Gateway Green Alliance
P.O. Box 8094, St. Louis MO 63156
For immediate release: May 1, 2003
Concern with GM Hits Monsanto’s Home Town
FARMERS OPPOSED TO GM WHEAT COMING TO ST. LOUIS
May 1, 2003. St. Louis, Missouri. Farmers, scientists, environmentalists
and civil rights activists will gather in St. Louis immediately prior to the
World Agricultural Forum (WAF) to hear concerns with genetic engineering.
The three day gathering in opposition to biotechnology will culminate with a
protest at the WAF.
There is widespread opposition in the northern US and Canada to the
introduction of Roundup Ready wheat, a genetically modified (GM) crop
Monsanto hopes to market. Farmers are concerned that global opposition will
prevent them from selling GM wheat on the international market. Candidates
for pubic office are campaigning on opposition to the introduction of GM
wheat.
“Millers would have to assume segregation of the types of wheat, which would
be almost impossible,” observes George Naylor, President of the National
Family Farm Coalition. Naylor, an Iowa farmer who will be at the St. Louis
protest, says “Just like soybeans, conventional and the Roundup Ready wheat
varieties look identical and cross contamination could happen on the farm or
anywhere seeds are processed or stored. It’s clear that most of the soybean
supply is contaminated with genetically modified seeds. Only thorough
testing of a particular batch could determine the extent of contamination for
that batch — not good news for consumers or farmers like myself not wanting
to use genetically modified crops.”
Naylor will speak in St. Louis this May 16 – 18 at the 7th International
Gathering on Biodevastation. The theme of the event is “Genetic
Engineering: A Technology of Corporate Control.” Subtitled “A Forum on
Environmental Racism, Biowarfare and Environmental Racism,” the three day
gathering is hosted by the Gateway Green Alliance, which has addressed issues
of toxins in St. Louis since 1990.
The opening panel of Biodevastation is “The International Threat to Farms and
Farmers.” It will highlight the destructive impact of corporate policies,
including those of Monsanto, on farms and farmers throughout North America
and the world. The panel will include:
* Percy Schmeiser, the Canadian farmer who was sued by Monsanto for the
“crime” of having his canola crop contaminated by the company’s genetically
engineered product. Schmeiser is pursuing the case, and has appealed to the
Canadian Supreme Court.
* Felder Freeman, an agricultural specialist working in the South Carolina
office of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, which works to help
African-American farmers stay on their land by forming agricultural
cooperatives and has developed an interest in organic agriculture.
* Lawrence Tsimese of the Agricultural Reform Movement in Ghana, who will
speak on the growing resistance to genetically modified crops by African
farmers.
* George Naylor, who is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Monsanto and other
biotech companies dealing with the negative economic impacts of genetically
modified crops on family farmers.
Other Biodevastation panels will cover “Environmental Racism,” “Biowarfare ,”
“Globalization, Food Imperialism & War” and “Crop Contamination & the Future
of Indigenous Agriculture.”
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