Indymedia YorkGM-free Potatoes planted on Hull Trial Site
Posted April 21st, 2007 by yimc
Date:
21 Apr 2007
UPDATE: BASF have now cancelled this trial, though have not ruled out other sites.
Around 200 protestors in Hull marched, picnicked and planted GM-free potatoes at a site marked for the BASF trial crop. The picnic saw Hedon Against GM joined by people from all over the country and was widely viewed as a success. Protestors entered the field and planted organic potatoes as the police generally stood by and watched.
Indymedia feature about the trials and the protests | More information about the issues surrounding these trials on Mutatoes.org
Reports on the day:
[1],
[2],
[3],
[4] and
pictures
Comments
update
from SchNEWS (http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news585.htm#7):
17 April 2007, Kingston upon Hull. Vibrant young shoots of protest have sprouted, fertilized by the plans to grow mutant GM spuds in Britain again (See ScHNEWS 583). In a meticulously planned explosion of direct action, 150 anti-GM freaks, armed with shovels and organic spuds to plant, descended as one... on the wrong field! The theory ran that seeding the field with an uncontrolled number of non- GM spuds would invalidate the trial, but unfortunately the ground in question belonged to another farmer and was already sprouting a crop of entirely conventional beans.
OK, on the face of it a mistake of laughable proportions but the fact that this many people were willing to risk arrest to take part in GM direct action sends a clear message to BASF – the company behind the trials – that opposition to mutant food is as strong as ever.
Protestors blamed the government for not giving an accurate location for the trial. In the past, six figure grid references for crops have been given - pin-pointing trials to within 100m. This time, to muddy the waters the crop was only located within a 1km square. Sadly the last-ditch guesswork didn’t pay off.
A spokespud for the campaign put a brave face on the fiasco telling ScHNEWS, “While it is regrettable that the wrong site and farmer were targeted, we would also like to make it clear to the government and to industry that people will continue to disrupt the planting of GM crops despite the difficulties faced by this lack of full disclosure.” For more see www.mutatoes.org
A mistake of laughable proportions
It's not "on the face of it", it really was a mistake of laughable proportions. And no it's not the government's fault either.
The reaction of the protesters to the farmer whose bean crop was dug up and had potatoes planted in among it is as laughable as the rest of the farce.
These really were "rebels without a clue" and worse than that, rebels without the courage to stand up and apologise or to make restitution to those who were affected by the ludicrous actions of a mob. Everyone involved with this protest should feel one emotion, shame. Trying to pass this off as the fault of anyone other than the (dis)organisers of the action does one thing and one thing only. It discredits every single person involved.
Factually incorrect
The protestors did not dig up the farmers bean crop. The protestors have stood up and apologised to the farmer but also say "Despite a mistake being made we believe it was far better that we went ahead and challenged the GM trials than stood by doing nothing." http://www.mutatoes.org/pr006-Hullprotestorsdefiant.php