The amicus curiae submission of the public interest coalition has been organised by 15 groups from the UK, USA, Canada, Denmark, Argentina, Denmark, India and Chile. Details of these organisations can be found below.
Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD)
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
Grupo de Reflexion Rural Argentina (GRR)
Center for Human Rights and the Environment (CEDHA)
Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security
Fundacion Sociedades Sustentables
Californians for GE-Free Agriculture
International Forum on Globalisation
Coalition group details:
- GeneWatch UK
- Address: The Mill house, Manchester Road, Tideswell, Buxton, Derbyshire,
SK17 8LN, UK
Tel: +44(0)1298 871898 Fax: +44 (0)1298 872531
Website:http://www.genewatch.org
Contact: Sue Mayer, Director
Email sue.mayer@genewatch.org
Description: GeneWatch UK is a not-for-profit group that monitors developments in genetic technologies from a public interest, environmental protection and animal welfare perspective. GeneWatch believes people should have a voice in whether or how these technologies are used and campaigns for safeguards for people, animals and the environment. It works on all aspects of genetic technologies - from GM crops and foods to genetic testing of humans. The majority of GeneWatch UK's funding comes from grants from charitable trusts and foundations. A small amount (around12%) is from commissioned research, usually undertaken for the voluntary sector. 2-3 % of income comes from subscriptions to our briefings and individual donations. - Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD)
- Address: 52-53 Russell Square, London, WC1B 4HP, UK
Tel: +44(0)20 7637 7950 Fax: +44(0)20 7637 7951
Website: http://www.field.org.uk
Contact: Alice Palmer, Programme Director
Email: alice.palmer@field.org.uk
Description: Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD) is a not-for-profit legal organization with offices in London. FIELD is staffed by lawyers and assistants dedicated to promoting environmental protection and sustainable development through law. FIELD?s activities include providing legal and policy advice to the international community and promoting the dissemination of law through teaching, training and publications. Where possible, FIELD provides its services on a pro bono basis, deriving income from foundation grants, governmental institutions and fee-paying clients. - Five Year Freeze
- Address: 94 White Lion Street, London, N1 9PF, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7837 0642 Fax: +44 (0)20 7837 1141
Website: http://www.fiveyearfreeze.org
Contact: Carrie Stebbings, Campaign Co-ordinator
Email: carrie@fiveyearfreeze.org
Description: The Five Year Freeze campaign is supported by an alliance of 125 national organizations who share the public's deep concern over the speed at which genetic engineering is being introduced into food and farming. The alliance encompasses a wide range of interests including environmental campaigns, local authorities, trade unions, development charities, religious groups, retailers and consumer bodies. They are united by a belief that we must stop and think about the huge implications of biotechnology. - Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
- Address: The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire, SG19 2DL, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1767 680551 Fax: +44 (0)1767 685145
Website: http://www.rspb.org.uk
Contact: Alexandra Gonz?ez-Calatayud, Trade Policy Officer, Environmental Policy Department
Email: alexandra.gonzalez@rspb.org.uk
Description: The RSPB is the UK charity working to secure a healthy environment for birds and wildlife. Since its founding in 1889, the RSPB has grown into a wildlife conservation charity with more than a million members, making it Europe's largest wildlife conservation organisation. An elected Council and committees for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales oversee the RSPB's work. Its income is derived mainly from membership subscriptions, legacies and grants. The RSPB is the UK partner of BirdLife International, a global partnership of conservation organisations, working in more than 100 countries. - The Center for Food Safety
- Address: 660 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, #302, Washington DC 20003, USA
Tel: +1 202-547-9359 Fax: +1 202-547-9429
Website: http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org
Contact: Joe Mendelson, Legal Director
Email: joemend@icta.org
Description: The Center for Food Safety (CFS) is a non-profit public interest and environmental advocacy membership organization established in 1997 by its sister organization, International Center for Technology Assessment, for the purpose of challenging harmful food production technologies and promoting sustainable alternatives. CFS combines multiple tools and strategies in pursuing its goals, including litigation and legal petitions for rulemaking, legal support for various sustainable agriculture and food safety constituencies, as well as public education, grassroots organizing and media outreach. - Council of Canadians
- Address: 502-151 Slater, Ottawa, ON K1P 5H3, Canada
Tel: +1 613.233.4487, ext. 245 Fax: +1 613.233.6776
Website: http://www.canadians.org
Contact: Nad?e Adam, Biotech Campaigner
Email: nadam@canadians.org
Description: The Council of Canadians is an independent, non-profit, and non-partisan public interest organization, offering a progressive and critical voice on key national issues. As a citizen watchdog organization, the Council is committed to building a stronger civil society. - Polaris Institute
- Address: 312 Cooper Street, Ottawa ON, K2P 0G7, Canada
Tel: +1 613.237.1717 Fax: +1 613.237.3359
Website: http://www.polarisinstitute.org
Contact: Lucy Sharratt, Researcher, Bio Justice Project
Email: lucy_sharratt@on.aibn.com
Description: Polaris Institute is an action-research association enabling citizen movements to re-skill and re-tool themselves to act for democratic social change in an age of corporate driven globalization. Essentially, the Institute works with citizen movements in developing the kinds of strategies and tactics required to unmask and challenge the corporate power that is the driving force behind governments concerning public policy making on economic, social and environmental issues. In so doing, the Institute has done research, education and action on several of the major biotech corporations, both in Canada and internationally. - Grupo de Reflexion Rural Argentina (GRR)
- Address: Hellingkorsvej 15 A, DK 4000, Denmark
Tel: +45 46 32 53 28
Website: http://reflexionrural.galeon.com
Contact: Stella Semino
Email: stella.semino@mail.dk
