Hume Brophy

Background

Hume Brophy is a global public relations and lobby firm. It describes itself as a “sector-led, political, regulatory and campaigning firm that delivers results for our clients to enhance their commercial outcomes and improve their operating environments.”¹

The company has offices in Dublin, London, Brussels, Paris, Frankfurt, Singapore, and Hong Kong, “which allows our clients unmatched access to the highest level of international decision-making,” according to its website.²

The firm claims that its Brussels office “gives strategic access to the EU’s capital.”

According to the staff biography of a Brussels-based Hume Brophy account director named Eamonn Lawler, the firm’s “client work tends to focus on planning and executing public affairs campaigns, with a specific public policy or legislative target to work towards. Advising major MNCs, innovative start-ups and EU trade associations, we analyse the business implications of a legislative proposal and then leverage political, third-party and media engagements for the clients’ policy goals.”³

Hume Brophy specializes in the aviation, energy, financial services, food, and agriculture sectors. The company says that its “agri-food practice guides our clients through complex procedures found in agricultural, food production and chemical approvals.”⁴

Hume Brophy’s current clients in the European Union include Euroseeds, Bayer, the Glyphosate Renewal Group, and the U.S. Sustainability Alliance, alongside a number of airlines.⁵

Hume Brophy runs the Glyphosate Renewal Group (GRG), a group of companies working together to call for the renewal of EU authorization for the active substance glyphosate, an agricultural herbicide. The GRG is based out of Hume Brophy’s offices, on behalf of the agribusiness companies named as GRG members.⁶ ⁷

Hume Brophy is the sole registered lobbyist for the GRG and received €300,000 – 399,999 from the organization in 2021, making it Hume Brophy’s largest Brussels client.⁸

Past Hume Brophy clients include coal mining and processing company Peabody Energy, as well as the World Coal Association, a trade body representing the coal industry.⁹

Stance on Climate Change

Hume Brophy does not have a public statement on climate change on its website.

Its page on agri-food work states: “The challenges of feeding an ever-growing global population while striking a balance with sustainability concerns is one which creates interest from an [sic] widening group of stakeholders.”¹⁰

Following a May 2022 event with FoodDrinkEurope and the Food and Drink Federation, two food industry associations, Hume Brophy published an article on its website titled, “After the Invasion: What is the Future for Food and Agriculture in the EU and the UK?” which stated:¹¹

“With food prices increasing by 30% in the last year, the real worry for food security lies in the long-term impacts – if costs are high, availability of fertilizer and feedstock are affected, so those farmers who can plant crops, will be unable to do so. […]

“Climate goals are also beginning to be put on the back burner. Across Europe, we are seeing governments withdraw support for renewables, but to what extent can we hold the environment hostage to food production?

“…many argue this is ill advised, and the race to net zero cannot be compromised….During this crisis, we must find a way to feed ourselves, while not losing sight of our climate targets.”

The article suggested that the UK should review food security and improve in-country yields, and that precision farming is “regarded as the future of the industry.”

Lobbying

According to its entry on the EU Transparency Register, Hume Brophy works with a “range of clients including trade associations, companies, and coalitions of organizations” on EU policy areas and associated policies including:¹²

Financial Services & Commodities
Trade
Energy & Environment
Agriculture/Food
Healthcare
Digital & Technology
Chemicals
Transport

The company listed over 50 clients in 2021, including the Glyphosate Renewal Group, Bayer, Euroseeds, and the US Sustainability Alliance.¹³ Legislative proposals or policies targeted included a number related to agriculture and food, such as the EU’s Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies, and the Revision of the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive. Hume Brophy states on its website that it also represented companies involved in aviation, biomass and biofuels.

It had registered 29 meetings with senior European Commission officials between 2015-2022.¹⁴

According to information on Hume Brophy’s EU Transparency Register and LobbyFacts profile, its Brussels lobby clients have included:

Hume Brophy’s lobbying support in Brussels appears to include organizing meetings with members of the Commission,²⁷ arranging events for clients,²⁸ ²⁹ and coordinating press releases.³⁰ ³¹

For example, in April 2022, Hume Brophy moderated an event for Euroseeds and the American Seed Trade Association titled “New Genomic Techniques: What benefits for SMEs in the agri-food sector?”³²

In the past, Hume Brophy has represented fossil fuel and Big Tobacco companies. In 2015, it received €50,000 – 99,999 to represent the World Coal Association, according to its profile on transparency website LobbyFacts.³³

Hume Brophy received €50,000 – 99,999 in both 2013-14 and 2015 to represent the coal company Peabody Energy, which in 2015 told the White House that greenhouse gas was a “non-existent harm” and a “benign gas that is essential to all life.”³⁴ ³⁵ ³⁶

