SAO PAULO - About 300 Brazilian women activists raided on Friday a research unit of U.S. agricultural biotech company Monsanto, destroying a tree nursery and an experimental field of genetically modified corn.
The group of activists protested the Brazilian government's decision last month to give clearance for two varieties of GMO corn for commercial use -- MON 810, produced by Monsanto, and Liberty Link, made by Germany's Bayer CropScience.
The temporary occupation of the facilities, located in Santa Cruz das Palmeiras, in Sao Paulo state, lasted around 30 minutes, a spokesman for Via Campesina, a group defending peasants and land reform, said by telephone.
"The authorization of these varieties shows once more that (President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's) government favors agribusiness and big foreign companies, abandoning land reform and family farming," Via Campesina said in a statement.
The invasion was one in a series planned through next week by the group to mark international women's day with a struggle against agribusiness and monoculture, the spokesman said.
Monsanto condemned the invasion in a statement, saying that "in a democratic regime, disagreements, ideological or not, should be expressed through legal ways."
The two varieties were the first GMO corn to receive final clearance for commercial use in Brazil. Monsanto soy and cotton GMO varieties have been legal in the country for several years.
Monsanto said small farmers could be among the most who benefit from biotechnology.
(Editing by John Picinich)
© Reuters 2008
