Lodi resistant crops

[EWerb at aol.com]

i offer this as an intellectual discussion-piece

i wonder how many of these experimental plots are around ventura county...

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1999 11:09:24 PDT
From: LodiLopper Cropatistas <cropatistas at hotmail.com>

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 seperate 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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