Author: earthfirst

ONE DOWN . . . HAPPY NEW YEAR 2001 AVENTIS

On Sunday 7th January 2001 part of a farm-scale trial site at Harbury in Herefordshire was destroyed by ‘Two Peasants, a Pixie and a Pair of Marigolds’. The five entered the field shortly before midnight and during four hours pulled up about 200sq metres of oilseed rape.

In a statement, the group explained they had taken action after an earlier demonstration and public meeting had failed to prevent the trial from going ahead. “As local people we formed an affinity group with both collective and well-reasoned personal motivation for our actions.

We feel that the strength of our arguments will vindicate our action and keep the issue in the public domain,” they stated. “We want to remind the government, Aventis and the farmer, who have brushed aside the strong arguments and genuine concerns of the public, bio-scientists and environmentalists, that people aren’t content to see this continue and feel their only avenue to protect the environment is to take direct action themselves.”

“We completely cleared the area of all the oilseed. We were literally on our knees pulling them out at the roots. It was to highlight the issue to the local and national government that we don’t feel the public is being listened to. And because we feel they have acted illegally, we feel we have done nothing wrong,” a protester explained, vowing the campaign would continue as long as the trials and the use of the technology continued.

GM Fowl Are Revolting

Six days before Xmas, 20 people dressed as turkeys and equipped with D-locks and arm tubes, halted two lorries in the entrance of one of Asda’s UK distribution centres.

With their ‘just in time’ restocking and one truck arriving every few minutes, the two-hour blockade at Dartford was deemed to have been pretty costly to Asda. Clearing the backlog would have taken some time.

A banner told Asda to stuff its GM turkeys and head office was informed that there would be more blockades of their distribution centres around the country if they ignored public opinion.

Asda was chosen because of its connection with the giant US buyer, Walmart, to whom American farmers would be looking to sell their crops in 2001.

Similar actions occurred in New Zealand two days later. Ten people dressed as chickens blockaded a feedmill, and a few days later others chained themselves to a boat bringing in animal feed.

In Britain, concerned chickens roosted on Cargill’s Liverpool plant and blocked the weighstation with a truck. Two weeks before, dischuffed persons locked onto lorries and climbed silos at an Exeter animal feed mill owned by BOMC Pauls, the main producer of GM animal feed in the UK.

Trees Action and Forest Biotech 99 Conference, Oxford

The campaign against GE in forestry kicked off the week of the Forest Biotech 99 conference, with news that AstraZeneca’s plantation of GM poplar trees had been felled and ring-barked by eco-lumberjacks. These trees have a reduced lignin content which the industry claims, in typical greenwash language, means there will be less pollution from pulp processing. Truly environmental solutions would be more recycling, less paper use, and diversifying our source materials, for example, using hemp. Whilst this attack has undoubtedly put back research, AstraZeneca claims that 48 of the trees were mature enough to pulp for paper making. A demonstration also took place outside the conference during the week, with the beautiful old tree outside being dressed and turned into a wishing tree.

Smash Genetix Action in Lincolnshire

As with the Greenpeace action the previous week, the Smash Genetix action was targeted at GM fodder maize. Unlike its oilseed rape, AgrEvo’s GM maize already has consent to be grown in the European Union. This means that the government is under no obligation to inform the public, or other farmers or bee-keepers about where it is being grown. For this reason concerned members of the public and local agricultural producers have to play detective to find out whether their produce is at risk from contamination. Detailed research finally identified the right farm but unfortunately incorrect scientific analysis led activists to the wrong field.

Eighty activists initially outfoxed the police, and in a well co-ordinated action destroyed a field of maize. However, two hours later, the police arrived and began rounding up activists. Some managed to get away by running along ditches and hedgerows or hiding in the undergrowth, but 46 people were arrested. All were initially charged with criminal damage, as well as conspiracy to cause criminal damage, which would have meant a jury trial.

In an obviously political move the conspiracy charge was later dropped, along with all charges against 22 people. The remaining 24 have had their charges changed to the lesser charge of aggravated trespass. The court date will be 19th January 2000.

This action, more than any, highlights the secrecy with which these trials are conducted. It is evident that the government supports the interests of big business over small local producers whose products may be polluted without them even knowing.

