III Publishing

Subject: Fwd: GE Crops Decontaminated in California!
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 00:46:03 -0500

this post contains
1. press release on both actions against Genetically Altered Corn crops.
2.Communique From the California Croppers regarding action and GE-Free July

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE . . . July 28, 1999

ROUND-UP READY CORN UNDER ATTACK IN CALIFORNIA

Lodi, California - In the early morning darkness of California's central valley, two seperate actions were taken to fight the deadly scourge of genetic engineering. One group, known as the Lodi Loppers, attacked a comercial crop of DeKalb's Round-up Ready corn, the activists were able to destroy approximately one acre of this heinous bio-hazard.

In a separate action a group known as the Cropatistas laid waste to just over one acre of Seed-Tech's Round-up Ready corn. These actions were taken in order to show the Biotech industry in general, and Monsanto in particular, that these genetically engineered crops are not wanted in the U.S. and that Californians will use any means neccessary to eradicate this menace.

Round-Up, manufactured by Monsanto, is the largest selling herbicide in the world. This type of herbicide is one of the most common causes of pesticide-related illness among agricultural workers. Now Monsanto has genetically engineered crops such as corn, cotton, and soy beans to be resistant to huge amounts of this deadly chemical. This technology is a total scam; farmers are told that they will only have to spray their crops once per year but recent research has shown that they are needing to spray three and four times a year. While the Round-Up Ready crops withstand increased applications of this deadly herbicide, non-target species, agricultural workers and the people who eat these crops have no resistance and therefore suffer the dire consequnces of this corporate profiteering.

This action was taken to send a solidarity message to the organic farmers around the world who are resisting the genetic monster. Particularly, the millions of Indian farmers who are leading by example with Operation Cremate Monsanto, English activists who started the genetiX snowball campaign, and the Lincolnshire Loppers (distant cousins of the Lodi Loppers). These actions have shown that massive direct action can halt this biotech nightmare.

Being that this was the first commercial genetically engineered crop pull in the United States, it should be made clear that this action was not targeting farmers. In fact, farmers are held hostage by biotech corporations and this action sends a direct message that any genetically engineered organisms released into the environment are a bio-hazard and must be destroyed.

More importantly, this action is meant to show that we can resist corporations and take the power back in our lives. As Americans, we must take responsiblity for allowing genetic engineering to grow like it has, since we are in the belly of the biotech beast. By pulling their crops the industry has been put on notice that it can no longer expect "business-as-usual" in the U.S., nor anywhere else in the world.

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Genetically-Engineered Test Crops Decontaminated in California

Communique From the California Croppers, July 27,1999

The California Croppers returned to the University of California--Berkeley's (UCB) Gil Tract to follow through on a promise. In response to a $25 million (U.S.) research deal signed between UCB and biotechnology/agrochemical/pharmaceutical giant Novartis, the Croppers pulled up a genetically-engineered (GE)corn test crop on Thanksgiving,1998. Captain Swing sent out the following statement on behalf of these conservative gardeners: "The Croppers would like to make it clear to Novartis that we will take similar actions against any future biotech experiments."

Regrettably, UCB and Novartis proceeded with their reckless Frankenfood research plans, and so we organized a late-night tackle football game back at the Gil Tract. The final score after an enthusiastic match was Croppers 14, UCB 0, as 14 rows of corn used in GE research by two well-known scientists were uprooted. The name of our game may be called, "Preventive harvest!"

The crops are the work of Sarah Hake, director of the Plant Gene Expression Center (a collaboration of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and UCB's Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, where she is responsible for about 90 genetix researchers; (510) 559-5907) and biology professor Mike Freeling. Freeling is a receipient of the first grant to UC Berkeley from Novartis, and has taken money from other biotech corporations like Zeneca in the past. These two researchers were targeted because of their dirty work for the multinational corporate titan Novartis at a public institution. We wanted to send a clear message that this type of research is totally unacceptable in our community. This is not science, this is corporate profiteering masquerading as science through publicly-funded education. As long as UCB continues to push the biotech front, count on the Croppers to fight back.

This action is in observance of the "GE-Free July" called for by groups in Europe, and in solidarity with groups and individuals across the globe who are taking direct action against genetic-engineering. GE--the ultimate commodification of life itself.

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