle major crises, including protests from campaigning
groups such as Greenpeace.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ex-Greenpeace chief `joins Monsanto firm'

The Daily Telegraph
January 08, 2002
By Andrew Hibberd

LORD MELCHETT, the former head of Greenpeace UK who led its campaign
against genetically modified crops, has joined the payroll of a public
relations company that worked for Monsanto, the firm behind the
trials, it was reported last night.

The former Labour minister, who is still a member of Greenpeace
International, is said to have become a consultant to
Burson-Marsteller, one of the world's biggest communications
companies.

His appointment, for an undisclosed annual retainer, has provoked
scorn among Greenpeace campaigners, who regard him as a turncoat.
Burson-Marsteller was employed to shed a favourable light on the
Argentine junta despite the disappearance of 35,000 civilians.

Another job was to work on the image of the Indonesian government
after the East Timor massacres. The late Romanian dictator, Nicolae
Ceausescu, was another client.

Lord Melchett was said to have denied that he had changed sides or
that his environmental values would suffer. He said he would continue
to speak out against companies with unsound environmental records.

Burson-Marsteller could not confirm the appointment.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Anti-GM warrior Melchett joins PR firm that advised Monsanto

The Guardian (London)
By  John Vidal
January 8, 2002

Lord Melchett, the former head of Greenpeace UK who was arrested two
years ago after leading an attack on a genetically modified crop,
startled former colleagues yesterday by announcing he had taken a job
at a PR company which has represented Monsanto and the European
biotech industry.

In a move that has provoked scorn from anti-GM activists, the former
Labour minister and farmer, who is on the board of Greenpeace
International, is to become a consultant for Burson-Marsteller, the
world's largest corporate communications company. He will be paid an
undisclosed annual retainer and has a brief to talk to whoever he
likes.

Burson-Marsteller is the company that governments with poor human
rights records and corporations in trouble with environmentalists have
turned to when in crisis. The world's biggest PR company was employed
by the Nigerian government to discredit reports of genocide during the
Biafran war, the Argentinian junta after the disappearance of 35,000
civilians, and the Indonesian government after the massacres in East
Timor. It also worked to improve the image of the late Romanian
president Nicolae Ceausescu and the Saudi royal family.

Its corporate clients have included the Three Mile Island nuclear
plant, which suffered a partial meltdown in 1979, Union Carbide after
the Bhopal gas leak killed up to 15,000 people in India, BP after the
sinking of the Torrey Canyon oil tanker in 1967 and the British
government after BSE emerged.

In the past few years it has acted for big tobacco companies and the
European biotechnology industry to challenge the green lobby and
counter Greenpeace arguments on GM food.

Yesterday Lord Melchett said he would be an adviser in
Burson-Marsteller's corporate social responsibility unit, and would
work only with the companies he chose to.

“I will be more selective than when I worked at
Greenpeace,” he said.

“My values have not changed at all and if I think a company
should close down I shall tell them. I shall tell them the
truth.”

Stephen Tisdale, the director of Greenpeace UK, said he did not
foresee any conflict of interest. “Anyone who knows Peter will
know that he hasn't changed his agenda at all,” he said.
“He sees Burson-Marsteller as a conduit to some very influential
companies who would not normally talk to environmentalists. In some
ways Greenpeace held him back, and he has become more radical after
leaving last year.”

An internal document from Greenpeace to its staff suggested that Lord
Melchett would not have to compromise his beliefs: “Peters
advice to companies will be 'go organic, do the right thing, rather
than help bad companies avoid the likes of Greenpeace and Friends of
the Earth.

“Peter will only take on the briefs that he chooses, there is no
question of him working for BAT (British American Tobacco) or the
Burmese junta.”

But others said he was effectively now on Monsanto's and other
corporations' payrolls. “How can you have a man who is on the
board of Greenpeace International and a policy adviser to the Soil
Association taking money from the GM industry and companies with some
of the worst records imaginable?” said Kate Jones, a former
anti-GM campaigner.

Other well known environmentalists who have left high-profile
campaigning to work for people who might be considered their opponents
include Tom Burke, a former Friends of the Earth director now with the
mining company Rio Tinto, and Jonathon Porritt, another former head of
Friends of the Earth who now works for the government. They say they
can effect change better from within the corporate fold, but have been
widely criticised and accused of selling out.

Lord Melchett, whose grandfather helped to found ICI, joins at
Burson-Marsteller Richard Aylard, a former head of the Soil
Association, and Gavin Grant, a former head of communications for the
Body Shop.