User:Jonathan Matthews

Jonathan first became interested in scientific 'bubbles', paradigm shifts and how science and utopianism could make a heady mix, while still at university. Later he became fascinated by the way language and rhetoric could be misused for PR purposes - see his reviewof Guy Cook's book Genetically Modified Language. In 1998 he formed the campaigning organisation Norfolk Genetic Information Network (NGIN) which evolved into GMWatch. The journalist George Monbiot has described GMWatch as providing the world's most comprehensive database on the impact and politics of GM crops. Jonathan also helped establish LobbyWatch with his co-editor Claire Robinson which, together with GMWatch, provided the most extensive database on GM and related lobbying prior to SpinProfiles. Jonathan has written numerous articles and at one time had a regular column in The Ecologist. He contributed a chapter (Biotech's Fake Persuaders) to Thinker, Faker, Spinner, Spy: Corporate PR and the Assault on Democracy, eds Dinan and Miller, Pluto Press, 2007.