In 2016, DeSmog reported that according to court documents, Peabody Energy had funded dozens of climate denial groups.³⁷

In 2016, Corporate Europe Observatory submitted a complaint about Hume Brophy and its representation of the World Coal Association to the EU lobby register authorities. According to Corporate Europe Observatory: “we accused [Hume Brophy] of facilitating a meeting with a then unregistered lobby group (the World Coal Association) and a senior Commission official, breaching the Commission’s own rules. Furthermore, we accused Hume Brophy of not declaring the World Coal Association as a lobby client.”³⁸

According to CEO, Hume Brophy arranged two further meetings for the World Coal Association with Marie Donnelly, director, renewables, research and innovation, energy efficiency at DG Energy. While Donnelly did not breach any rules, which only apply to top level officials, she was said to have ignored official guidance that advises for all staff to ensure a lobbyist is registered.³⁹

In 2018, Donnelly was hired by Hume Brophy, and as of 2022 remained a Senior Consultant and Energy Consultant in their Brussels office.⁴⁰ ⁴¹

Hume Brophy has also been criticized for its representation of Big Tobacco. In February 2011, the Guardian reported that a successful campaign by the National Federation of Independent Retailers (NFIR) against a ban on cigarette displays in UK shops had been funded by British American Tobacco (BAT). Hume Brophy, which represented British American Tobacco, had attended meetings involving BAT and the NFIR about the campaign. It was also said to have emailed MPs claiming the ban would have a “devastating effect on the small business sector in your constituency.”⁴²

Lobbying on Farm to Fork Strategy

According to its filing with the EU Transparency Register, Hume Brophy has supported “communication on” issues such as the Farm to Fork Strategy (F2F), the Biodiversity Strategy, the EU Soil Strategy for 2030, and the Revision of the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive (SUR) for multiple clients.⁴³

In 2021, its clients in these agri-food sectors included:

Bayer – A major global supplier of agrichemicals, crop seeds, and agriculture-related digital tools
Euroseeds – A seed industry trade organization with, members including major firms like Bayer, Syngenta, Corteva, UPL, and BASF
U.S. Sustainability Alliance – An agro-industry association whose members include the U.S. Dairy Export Council and the U.S. Meat Export Federation⁴⁴
AnimalhealthEurope – An association representing the animal medicine industry
Interprofessional de Porcino de Capa Blanca (INTERPORC) – A Spain-based association for the white pork industry
Centrale Organisatie voor de Vleesector (COV) – The meat industry trade association in the Netherlands
Inaporc: The French pork sector’s trade association
Landbrug & Fodevarer (L&F) – A Danish business organization for the agriculture and food industries
Meat Industry Ireland (IBEC) – The trade association for the Irish meat industry
Verband der Fleischwirtschagt e.V. (VDF) – Trade association for the German meat industry

Many of these companies and organizations have lobbied on EU Farm to Fork targets, including Bayer, Syngenta, Corteva, BASF, UPL, and AnimalHealthEurope.

In May 2021, Hume Brophy senior Brussels lobbyist George Lyon hosted a launch event for a Farm to Fork impact assessment titled “The socio-economic and environmental values of plant breeding in the EU and for selected EU member states.”⁴⁵ Euroseeds commissioned science consultancy HFFA Research to produce the report. Euroseeds initiated and financed the study.⁴⁶

In addition to the speakers listed, Hume Brophy also invited the Head of Cabinet for Janusz Wojciechowski, Europe’s Commissioner for Agriculture, to the event.⁴⁷

The study examined the possibility that plant breeding could help offset supposed low crop yields “potentially resulting from” the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies. The impact assessment concluded that “without accelerating plant breeding in the EU in the future, the objectives of the ‘Farm to Fork’ and ‘Biodiversity’ strategies and, hence, the European Green Deal can hardly be achieved.”⁴⁸

The study’s authors stated that the results “have never been influenced by the initiator and supporters of the study.” However, they acknowledged that a “project steering group” from Euroseeds, as well as Euroseeds’ “partner organisations,” provided “continuous and valuable feedback throughout the research phase” of the project.⁴⁹

The EU corporate lobby watchdog group Corporate Europe Observatory argued that the study’s conclusions “replicates the GM lobby’s regulatory wish-list.”⁵⁰

In October 2021, Euroseeds co-sponsored an online event with the American Seed Trade Association, titled “How can innovation and new technologies in agriculture, such as Plant Breeding Innovation, contribute to a more sustainable food system?”⁵¹ Hume Brophy arranged for Director of International Affairs at DG Agri John Clarke to speak at the event. Other listed speakers included MEP Veronika Vrecionová, Head of Cabinet of EU Agriculture Commissioner Jaciej Golubiewski, the director of the University of Bonn’s Center for Development Research Dr. Marin Quin, and Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young and Doug McKalip of the U.S Department of Agriculture.⁵²

Hume Brophy lobbyist George Lyon, who has previously been an MEP and Scottish President of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), has been vocal on the EU’s Farm to Fork targets, particularly with regard to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its effects on the global food system.⁵³

In an April 2022 op-ed in the The Press and Journal, Lyon wrote:⁵⁴

“The [Ukraine] crisis has prompted several EU countries to question whether the European Commission’s Farm to Fork strategy is the right approach to decarbonising the farm sector in Europe? Experts predict the binding measures in Farm to Fork to slash pesticide and nitrogen use and dramatically increase organic production to 25% of agricultural land in the EU could cut food production by 10-15%. They warn that puts food security in Europe at risk.

