GMW: GM protestors arrested as EU opposition radicalises

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GMW: GM protestors arrested as EU opposition radicalises

" GM WATCH " <info

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 14:19:09 +0100

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

 

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EXCERPTS: " We are putting Monsanto on notice, along with each and

every Biotech firm that is contaminating our fields and our food

supply now or has future plans to introduce GM seeds - this is the

beginning, we will not stop until France is declared a GM free zone, "

said Olivier Keller, national secretary of the Confederation Paysanne.

 

 

Half of all open-field GM crop trials carried out in France in 2004

were ripped out by anti-GM campaigners, according to the Commission on

Biomolecular Engineering (CGB).

 

Court decisions last year acquitting two groups of activists who

destroyed GMO crops have further bolstered opposition to the experimental

plantations. (item 2)

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1.GM protestors arrested as EU opposition radicalises

By Anthony Fletcher

Food Navigator Europe, 14/04/2006

http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?n=67081-monsanto-biotech-maize

 

This week, Jose Bove, who has become a symbol of French opposition to

genetic modification (GM), was arrested after he, along with up to 75

campaigners, attempted to occupy Monsanto's seed facility near

Carcassonne in southern France.

 

The campaign against the North American biotech giant had been

organised by the Collectif des faucheurs volontaires, la Confederation

paysanne

and Greenpeace. The protestors want Monsanto and the French authorities

to stop importing and distributing GM maize seed into France.

 

" We are here to demand that the French authorities ban GM seed and in

the interim corporate conglomerate Monsanto must stop hiding where these

environmentally destructive maize seeds are to be grown, " said Bove.

 

" Farmers and consumers have the right to know where GM seeds are

entering agriculture and the food-chain, so they can protect themselves

against genetic contamination. "

 

In particular, the protesters aim to influence the new GM law currently

being discussed in the French parliament. Greenpeace alleges that the

new law, if passed, would allow massive genetic contamination of both

organic and conventional maize.

 

" We are putting Monsanto on notice, along with each and every Biotech

firm that is contaminating our fields and our food supply now - or has

future plans to introduce GM seeds - this is the beginning, we will not

stop until France is declared a GM free zone, " said Olivier Keller,

national secretary of the Confederation Paysanne.

 

" GM is harming the environment and is causing genetic contamination of

the food-chain and agriculture, thus threatening the right of farmers

and consumers to grow and eat GM free food. "

 

Biotech companies and regulators argue that adequate controls are

already in place to ensure that the cross-contamination is not an issue.

 

" Thousands of European farmers grew GM last year, successfully

co-existing with their neighbours, " said Simon Barber, director of the

plant

biotechnology unit at EuropaBio - the European association for

bioindustries.

 

" In the last three years alone, independent, scientific studies on

co-existence have been conducted in six European countries. "

 

In addition, Mariann Fischer Boel, member of the European Commission

responsible for agriculture and rural development, pointed out that the

question of how to cultivate a given GM crop alongside non-GM crops only

arises if that crop has already been cleared as harmless by the EU's

assessment system.

 

" That system is, arguably, the strictest in the world, " she told a

recent GM conference in Vienna.

 

But the point is that vocal opposition to GM food in Europe remains

critically influential. This week the Slovakian inspectorate of

environment published a decision that states Monsanto will not

distribute their

GM maize for the 2006 growing season, effectively shutting out sales of

GM maize for the next year.

 

Greenpeace claims that the halt was put in place, due in part, to

pressure on the Slovakian inspectorate to answer <I> " growing concerns

about

environmental damage and contamination caused by GM maize " .

 

" Resistance against GM in our fields and food has been growing globally

since its release onto the market nearly 10 years ago, " said Geert

Ritsema, Greenpeace International GM campaigner.

 

" In Europe alone 172 regions have declared themselves GM free, and

around the world many other governments, farmers and citizens are uniting

to keep their countries GM free. "

 

It would appear that the concept of tampering with the genetic make-up

of food still packs a mighty emotional punch for a large number of EU

consumers and for some, no amount of scientific studies verifying the

safety or environmental benefits of the technology is likely to change

this. [not if they're like the ones we have seen - or not seen! - to date

- ed]

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2.Jose Bove arrested again at anti-GM protest

http://www.thecampaign.org/forums/showthread.php?t=286

 

LUNEL, France, April 14, 2006 (AFP) - French anti-globalisation icon

Jose Bove was arrested on Thursday on the sidelines of a protest

targeting the US biotech group Monsanto, but was released a few hours

later.

 

Around 100 members of Greenpeace and of Bove's Small Farmer's

Confederation broke into a Monsanto site in Trebes, near Carcassonne in

southwestern France, where they suspect the company stocks

genetically-modified

(GM) seeds.

 

Bove was arrested along with a fellow activist after the protest wound

up, in the centre of Trebes, by four armed officers, his companion

Ghislaine Dambrun told AFP.

 

He was brought to Lunel further east near Montpellier where he was

released shortly before midnight. Some 50 supporters were waiting for him

outside the police station.

 

" We discovered documents leading us to believe that Monsanto is

stocking GM maize seeds on this site, " Bove said earlier, accusing the

French

government of tolerating a " lack of transparency " from biotech firms.

 

The farmer-activist, who has campaigned fiercely against GM foods in

Europe, has served jail terms for ripping out GM crops as well as for

wrecking a McDonald's outlet in southern France in 1999.

 

Sixty percent of the French are hostile to GM crops, polls show, and 78

percent would back a temporary moratorium until their impact on health

and the environment is fully understood.

 

Half of all open-field GM crop trials carried out in France in 2004

were ripped out by anti-GM campaigners, according to the Commission on

Biomolecular Engineering (CGB).

 

Court decisions last year acquitting two groups of activists who

destroyed GMO crops have further bolstered opposition to the experimental

plantations.

 

Copyright AFP

 

 

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