Former Greenpeace chief joins Monsanto's PR firm

Lord Melchett, the former head of Greenpeace, who led its campaign against genetically modified crops, has accepted a salaried job with a public relations firm whose clients include Monsanto, the GM giant.

The leading environmentalist, who stood down as executive director of the campaigning charity last year, starts work next week as a consultant with Burson-Marsteller, which has represented some of the world's most notorious polluters, including the Exxon Corporation, Union Carbide, and the US company Babcock and Wilcox.

Lord Melchett will head a committee advising companies on how to deal with controversial issues such as GM food, toxic waste and child labour in the developing world. The company said he may also give them advice on how to cope with environmental protests. His acceptance of the contract has caused unease among his former colleagues at Greenpeace, even though the Eton-educated peer, who was once arrested for destroying a field of GM crops, asked the permission of the organisation's new head before accepting the job. Stephen Tindale, who took over from Lord Melchett as Greenpeace's executive director, said he was certain that Lord Melchett would not compromise his ideals.

The American-owned PR firm represented Union Carbide, the US company which in 1984 leaked more than 40 tonnes of toxic gas in Bhopal, India, killing 2,000 people and injuring hundreds of thousands.

It also advised Babcock and Wilcox after the company's nuclear reactor failed at Three Mile Island in 1979, the United States' worst nuclear accident.

Lord Melchett said he would be prepared to engage with his old adversary Monsanto, but he insisted: "I am not going to change my stance. GM food is a technology that has no future. The environmental villains are the people we want to change or stop."

Burson-Marsteller's is one of the world's leading PR companies. Its website boasts of its "unrivalled track record of helping corporate management handle major crises", including protests from campaigning groups such as Greenpeace.