“Many are now asking whether it is wise for the EU to sacrifice food production and rely on imports given the harsh lessons from the energy sector.”

Lyon went on to state that while farm organizations should not be exempt from the net-zero targets for the agricultural sector, questions should be raised about how such targets will be met. Lyon championed the American approach of pursuing “climate smart agriculture practices that both cuts carbon and increases yields.” He contrasted these to the EU approach:

“The European Commission, led by Vice President Frans Timmermans, appears to be ideologically opposed to intensive agriculture ignoring the fact that it produces the vast bulk of the food we eat.”

Climate smart agriculture and ‘sustainable intensification’ have been championed by the industry as necessary measures to meet food demands while cutting carbon. However, NGOs have accused the industry of using the “hunger card” – i.e. stoking unrealistic fears about European food security in light of Russia’s war with Ukraine – to ensure that the continent’s agriculture continues to rely on chemical-intensive farming.⁵⁵

According to tracking by Corporate Europe Observatory, Lyon in 2020 “publicly asked for the [Farm to Fork] strategy to be delayed,” in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.⁵⁶

In September 2022, the Council of the EU – which represents Member States that sign off the Commission proposals – was said to be “dragging its feet” on plans to halve pesticide use as part of the Farm to Fork strategy, according to reporting by the Financial Times.⁵⁷

In December 2022, Member States voted to reassess the plans to halve pesticide use, a decision that environmental campaign group ARC2020 said was the result of “pressure from the pesticide lobby and big-ag”.”SUR – Pesticide Regulation – Delayed by Additional Impact Assessment,” ARC2020, December 20, 2022. Archived December 21, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/9KyjI

Lobbying for the Glyphosate Renewal Group

The Glyphosate Renewal Group (GRG), which is based in the offices of Hume Brophy, is a group of companies working for the renewal of EU authorization to use glyphosate, a powerful herbicide. A decision on whether to renew the approval of glyphosate in the EU is expected in mid-2023.⁵⁸ ⁵⁹

Glyphosate is widely used by farmers to kill weeds in their fields. Intensive farming practices, including the excessive use of agricultural chemicals like glyphosate, have been found to be dangerous for honeybees and other pollinators. These animals are the cornerstone of food systems and plant reproduction around the world, as they pollinate around two-thirds of global crop plants.⁶⁰

Glyphosate is a key active substance in pesticide and herbicide products that some studies have linked to causing cancer.⁶¹ In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO)’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”⁶² The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a draft human health risk assessment in 2017 stating that glyphosate is “not likely” to be carcinogenic to humans.⁶³ The European Food Safety Authority simply states that glyphosate is “widely used in plant protection products (PPPs)” to “combat weeds that compete with cultivated crops.”⁶⁴

Manufacturers of “plant protection products” (PPPs) containing glyphosate, including Monsanto’s product Roundup, have been sued in the United States and Europe.⁶⁵ In 2020, agrichemical giant Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018, settled Roundup-related cancer lawsuits for US$10 billion. The settlement didn’t include taking Roundup off the market.⁶⁶

Hume Brophy has lobbied in Brussels for the GRG.⁶⁷ The GRG has been a client of Hume Brophy since 2013, when it was known as the Glyphosate Task Force. Since 2013, GRG/GTF has paid Hume Brophy a total of €900,000 – 1,599,992 euros for lobbying in Europe, placing it amongst the firm’s biggest EU clients for the last decade.⁶⁸ ⁶⁹ ⁷⁰ ⁷¹ ⁷² ⁷³ ⁷⁴ ⁷⁵

In 2021, the GRG was Hume Brophy’s largest European UnionBrussels client, providing €300,000 – 399,999 in revenue.⁷⁶

Members of the GRG include Albaugh Europe SARL, Barclay Chemicals Manufacturing Ltd., Bayer Agriculture, Ciech Sarzyna S.A., Industrias Afrasa S.A., Nufarm GMBH & Co.KG (part- owned by Sumitomo Corporation), Sinon Corporation, and Syngenta Crop Protection AG.⁷⁷

Hume Brophy has been involved in multiple lobbying activities with the GRG over the last decade.

