From: GBurch1@aol.com
Date: Mon Aug 02 1999 - 14:13:36 MDT
http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/08/02/timnwsnws01021.html?999
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August 2 1999 BRITAIN
Attacks on GM crops spread to US and France
BY NICK NUTTALL, ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT
DIRECT action against genetically modified crops in Britain is inspiring
similar raids overseas, it emerged last night, as police charged 45 people
with conspiracy to damage crops in a bungled attack on a farm in
Lincolnshire.
Campaigners said that activists in America and France have destroyed GM
crops, giving as their reason solidarity with British protesters.
Yesterday, as police said 26 men and 19 women from all over the country had
been charged with conspiracy to commit damage at a farm in Spital in the
Street where government GM trials are being conducted, news came of the
first attacks on US crops.
A group, basing itself on a British protest band called the Lincolnshire
Loppers, has pulled up an acre of GM corn near Lodi, California. The Lodi
Loppers said in a statement that the action was taken to send a message of
solidarity to "organic farmers around the world who are resisting the
genetic monster". It added: "By pulling their crops, the industry has been
put on notice that it can no longer expect business as usual in the US nor
anywhere else in the world." A second group, called the Cropatistas,
uprooted another one-acre crop of GM corn in the area some time in the past
seven days.
A spokesman for the Genetic Engineering Network in London said yesterday
that at least two GM sites had been destroyed in France. One was of oil seed
rape, the other rice.
The attack in Britain, which took place on Saturday at The Farm in Spital in
the Street near the A15, is the latest in a string of direct actions against
GM crops over the past week.
The protesters, who said they were not part of any organisation, had been
hoping to ruin one of the Government's big field trials. But the operation
backfired when the attackers mistook seven acres of conventionally grown
maize for the GM test site.
About 60 protesters, dressed in white overalls, tore up the crop, causing
damage estimated at £2,000 despite pleas from the landowner that it was a
naturally grown maize.
Adam Duguid, the farmer, said yesterday: "It was normal maize that we would
have used to feed cattle. I went to them and told them they were destroying
normal maize, but they just carried on."
A police spokesman said all those charged last night would appear at Lincoln
Magistrates' Court today. One of the men charged also faces an allegation of
obstructing police. A 16-year-old girl has been referred to social services.
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