John Innes Centre A research facility and foundation decdicated to the research and training used for the advancement of genetics in the environment, particulaly within the study of genetic modification to plants and crops. The facility was one of the leading centres in research at the time of the genetically modified crops debate and so their trial farm land was often targeted by protestors and many of the scientists who worked at the centre were interviewed by press along with sending correspondence to other scienctists regarding the debate. The centre was the biggest supporter of the farm-scale trials and subsequent debate, however, once the growing and selling of gm crops was banned in the Uk and Europe funding to the Research centre was cut dramatically. Despite this research is still ongoing at the centre through funding from donations and the foundation.

(b. 1943) Member of Parliament Beckett was elected to Parliament in 1974 in the governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. She lost her seat in 1979, but returned to the House of Commons in 1983 representing Derby South. She was appointed to Neil Kinnock's Shadow Cabinet and elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 1992, becoming the first woman to hold that role. When John Smith died in 1994, she became the first woman to lead the Labour Party. In 1997 Beckett became a member of Tony Blair's Cabinet as President of the Board of Trade but later became the Leader of the House of Commons and Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. In 2006 she became Foreign Secretary and was again the first woman to hold that position. Beckett was not initially given a position by Gordon Brown but was soon appointed Minister of State for Housing and Planning in 2008. She left work in the government in 2009. Beckett is currently the longest-serving female MP in the House of Commons and one of the few remaining MPs who served in the Labour governments of the 1970s. In the 2013 New Year Honours for public and political service Beckett was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

(1972-) Genetic Scientist Leader of the Genetic Modification and Biosafety Research Group at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK. He worked in agriculture for several years before graduating in Agricultural Botany and obtaining a doctorate in Plant Genetics. Following a period of plant breeding and genetics research at the Welsh Plant Breeding Station (1972-85), he became Research Group Leader at the Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge during the mid-late 1980's, where he was involved in the first field experiments with GM crops and led several research programmes on biosafety assessment. Professor Dale moved to the John Innes Centre in Norwich in 1990 and currently leads several research programmes studying the behaviour and stability of GM crops. From 1993 to 1999, he was a member of the UK Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE) and during 1998 he became a member of the UK Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes. He was appointed Deputy Chair of the committee in 2002. In 2000 he was asked to join the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission, which provided the Government with advice on developments in biotechnology and their implications for agriculture and the environment. In August 2002 Dale was awarded an honorary professorship at the University of East Anglia and became a Fellow of the Institute of Biology.