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Lexington Communications

Lexington Communications' clients include Dow AgroSciences, Syngenta, Chiron, the Crop Protection Association, DuPont, Monsanto, BASF and the UK biotechnology industry funded lobby groups the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC) and CropGen

It was founded by Mike Craven , a former adviser to the UK's Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott MP and a former chief media spokesperson for the Labour Party. He is also a former managing director of lobby firm GPC Market Access which was accused of waging a 'massive disinformation campaign' over its campaign for patents on life. A few months after Craven's departure, in July 1998, GPC was at the centre of the lobbygate 'cash for access' scandal.

In November 1998 Craven was joined by 3 GPC Market Access staffers when he started up Lexington Communications. In January 2003 Lexington hired Bernard Marantelli, a PR operative from Monsanto, to help the company in its work for the biotech industry lobby group ABC in the run up to the UK Government's decision on whether to allow GM crop commercialisation. Its campaign was intended to help the ABC educate 'regulators, legislators, retailers and consumer groups'. The budget was £250,000, the same amount of money that was originally proposed by the Labour Government for the whole national Public Debate on GM in the UK, held in 2003.


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