[Duurzaamlijst] (Fwd) 1200 Boeren (m/v) bezetten Monsanto in Brazilie

["Boyd Noorda" <boyd@>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
From:           	"X min Y/KH" <kh@xminy.nl>
Date sent:      	Mon, 29 Jan 2001 16:17:29 +0100


Hier het nieuws uit Brazilie: 1200 boeren nemen hoofdkwartier Monsanto in en
ruimen de genetisch gemanipuleerde troep op. Tijdens het World Social Forum
afgelopen weekend werd ook een  demonstratie gehouden uit solidariteit met
de actievoerders tegen het WEF in Davos.

          WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS
             ISSUE #574, JANUARY 28, 2001
  NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK
         339 LAFAYETTE ST., NEW YORK, NY 10012 
             (212) 674-9499 <wnu@igc.org>


*1. BRAZIL: FARMERS DESTROY MONSANTO LAB

On the evening of Jan. 25 some 1,200 Brazilian farmers and their
supporters protested the use of genetically modified (GM) crops
by occupying a biotech research center belonging to the US-based
Monsanto corporation in Nao Me Toque ("Don't Touch Me")
municipality in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. Hundreds
of campesino families moved into the center's buildings, hanging
hammocks, writing slogans on the walls and promising to stay
"indefinitely." The next morning the protesters uprooted the
center's soy and corn crops, burned soy that had been stored in
warehouses, and held a burial ceremony for a coffin marked
"Monsanto" and covered with a US flag.

Monsanto is the leading international producer and promoter of GM
seeds. Many Brazilian growers oppose the use of GM crops, and
Brazil is the only country in the Western Hemisphere that bans
their commercial use, although it allows research. Rio Grande do
Sul, governed by the leftist Workers Party (PT), is a center of
opposition to GM crops, but laboratory tests indicate that 30% of
the soy grown commercially in the state is GM, from seeds
smuggled in from Argentina, where Monsanto is the source of 70%
of GM soy.

Participants in the protest came from the Movement of People
Harmed by Dams, the Small Growers Movement, the Women Workers
Movement, the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) and the Rural
Youth Ministry. A busload of supporters came from the World
Social Forum, in session 300 km away in the state capital, Porto
Alegre; they included Jose Bove, a leader of the French peasant
movement, and the Honduran Rafael Alegria, president of Via
Campesina, which claims 40 million members on five continents.
"The people occupying [GM] factories are not ecologists; they are
farmers," noted MST leader Joao Pedro Stedile. "It is not enough
to have land; it also needs to be healthy land that will endure."
Stedile said the protests against Monsanto will continue until
"we put the company's directors in an airplane and send them back
to the US." [Servicio Informativo "Alai-amlatina" (Agencia
Latinoamericana de Informacion) 1/25/01, 1/28/01; CNN 1/26/00;
CNN en Espanol 1/26/00 with info from Reuters; La Jornada
(Mexico) 1/27/01; Financial Times (London) 1/27/01] 


-----------------------------------------------------------------
De Duurzaamlijst: | Abonnement opzeggen? Stuur een E-mail aan:
voor nieuws,      | majordomo@ddh.nl en schrijf in het tekstdeel:
opinie en overleg | unsubscribe duurzaamlijst
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Meer over de Duurzaamlijst op http://www.ddh.nl/duurzaam