Category: Genetics

Call for workshops at the Earth First! Summer Gathering 2007

This year’s gath­er­ing is from 18 — 22 July in Nor­folk, near a main­line rail­way sta­tion.

The focus is on prac­ti­cal skills, but there will also be many of the reg­u­lar diverse and inter­est­ing work­shops.

EF! summer gathering 2007 logoThis year’s gath­er­ing is from 18 — 22 July in Nor­folk, near a main­line rail­way sta­tion.

The focus is on prac­ti­cal skills, but there will also be many of the reg­u­lar diverse and inter­est­ing work­shops.

The idea is to have mul­ti­ple work­shop ses­sions, e.g. four two-hour slots spread over four days build­ing up skills in a par­tic­u­lar area, so peo­ple can learn the basic skills to actu­al­ly do the job at oth­er mobil­i­sa­tions, events like the cli­mate camp — or wher­ev­er. For exam­ple plumb­ing, elec­tri­cal skills, medics…and what­ev­er else peo­ple want to do… It’s not just about the prac­ti­cal skills but also about get­ting to know each oth­er and start­ing to work togeth­er.

If you would like to offer a work­shop please write to:
martinshaw64@riseup.net

Thanks — the EF! sum­mer gath­er­ing col­lect­ing
Gen­er­al con­tact details etc at http://www.earthfirstgathering.org.uk/

please for­ward to peo­ple you think would be inter­est­ed.

Invitation to the Biovision 2007 counter-summit

This mes­sage is adressed to all peo­ple in Europe who want to resist active­ly GMO’s, cloning, nano-tech­nolo­gies, bio­met­rics, DNA reg­is­tra­tion, indus­tri­al exper­i­ments upon ani­mals, BioPatent and more gen­er­al­ly agro­chem­i­cal multi­na­tion­al pol­i­cy.

This mes­sage is adressed to all peo­ple in Europe who want to resist active­ly GMO’s, cloning, nano-tech­nolo­gies, bio­met­rics, DNA reg­is­tra­tion, indus­tri­al exper­i­ments upon ani­mals, BioPatent and more gen­er­al­ly agro­chem­i­cal multi­na­tion­al pol­i­cy.

If it is pos­si­ble for you to take a few days off between the 9th and the 14th of March, 2007 and if you have the means to come to Lyon (France), we invite you to take part in our Sum­mit against Biovision/Biosquare.

The Biovision/Biosquare Forum is the biggest Euro­pean Forum and one of the three biggest world­wide on Biotech­nolo­gies. This Forum takes place every odd year in Lyon. On the one hand it is an instru­ment of pro­pa­gan­da (Bio­vi­sion) in favour of biotech­nolo­gies and on the oth­er a mar­ket (Biosquare) where sci­en­tists pro­pose to sell indus­tri­al appli­ca­tions to com­pa­nies of the sec­tor.

The oth­er years Biosquare is held in a Swiss city (Gene­va in 2006, Basle in 2004, Zurich in 2002) while Bio­vi­sion is held from now on in a large town of a coun­try of the south (in 2006 in Alexan­dria, Egypt).

By the time, this Forum has become a full-time lob­by­ing machin­ery in favour of biotech­nolo­gies. It aims to the cre­ation of jobs with high incomes in the area and to decide our future.

If you choose to oppose to biotech­nolo­gies as we do, we invite you to con­tact ( nonabiovision@no-log.org) and to join us.

We will be able to accom­mo­date a cer­tain num­ber of peo­ple, but it can be more pleas­ant for you to pay hotel rooms if you can or to stay at a friend’s house.

It will be pos­si­ble to park car­a­vans or bus­es. Also we would appre­ci­ate all kind of help, for instance if you could come one week in advance.

If you can­not come, watch out : a cyber-action is already being planned.

See more…
www.rebellyon.info/spikini/biopognon/PagePrincipale

nonabiovision@no-log.org

Why suppress Biovision/Biosquare? — 11–14th March, Lyon, France

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!

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

FARMER PULLS OUT OF GM CROP TRIAL (updated)

15 Decem­ber 2006
A Farmer who had agreed to genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied pota­toes being grown on his land has pulled out of the scheme after receiv­ing threats.

The crops were to be plant­ed in Bor­rowash by BASF Plant Sci­ence, which was grant­ed per­mis­sion for the project by the Gov­ern­ment ear­li­er this year.

15 Decem­ber 2006
A Farmer who had agreed to genet­i­cal­ly mod­i­fied pota­toes being grown on his land has pulled out of the scheme after receiv­ing threats.

The crops were to be plant­ed in Bor­rowash by BASF Plant Sci­ence, which was grant­ed per­mis­sion for the project by the Gov­ern­ment ear­li­er this year.

But yes­ter­day, it was revealed the farmer with whom the com­pa­ny had agreed a deal was not will­ing to go ahead.

BASF is also plan­ning a GM tri­al in Cam­bridgeshire.

