Posted on 9-1-2002

Former Greenpeace Chief Joins Monsanto's PR Firm
By Marie Woolf Chief Political Correspondent, THE INDEPENDENT, London,
Tuesday January 08, 2002

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.