GenetiX Snowball break their injunctions

On 5th August three members from GenetiX Snowball openly and accountably trashed an AgrEvo test site, breaking an injunction served against them. They took the bagged up crops to AgrEvil’s HQ in Norfolk where the staff were totally phased, despite the fact that they had been sent a letter saying they were going to break their injunctions. At an impromptu press conference AgrEvo claimed that Snowball had the wrong site, until a journalist pointed out the injunction signs surrounding it. Finally they were allowed to hand in the bag of GM oilseed rape and their statements and injunctions. Over two months later they are still awaiting their committal papers!!

Greenpeace Action in Norfolk

Greenpeace Norfolk GM action

The following weekend, Greenpeace activists, including its executive director Lord Melchett, decontaminated a GM maize farm-scale trial in Lyng, Norfolk.

This action, in which 28 people were arrested, could have turned into a tragedy when the farmer who owned the land, William Brigham, became violent, driving a tractor into the mower which was driven onto the field to destroy the maize, as well as chasing the activists around the field. Of those arrested, only Lord Melchett was remanded, and his treatment ignited a long-awaited debate in the press regarding direct action and whether it is the action of a small unrepresentative minority who want to derail the democratic process. The government would say that, wouldn’t it! Unfortunately, much of the press debate focused on ‘establishment maverick’ Melchett, rather than the validity of farm-scale trials or why ordinary people take action. Because the police arrived before the site was completely destroyed, the trial remains valid.

No-one fancied going back to finish off the job and possibly meeting rabid farmer Brigham again! Those arrested await a court date for a crown court trial.

Scottish GE simultaneous decontaminations

Some other local actions and events Scotland – Scottish Genetix Action report that on Saturday 24th July 1999, in a simultaneous action, GM oilseed rape test sites in Edinburgh and Aberdeen were destroyed. Scottish Genetix Action will continue to campaign for a GMO-free Scotland.

Watlington Rally and Action 18th July 1999

In Watlington, Oxfordshire, the campaign against the farm-scale trial had been running from the moment the test plots were announced. Stalls were held in the town and an organic picnic was organised along with a walk to the site. By lucky coincidence, literally metres away from the Model Farm GM test site, lay an abandoned farm house with an overgrown garden full of wild flowers. This swiftly became the Alternative Model Farm for two weeks, with beautiful displays of permaculture and organic farming methods. Open days were held for the general public to decide which ‘model’ of the future they wanted.

On Sunday 18th July, a beautiful summer’s day, locals mingled with campaigners and concerned individuals from all over the country at a rally addressed by Nottingham South MP, Alan Simpson; Swindon campaigner, Jean Saunders; a local food writer, Linda Brown; Jim Thomas from Greenpeace, and George Monbiot, journalist, campaigner and all-round defender of truth and justice! At the end of the rally over 600 people, dressed in white paper decontamination suits and waving biohazard flags, large bumble-bees and banners went to symbolically surround the site. But then, like a scene out of Braveheart, they just walked through the conventional control oilseed rape onto the GM oilseed rape itself.

An hour and a half later the site was almost totally destroyed. Although the crop had already pollinated, the test site was rendered scientifically useless. As the last protestors were returning to the rally site police reinforcements, including horses fresh from a demo at Hillgrove Cat-Breeding Farm, attempted to snatch people randomly out of the crowd and scatter it with horses. A mounted policemen lifted one woman up by her hair. The ensuing chaos provided the media with pictures of ‘violence’, allowing them to portraying the jubilant and good-humoured crowd as an angry mob.

This provocation can only be seen as a deliberate attempt to belittle what was an extremely empowering, significant and, above all, peaceful action – one of the biggest in the recent history of the environmental movement. For many people attending, this was the first time they had taken direct action against the genetic pollution escaping into the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside. A lasting image will be that of an eighty-year old woman, without a suit, quietly pulling up the oilseed rape.

“One of the many things that has unified the huge opposition to GE in this country has been the peaceful nature of all Genetic Events. Please do everything you can to ensure that it continues in the same peaceful vein and enjoy it” From a leaflet distributed at the rally.