Bio-technology
GM, GMOs, gene manipulation, patents.
Topic introduction
10-02-2004 04:31
On the Indymedia UK biotechnology topic page you should find pretty much all the articles posted to Indymedia UK on this subject.
If you are interested in the wider campaign against GM on a global scale, it would be well worth checking out the global Biotech IMC website: biotech.indymedia.org.
Britain is GMO free again
22-07-2007 17:30
On the night of Friday the 6th of July, a group of activists converged on Britain's only GM trial site just outside Cambridge. They scaled the security fences and destroyed the crop of genetically modified potatoes.
This was the only crop of GM potatoes being grown in the UK, after the chemicals giant BASF abandoned plans for a GM potato trial in Yorkshire this year. There have been multiple protests at the Cambridge site [video] and at the Yorkshire site (where organic potatoes were planted [video]).
However BASF have permission lasting until 2011, so this may not be the end of the story ...
Background : GM back on agenda | sabotage promised | detailed talk report | audio interview re victory and protest 1st july
Campaign links : Mutatoes | Hedon Against GM | Cambridge GM Concern
Two Arrested at Cambridge GM potato picnic
03-07-2007 19:19
7/7/07 Update: The field has been decontaminated!
Sunday July 1st. Fifty anti-GM campaigners take their protest directly to the test site in Girton near Cambridge. One protester is arrested scaling the fence erected to protect the GM potato crop and another is arrested later on for alleged criminal damage (they will be in court on Tuesday morning[ 1 | 2 ]). The crop are GM potatoes developed by BASF, who have already dropped their one other potato trial in the UK [ 1 | 2 ].
Detailed write up - video - Pictures [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ] Local media coverage - Criticism of tactics.
Background : GM back on agenda | sabotage promised | detailed talk report | audio interview re victory and protest 1st july
Campaign links : Mutatoes | Hedon Against GM | Cambridge GM Concern
Full article | 1 addition | 1 comment
Anti-GM Victory : One down, One to Go!
25-06-2007 18:18
It seems there are not often victories to celebrate so it's strange when they occur seemingly unnoticed. That's exactly what's happened regarding the news that the chemicals giant, BASF have abandoned plans for a GM potato trial in Yorkshire this year, despite government consent.
Back in April there was an action in Hedon near Hull [1 | 2 ] to demonstrate public opposition to the first GM trials in the UK proposed in three years. Taking action before the trial began, the protesters planted their own organic spuds in what they thought was the field earmarked for the GM variety [1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6]. The aim was to invalidate the experiment before it was even started and while it turned out that they had picked the wrong field they did successful demonstrate that public opposition to GM crops is as strong and militant as ever [audio | video].
The planting of the other trial, located in Cambridge [1 | 2], went ahead despite local opposition and protests but campaigners say that it's not too late to drive home the message that "there is still no future for GM in the UK".
There is a national call out for a 'potato picnic' announced for Sunday 1st July near the site of the Cambridge trial. [flyer | directions]
Background : GM back on agenda | sabotage promised | detailed talk report | audio interview re victory and protest 1st july
Campaign links : Mutatoes | Hedon Against GM | Cambridge GM Concern
Nano Expo at Nottingham Uni
27-05-2007 10:25
On 16-17th May a 'Nano Expo' took place at the East Midlands Conference Centre, University of Nottingham. Nanotechnology is hailed as the new technological fix for the world's problems by certain scientists, but there are serious issues with the technology itself and the way it is being developed.
The Nano Expo site says that the event is: "Designed to bring together key industrialists and researchers in the field of micro- and nanotechnology. Leading international speakers will contribute to parallel sessions targeted at both commercial and scientific audiences." There are some of us who are less excited about this new technology and think that such conferences should be protested.
Links Nano expo website | Institute of Nano Technology | Wikipedia on Nano Technology
Articles: Nanotech: Corporations make money, government ducks issue, public takes the risk | NANOTECHNOLOGY: What it is and how corporations are using it | Time to make your voice heard on nanotech regulation | Protest at Nano-tech conference, Oxford | Nanoparticle based spray recalled after 80 made ill | After GM Food – here comes Nano Food! | Nano Hazard Competition samples | Nano-Justice and Food Sovereignty | Resistance to Nanotechnology in France | products using Nanotechnology
Full article | 1 addition | 6 comments
Ready to remove a blight on our landscape?
16-04-2007 10:01
This month a controversial experimental genetically modified potato crop is due to be planted in the UK by the German chemical giant BASF (offshoot of the infamous AG Farben). DEFRA initially gave approval in December for BASF to undertake trials at two sites, one in Cambridgeshire (at the National Institute of Agriculture and Botany) and the other initially in Derbyshire - until the farmer pulled out.
The trials are the first GM crops to enter British soil in nearly 3 years, after public opposition forced a u-turn in government and corporate plans for patented crops. Although presented as an R&D trial into the effectiveness of an anti blight gene, they are widely considered to be trial of public opinion.
On 14th April in Cambridge a protest walk took place [photos 1, 2]. This was followed on the 21st by a rally in Hull. This event ended with the proposed trial being effectively sabotaged even before it had began when over a hundred people entered the site and planted several varieties of seed potatoes in the field making it impossible for a scientifically valid trial to take place there.
LINKS:
Cambridge 1 | 2 | 3 | grid reference
Hull 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | pics
Background GM - Back on the agenda? | Sabotage promised | New GM crop trials | London info night (Tues 17th)
Campaign sites mutatoes.org | hedonagainstgm.org.uk | Cambridge GM concern | myspace.com/gmfreepotatoes
GM Potatoes - Blessing or Blight?
11-04-2007 23:03
On Monday 2 April, Cambridge GM Concern organized a public meeting regarding the forthcoming NIAB/BASF trial of GM potatoes in the Cambridge area. Some fifty people turned up for the event, which featured three speakers, who had travelled up from London for the occasion: Michael Antoniou is a Reader in Molecular Genetics at Guy's Hospital Medical School, Helena Paul is the chair of GM Freeze, and Clare Oxborrow is from the Real Food Campaign organized by Friends of the Earth.
Meanwhile campaigners concerned about similar trials in Yorkshire are having a demo on the 21st of April and have set up the mutatoes website and a myspace page.
Southampton Seed Swap
01-03-2006 00:06
Building on the success of the Seedy Sunday event in Brighton(1), a similar event is being organised for Southampton. Southampton's very own Seedy Saturday is happening next Saturday (4th March) at the Edmund Kell Hall. Bringing together home growers from all over the region to swap seeds and advice. The event is organised by Active Arts Community a not-for-profit group that aims to promote healthy living and ecologically sustainable lifestyles through the arts. The seed swap event is an extension of the other more arty based work though it complements well the ethos behind the group.Untested and in here - Sainsburys GM feed week
12-06-2005 16:40
On Sunday (12th June), eight protesters stripped naked to expose the continued sale of products derived from animals fed on genetically modified crops. The naked demo preceded a separate week long series of events outside Sainsbury head office in London. The Milk Monitor website describes the campaign as "a week long extravaganza of street theatre & protests against GM animal feed".
Read full article for daily updates and details of each days events.
Environmental Rock in Southampton
12-05-2005 10:00
The joy of seeds
25-04-2005 15:34
The importance of saving seeds has never been more relevant as the erosion of our genetic heritage continues, not just here but all over the world, and with potentially disasterous consequences. Please read the following links, and remember 'Think Global, Act Local'.
report + video | Our Vegetable Heritage | Brighton group website
Traditional Seed Saving Made Illegal in Iraq | Seedswapping at LARC
