The executive director of the British branch of the environmental campaign group Greenpeace announced on Friday he is stepping down to devote more time to his family's organic farm.
Lord Peter Melchett led the British branch of the organization for 12 years but shot to prominence earlier this year when he was arrested and later acquitted for wrecking a field of genetically-modified crops.
Melchett was born into a family of wealthy industrialists -- his great-grandfather was founder of chemicals giant ICI -- but he renounced his birthright and after university became a vegetarian socialist.
He is an hereditary peer but prefers to be addressed simply as Peter Melchett and rides to work on a bicycle.
He said in a statement on Friday he will be quitting Greenpeace at the end of the year to work on his 800-acre farm in Norfolk, eastern England.
"I will be spending more time farming (our family is now fully converting to organic, which is very exciting, but needs more time and energy than I can currently give it)," Melchett said.
He added that he will be working part-time as an adviser on social and environmental issues for Iceland, the supermarket chain which led the campaign to boycott genetically-modified ingredients in food.
Apart from his achievements in raising awareness about genetic engineering, Melchett can take credit for forcing Oil Company Shell in 1995 to drop plans to dump the disused oil platform Brent Spar in the North Sea.
Summing up his period at the helm of Greenpeace, Melchett said the organization was "stronger now than it has been since I started as executive director," Melchett said.
"Our campaigns are going well, we have a wonderful staff, our finances are sound and our income and supporters are on the increase" -- LONDON (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