A spokesman for the Depart­ment for Envi­ron­ment, Food and Rur­al Affairs, con­demned the peo­ple who had tar­get­ed the farmer.

He said: “This gen­tle­man has had some threats made against him and his fam­i­ly and so decid­ed he did­n’t want to par­tic­i­pate.

“It is up to the com­pa­ny to decide whether it will look for an alter­na­tive site.

“We think it is out­ra­geous this man has been threat­ened in this way.”

The pota­toes would have been chem­i­cal­ly altered to con­tain a gene from a vari­ety of wild pota­to that would have made them resis­tant to the late blight dis­ease.

Late blight, which sparked the Irish pota­to famine, affects between five and 10 per cent of UK pota­to crops each year.

BASF Plant Sci­ence had planned to start the tri­al in Der­byshire next March or April. It would have last­ed sev­er­al years.

The com­pa­ny did not reveal the loca­tion of the tri­al to try to pro­tect the farmer from oppo­nents of the scheme, who claim GM crops pose a threat to the envi­ron­ment when seeds spread in the wild.

Some res­i­dents of Bor­rowash were con­cerned about the crops tri­al. Jack­ie Flint, of Cole Lane, said: “There were many peo­ple who were wor­ried about it going ahead around here, so I think it will be seen as good news that it’s been stopped.”

No-one from BASF Plant Sci­ence, a plant biotech­nol­o­gy com­pa­ny based in Lon­don, was avail­able for com­ment last night.
————-
BASF is expect to con­firm anoth­er tri­al site with­in two weeks, but could not say if it would be in Der­byshire.

EF! gathering advance notice: date & contact to get involved

The Earth First Gath­er­ing 2007 is well into the plan­ning stage.

Make space in your diary now: 18th — 22nd July 2007, some­where in Nor­folk. Please cir­cu­late this infor­ma­tion wide­ly.

If you want to get involved con­tact nexter@riseup.net.

The Earth First Gath­er­ing 2007 is well into the plan­ning stage.

Make space in your diary now: 18th — 22nd July 2007, some­where in Nor­folk. Please cir­cu­late this infor­ma­tion wide­ly.

If you want to get involved con­tact nexter@riseup.net.

Thanx
The Col­lec­tive.

Another Bayer Stay Out Action, Essex

Two Bay­er facil­i­ties in Essex were hit in a night-time raid by anti-GM activists in the ear­ly hours of Fri­day 23rd April 2004.

As part of the send-off to Bay­er after their deci­sion to pull out of GM crop tri­als in the UK, locks were glued, win­dows smashed and slo­gans paint­ed at two sep­a­rate instal­la­tions belong­ing to Bay­er Diag­nos­tics in Hal­stead, Essex.

The mes­sage of the graf­fit­ti was loud and clear: “BAYER OUT OF GM — AND STAY OUT!!” Bay­er be warned: you know what to expect if you attempt to pur­sue GM in the UK in the future…

see mani­la indy­media for a report of a Bay­er action in the Philip­pines.
also see www.boycottbayer.org

Bye Bay­er
e‑mail: contact@stopbayergm.org
Home­page: http://www.stopbayergm.org

2,000 Women Protest Against GM Food, Blockade Supermarket in Brazil

Amidst widescale protests against cor­po­rate con­trol of the food chain 2,000 Brazil­ian women block­ad­ed a super­mar­ket 800 miles south of Brasil­ia in a protest against genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered food

BRASILIA, Brazil: Women farm­ers through­out Brazil demon­strat­ed Thurs­day on Inter­na­tion­al Women’s Day to protest world­wide eco­nom­ic poli­cies they say are unfair.

Some 700 women mem­bers of Brazil’s Land­less Rur­al Work­ers Move­ment occu­pied a McDonald’s restau­rant in Por­to Ale­gre, some 1,600 kms (1,000 miles) south of Brasil­ia.

They burned flags bear­ing the fast-food chain’s logo, crit­i­cized eco­nom­ic glob­al­iza­tion and called the Brazil­ian gov­ern­ment a slave to “world neolib­er­al­ism.” Thursday’s protest was inspired by the anti-glob­al­iza­tion efforts of French activist Jose Bove a sheep farmer who shot to fame for ran­sack­ing a McDonald’s restau­rant in France and was arrest­ed in Brazil last Jan­u­ary after he joined the work­ers move­ment in a mas­sive protest.

Also on Thurs­day, some 2,000 women blocked access to a super­mar­ket in Flo­ri­a­nop­o­lis, 1,300 kms (800 miles) south of Brasil­ia, claim­ing it sold genet­i­cal­ly engi­neered food.

And in Belo Hor­i­zonte, some 600 kms (380 miles) south­east of Brasil­ia, a group of women protest­ed in front of the local city coun­cil cham­bers demand­ing that the gov­ern­ment speed up agrar­i­an reform.

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.