In 2021, Hume Brophy moderated a webinar, sponsored by Bayer, in which it explained a glyphosate renewal dossier submitted by the GRG in June 2020 to the European Commission for the upcoming approval process.⁷⁸

In 2017, the EU’s Agriculture and Rural Development and Environment, Public Health and Food Safety committees held a hearing on the “Monsanto Papers.” The hearing examined whether Monsanto had “unduly influenced regulatory studies into the safety of glyphosate,” following allegations made and documents uncovered in U.S. courts. Monsanto refused to attend the hearing, and in response its lobbyists were banned from entering the European Parliament.⁷⁹

NGOs including Friends of the Earth Europe and LobbyWatch called on the EU departments to extend the ban to Hume Brophy and the Glyphosate Task Force – GRG’s predecessor – writing: “we know that Monsanto’s voice extends far further than its declared lobby registration. The transparency register allows us to see that its interests are represented by an array of organisations, from lobby consultancies to trade associations.”“⁸⁰

A 2017 op-ed by Hume Brophy lobbyist George Lyon in The Press and Journal claimed: “The relicensing of Glyphosate was also hijacked by a similar populist political campaign by Green NGOs despite the European Food Standards Agency (EFTA) giving it the all-clear. With GMOs it has been the same story.”⁸¹

In 2016, Hume Brophy lobbyists held meetings with then-Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis on behalf of the GRG, ahead of glyphosate’s approval in 2017.⁸²

Hume Brophy also arranged a meeting on glyphosate re-authorization for two Monsanto representatives with a member of the cabinet for the EU Commissioner of Trade.⁸³

At the meeting, Monsanto representatives “stressed the economic losses of their company due to delays in approval and unpredictability faced by farmers for planting seeds. This situation causes damage to farmers and costs are high for Monsanto as they had to compensate them.”⁸⁴

In 2016, Hume Brophy was also involved in writing two press releases for the Glyphosate Task Force – the predecessor to the GRG.

A June 6 press release titled “Glyphosate Task Force Laments the Extreme Politicisation of an EU Renewal Process That is Supposed to Be Based on Science,” which was responding to the decision to extend the existing approval of glyphosate by 18 months until 2017 rather than give full reapproval, stated that “sudden expiration” of glyphosate’s approval “would entail serious consequences for European farmers,” calling the herbicide “a reliable and effective tool for weed management and the protection of crop yields.”⁸⁵

The Chairman of the Task Force, Richard Garnett, added: “The indecision among Member States and the need [for] an extension are highly regrettable and a sad sign of how politically charged the glyphosate renewal process has become.”

A March 7, 2016 press release criticized activists for supposedly “politicis[ing] a scientific process,” stating:⁸⁶https://archive.ph/jbQlR

“The Glyphosate Task Force (GTF) finds the latest interference of activists with the EU regulatory process unacceptable, and objects to the pressure exerted today by anti-pesticide activists against the representatives of the member states participating at the Standing Committee on phytopharmaceuticals taking place today in Brussels.

“The European approval process for pesticides is rigorous and transparent. In the case of the Glyphosate, it is one of the most comprehensive and thorough evaluations of an active substance to date.”

Key People

Hume Brophy’s CEO Conall McDevitt is a former member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (2010-2013).⁸⁷ ⁸⁸

Jill Craig is the managing director of Hume Brophy’s Brussels office.⁸⁹

For 2022-23, Hume Brophy lists 20 staff members who have access to the European Parliament.⁹⁰

In 2015, former UK MP Esther McVey was hired by the firm after losing her seat in the UK’s General Election.⁹¹

McVey returned to Parliament after winning her seat back in the 2017 election.⁹²

The company also previously hired James Wharton after he worked as Boris Johnson’s campaign manager.⁹³

George Lyon is a senior consultant and “agri-food specialist” for Hume Brophy. He was a Liberal Democrat MEP for five years, and “an influential member of the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, working on CAP reform, the EU budget and trade policy,” according to his biography on Hume Brophy’s website. He has also been the Chief Whip and Deputy Finance Minister in the Scottish Parliament, and the President of NFU Scotland, the UK’s farming union.⁹⁴ ⁹⁵

Lyon has been vocal on Scottish climate targets for the agricultural sector. In August 2022 he wrote, “Back in 2019 Scottish farming industry leaders were asleep at the wheel when the Scottish government legislated for a binding target requiring Scottish agriculture to cut its emissions by an eye watering 34% from 7.5million tonnes to 5.3 m tonnes by 2032.”⁹⁶

He is also a proponent of North Sea oil and gas, writing in April 2022 that European dependency on Russian oil and gas supplies, “highlights the folly of those in the UK who are calling for the oil and gas to be left untouched in the North Sea.”⁹⁷