About Us

The Agricultural Biotechnology Council (abc) is the umbrella group for the agricultural biotechnology industry in the UK. abc was formed in 2000 to:
•    promote the role of biotechnology in sustainable agriculture
•    act as a trusted source of information about agricultural biotechnology
•    encourage and share research to ensure a better understanding of the benefits that agricultural biotechnology can offer

In the UK abc is active in both policy development and advocacy in the political arena. abc co-operated fully in the Government’s public debate on genetically modified (GM) crops and our members supplied the seed for the Government’s Farm-Scale Evaluation programme of field trials (1999-2003) of herbicide tolerant GM crops, the biggest study of the environmental impact of GM crops conducted anywhere in the world.

abc acts as a regular commentator in the media and regularly provides information to schools, farmers, food manufacturers and retailers, amongst others, in the UK.

abc is run by a board of representatives from each member company. The companies involved are BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, Pioneer (DuPont), Monsanto and Syngenta. They are involved in both research and commercialisation of agricultural biotechnology products around the world. More information about each of our members can be found on this site.

Chair: Dr. Julian Little (Bayer CropScience)

Deputy Chairs: Dr Mark Buckingham (Monsanto)  Luke Gibbs (Syngenta)

abc is a member of:

•    EuropaBio - the voice of the biotechnology industry in Europe

•    SCIMAC - which develops ways of carefully managing the introduction of GM crops in the UK