Description: The Grupo de Reflexion Rural (GRR), was created as a Think tank organisation in 1998. The group constitutes a space of multidisciplinary and pluralist debate on the rural issues. The Group is highly critical of the Agricultural Model imposed in Argentina, based on the export of raw materials (commodities) mainly GM soya and GM Maize. By preserving its initial rigour in the debate, the GRR has gradually been transformed into an activist group with an strong critical approach the GRR interacts with various networks and self organised groups which are answering the accelerated crisis that lived our country since the end of the Nineties, and whose background goes back to the military dictatorship of the Seventies. One of the GRR's main objectives it is to contribute to the creation of awareness of various social actors, of the catastrophic situation which we live and of the need for transformation of the conscience and the introduction into the political agenda, those rural issues which are of concern for us and this includes the identification of grass root community groups which appear, as places of innovation and of creativity where the message can go across. - Center for Human Rights and the Environment (CEDHA)
- Address: General Paz, 186 - 10mo. Piso, "A", C?doba 5000, Argentina
Tel: + 54 351 425 6278
Website: http://www.cedha.org.ar
Contact: Victor Ricco, Legal Advisor, Public Participation Area Co-ordinator
Email: victor@cedha.org.ar
Description: The Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA) is a non-profit organization which aims to build a more harmonious relationship between the environment and people. CEDHA's work involves research, capacity-building, legislation strengthening, and litigation, among others, to promote greater access to justice and protect human rights and the environment in all development processes. It?s goals are to strengthen and develop the awareness of the linkages between the environment and human rights and the capacity of state, civil society and private sector actors, to work towards more environmentally and socially sustainable development. - Gene Campaign
- Address: J-235/A, Lane W 15 C, Sainik Farms, Khanpur, New
Delhi - 110 062, India
Tel: +91 11 2651 7248 Fax: +91 11 2696 5961
Website: http://www.genecampaign.org
Contact: Dr. Suman Sahai, Campaign Convenor
Email: genecamp@vsnl.com
Description: Gene Campaign works to ensure the establishment of national policies and international agreements for food and livelihood security of farming and adivasi communities, on the basis of equity and justice. - Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security
- Address: 7 Triveni, A-6 Paschim Vihar, New Delhi-110 063, India
Tel: +91 11 2525 0494
Website: http://www.dsharma.org
Contact: Devinder Sharma, Chair
Email: dsharma@ndf.vsnl.net.in
Description: The Forum for Biotechnology & Food Security is a collective of some of the well-known policy makers, agriculture scientists, economists, biotechnologists, farmers and environmentalists. It examines and analyses the implications and fall-out of various policy decisions, both national and international. The Forum was successful in stalling the import of cow dung and piggery droppings from Holland, stopping the import of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) into the country, banning terminator technology?s entry into India and delaying the introduction of genetically modified Bt cotton in India. - Fondacion Sociedades Sustentables
- Address: Seminario 774, Santiago, Chile
Tel: +56 2 2235459
Contact: Maria Isabel Manzur
Email: sustenta@rdc.cl
Description: Fondacion Sociedades Sustentables was created in June1997. Its objectives are to:
Promote the conservation, protection and preservation of the natural ecosystems of the country.
Promote the sustainable use of the rural and urban environments.
Promote environmental education of citizens in order to strengthen their participation in environmental decisions.
Promote research, elaboration of proposals and scientific, social and cultural activities for a development that is socially and environmentally sustainable. - Greenpeace International
- Address: Ottho Heldringstraat 5, 1066 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tel: +44 207 865 8228
Website: www.greenpeace.org.uk
Contact: Charlie Kronick, Greenpeace UK, Chief Policy Adviser
Email: charlie.kronick@uk.greenpeace.org
Description: Greenpeace International was founded in 1971 by a small group of volunteers who set out from Vancouver heading for US nuclear test site off the coast of Alaska. It is now headquartered in The Netherlands. Greenpeace is an independent organisation, working in more than 40 countries, with more than 3 million supporters worldwide. We accept no money from governments or corporations, relying entirely upon the financial support of individuals. Greenpeace stands for positive change through action: the courage, independence and global reach to defend nature and promote peace. Our campaign goals include protecting the climate, defending ocean life and ancient forests, exposing nuclear, chemical and biological threats to the environment and human health, and championing clean production. - Californians for GE-Free Agriculture
- Address:Occidental Arts & Ecology Center 15290 Coleman Valley Rd.,
Occidental, CA 95465
Tel:+ 1 707 874-1557 ext 222
Contact: Renata Brillinger
Email: renata@oaec.org
Description: Californians for GE-Free Agriculture is a coalition of sustainable farming, environmental and consumer food safety members which represent a combined total of approximately 75,000 individuals. It was established in June 2003 in the USA as a project of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, a non-profit public interest organization. The coalition encourages and supports farmers in their rejection of transgenic crops in the state, and is committed to ecologically and economically sustainable farming, which is threatened by genetic engineering technologies. Its income is derived exclusively from foundation, individual and corporate donations. - International Forum on Globalisation
- Address:1009 General Kennedy Avenue #2, San Francisco, CA 94129, USA
Tel: + 1. 415.561.7650 Fax: + 1 415.561.7651
Website:www.ifg.org
Contact: Debi Barker, Executive Director
Email: dbarker@ifg.org
Description: The International Forum on Globalization (IFG) is an alliance of sixty leading activists, scholars, economists, researchers and writers formed in 1994 in the USA to stimulate new thinking, joint activity, and public education in response to economic globalization. Representing over 60 organizations in 25 countries, the International Forum on Globalization associates come together out of a shared concern that the world's corporate and political leadership is undertaking a restructuring of global politics and economics that may prove as historically significant as any event since the Industrial Revolution. Its income is derived from foundations and membership subscriptions.