Activist occupy labs associated with GM trials
Rosie Perkins | 02.06.2008 13:47 | Ecology | Cambridge
Activist hang banner at UK GM trial lab; activists opposed to the BASF trial of GM potatoes have hung a banner and occupied part of the grounds of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) in Cambridge.
Environmental protestors from Earth First! UK today staged a peaceful protest at the laboratory and offices of the National Institute for Agricultural Botany (NIAB), in Girton, Cambridge. About a dozen activists invaded the site and hung banners from buildings in protest at a trial for genetically modified (GM) potatoes being carried out at the Institute by BASF2, a German based company.
The protest was timed to coincide with a national day of action on food and climate change3 and with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Summit, being held this week in Rome.
Rosie Perkins, a spokesperson for Earth First! UK said:
“Today’s protest was staged to send a clear message to scientists, companies and politicians across the world; that message is that genetically modified food is not the answer to either climate change or world food shortages and we stand here today in solidarity with the many farmers and local food producers across the world who are speaking out against GM crops.
“In recent months, scientists have been pushing and pushing for more GM crops to be grown, claiming they are the solution to many of the problems we face today. However, their claims consistently ignore the social and environmental impacts of GM crops, which include the vulnerability of crops to disease as global agriculture becomes more industrialised and less genetically diverse, as well as the impact of tying food production even closer in to big business and global corporations. We firmly belief that the increasing industrialisation of agriculture benefits neither producer nor consumer and we need to look to a future of low-input, diverse, local food production.”
“The GM trial at NIAB is being conducted under siege-like conditions with high levels of security, including a permanent security personnel presence, high metal fences, alarms and floodlights. The fact that this trial is taking place under such conditions clearly demonstrates the contempt in which the people of this country hold the development of these crops.”
The BASF potato trial at NIAB is one of only 2 outdoor field trials taking place in the UK this year and is a trial for blight resistance in GM potatoes; a further trial for nematode resistance is taking place near Leeds, under the auspices of Leeds University and has also met with local opposition.
The protest was timed to coincide with a national day of action on food and climate change3 and with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Summit, being held this week in Rome.
Rosie Perkins, a spokesperson for Earth First! UK said:
“Today’s protest was staged to send a clear message to scientists, companies and politicians across the world; that message is that genetically modified food is not the answer to either climate change or world food shortages and we stand here today in solidarity with the many farmers and local food producers across the world who are speaking out against GM crops.
“In recent months, scientists have been pushing and pushing for more GM crops to be grown, claiming they are the solution to many of the problems we face today. However, their claims consistently ignore the social and environmental impacts of GM crops, which include the vulnerability of crops to disease as global agriculture becomes more industrialised and less genetically diverse, as well as the impact of tying food production even closer in to big business and global corporations. We firmly belief that the increasing industrialisation of agriculture benefits neither producer nor consumer and we need to look to a future of low-input, diverse, local food production.”
“The GM trial at NIAB is being conducted under siege-like conditions with high levels of security, including a permanent security personnel presence, high metal fences, alarms and floodlights. The fact that this trial is taking place under such conditions clearly demonstrates the contempt in which the people of this country hold the development of these crops.”
The BASF potato trial at NIAB is one of only 2 outdoor field trials taking place in the UK this year and is a trial for blight resistance in GM potatoes; a further trial for nematode resistance is taking place near Leeds, under the auspices of Leeds University and has also met with local opposition.
Rosie Perkins
e-mail:
cariad76@live.co.uk
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
Iffy assumption
02.06.2008 15:39
What percentage of people have ever trashed a crop trial? It's not a response to contempt, it's a response to physical attack. Out of interest, what does it say about the contempt displaid and the intelligence possessed by someone who would willfully destroy a trial that would provide evidence of the claim they are making?
The problems you've described are not inherent to all GM technology, but they are a result of the money-grabbing, monopolistic practices of the companies who are trying to produce them. We have been genetically modifying crops since the dawn of agriculture but we called it "cross breeding" and no-one cared.
The biggest danger here is the anti-GM campaigners who spend all their time telling people that GM has no benefits, is un-natural (whatever the fuck that means) and that it can only bring sorrow and destruction. The end result is that you get ignored, because the likes of Monsanto will just smile knowingly while explaining to the MPs that you're just a bunch of re-actionary tree-hugging nutters. Unfortunately, in many cases they have a point.
I can take wood, nails and rope and construct a trebuchet or I could construct a swingset. Neither situation would justify the outlawing of carpentry.
Steve
iffy steve
02.06.2008 22:13
So-called trials are in fact experiments with our future and nature, as they are in the open-air, and many studies have shown that the border crops and final destruction at the end of the year that satisfy the UK government's safety regime do NOT stop contamination spreading, through pollen and through the soil. That is one reason why, the UK (& other EU) government(s) supported the measure that meant that if a conventional crop is 0.9% GM-contaminated, then it counts as non-GM!
Genetic engineering is exceedingly different from cross-breeding - you can find lots of info about that all over the web. Saying they are the same is a line from the GM industry, that they've been spinning since at least the 90s. They usually get paid for their time on Indymedia and other places - I don't know if Iffy Steve is just supporting them in his spare time.
There's lots of info too out there about why GM is unneccesary and unsuccessful and why it doesn't do what the GM companies have been hyping it for.
straight-up steve
Excellent action
03.06.2008 13:47
Beware though - if the Earth Firsters had carried out this action against an animal research organisation, they would be facing 5 years in prison - see postings about Sean Kirtley. Section 145 of SOCPA has serious implications for us all - it will only take a slight adjustment of the text of SOCPA to make sections 145 and 146 apply to protests against any sort of company, not just those involved in vivisection.
Jane
"Excellent actio" -Come on!!
05.06.2008 16:14
david blackburn