Idaho: Activists destroy thousands of Round-up Ready peas
Submitted by Chuck0:GENETIX ALERT NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Denny Henke
Cell: 901.438.9907 Office: 901.458.9907
Date: June 15, 2001
Activists destroy thousands of Round-up Ready peas in Idaho
Filer, ID - On June 10th, 2001 anti-biotech activists destroyed
thousands of Round-up ready peas at Seminis research center. According
to the communiqué “A bunch of us around here doing farming and trucking
crops decided to find out anything we could about Seminis. And then the
information we got made us take things into our own hands and go out
into their field one night and rip out their pea plants.”
The communiqué continues “These peas weren't normal. They had their
genes changed to make the plants stay alive when sprayed with glyphosate
herbicide. That's like the brand Roundup for people who don't know.”
This anti-biotech action is the 5th of 2001. Since November 1998 there
have been over 40 anti-genetic direct actions in North America. The
direct actionists continue to maintain that biotechnology is completely
unnecessary and is being developed at the expense of human and
ecological health solely to increase the profits of large multinational
corporations. With the North American growing season at hand it is
likely that direct actions against facilities producing and testing
genetically engineered organisms will resume.
The communiqué concludes “We hope this story will be interesting to
people, especially people wondering what's going on right down the road
from them. Why don't we take things into our own hands at this point and
take out these crops?”
*Attached is copy of the communiqué.
Begin Communiqué
To Whom It May Concern at the Genetix Alert Press Office,
We came across your business on the internet. Can your service help get
news out about what's happening here in Idaho:
There's a company called Seminis Vegetable Seeds in Filer and we would
pass it's research center everyday. We started wondering what kind of
research they were doing. There is a lot of agriculture around here but
everything is bigger and bigger companies who don't say what's being
grown or how.
A bunch of us around here doing farming and trucking crops decided to
find out anything we could about Seminis. And then the information we
got made us take things into our own hands and go out into their field
one night and rip out their pea plants. The night was June 10 and we
yanked out over 20 small plots of peas, It must have been thousands of
plants. These peas weren't normal. They had their genes changed to make
the plants stay alive when sprayed with glyphosate herbicide. That's
like the brand Roundup for people who don't know.
The internet was how we looked up a lot of information. You can get These gene-altered plants can cross-breed with regular plants and we We hope this story will be interesting to people, especially people Seminis's place is right on Highway 30, at the 2300 Rd. corner, next to ^^^^^^^^^^^^^END COMMUNIQUÉ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Reporters and other interested parties may contact GenetiX Alert at:
addresses there and find out businesses have going on. We did a search
and find Seminis's web site. We also went to the USDA, that's the US
Dept. of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service [APHIS]
web site:
do permitting for
gene-modification research. If you click on "How Can I Check on an
Application to Import, Move, or Field Test or a Petition to Deregulate?
(Biotechnology Database)" you can find records about who's testing what
kind of altered plants. We found Seminis's permit # 01-065-01N # 321 for
peas, saw the peas in their field and it went from there.
don't know what they will do to people, animals, the soil, or anything.
It was really easy work to take them out of the picture and didn't take
very long, once we got used to the dark and relaxed into the work.
wondering what's going on right down the road from them. Why don't we
take things into our own hands at this point and take out these crops?
the highschool.
GenetiX Alert is an independent news center that works with other
above-ground, anti-genetic engineering organizations. GA has no
knowledge of the person(s) who carryout any underground actions. GA does
not advocate illegal acts, but seeks to explain why people destroy
genetically engineered crops and undertake other nonviolent actions
aimed at resisting genetic engineering and increasing the difficulty for
entities which seek to advance genetic engineering or its products. GA
spokespeople are available for media interviews. An archive of
anti-biotech direct actions can be found at http://tao.ca/~ban/ar.htm
cell phone: 901.438.9907
office phone: 901.458.9907
email: genetixalert@tao.ca
Web: http://tao.ca/~ban/gapo.htm
787 Ellsworth
Memphis, TN 38111 USA
contact: Denny Henke
