Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Why suppress Biovision/Biosquare ?

No Biovision | 17.01.2007 09:54 | Bio-technology | Globalisation | Health | World

From the 11th to the 14th of March 2007, the fifth edition of Biovision/Biosquare Forum is going to take place in Lyon. These meetings are now considered to be the biggest meeting in the world on biotechnologies. Stop Biovision!

According to the organizers :

« Biovision : the world forum of life-sciences is an international platform for dialogue, debate and constructive proposals for action, bringing together equal numbers of representatives of civil society, scientists, industrialists and politicians on global topics about health, food and environment. »

For 2007 the « millennium objectives for development » are announced as the major topic of the forum. These objectives include reducing the extreme poverty on the planet by half, providing primary education for all children and stopping the spread of the aids virus.

Behind this seductive showcase lurks a propaganda tool to promote acceptance of biotechnologies, and a marketplace where contracts are signed between research centers and industries (Biosquare), everything being of course sponsored by big agricultural, chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

Those firms, you know them : for example, Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis (respectively n°1 and n°3 in health care ), Bayer (n°1 in the world in phytosanitary products) or, near Lyon, Rhone-Poulenc and Biomerieux.

Whereas the ecological devastation directly related to these industries is more and more oppressive (climatic warming, depleting the reserves of drinkable water, menacing the diversity of species, multiplying dangerously polluted sites...) Whereas GMO seeds trap farmers in dependence on multinational companies Whereas patents on molecules hinder access to vaccinations and treatments for the most vulnerable populations facing most serious health risks Whereas less than 10% of commercialised chemical products have been tested for potential risk (cf Greenpeace) and at the same time cancer has increased 60% in France in the last twenty years Whereas those companies have already been responsible for many scandals (Zyklon B, Roundup, Gaucho, AZF, Bhopal, Sévéso ...) Whereas the scientific basis of genetic therapy has not been established and research in this field is little more than tinkering.

Why would companies that are responsible to a large degree for the catastrophic situation in countries of the southern hemisphere, suddenly turn around and pay to allay the sufferings of the populations of those same countries ?

It is primarily for them a way to capture new international mass markets for vaccines, medicines, seeds, chemicals for agriculture and to appear philanthropic at the same time. Thus they can continue the pillage and ecological destruction of the southern countries while being supported by the politicians of the rich ones.

It is important to emphasize that our elected representatives are actively supporting this meeting. The city of Lyon, the department of the Rhone, and the Region of Rhone-Alps are contributing 2 532 000 euros to this event.

If the Biovision Forum is taking place in Lyon it is not an accident but the result of economic interests and the political determination (those meetings have been created by Raymond Barre, ex mayor of Lyon and are directed by Phillipe Demarescaux, ex director of Rhone-Poulenc, and president of The scientific foundation of Lyon ) of the Region of Rhone Alps to become the European center for biotechnologies (Lyon) and nanotechnologies (Grenoble).

Whereas the Rhone-Alps Region declared itself a « non-GMO region » (declaration n°04.00.193 of 28th and 29th of April 2004) and the majority of its population is against the spread of GMO.

Those political choices— so contrary to the ideals of democracy and the common interests of the people—are intolerable. The policy of always more « progress » for more and more profits has to stop now !

It is OUR future that is at stake. We want to decide by ourselves independent from the imperialism of big firms. We are inviting everyone to a mobilisation against this Forum of 2007, and to do all that we can to insure that it will be the last.

Collectif des resistances et des alternatives de Lyon.

contact :  nonabiovision@no-log.org

No Biovision
- e-mail: nonabiovision@no-log.org

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech