800 PROTESTERS UPROOT BT-CORN IN THE PHILIPPINES

Masipag News & Views
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NEWS FLASH!

800 PROTESTERS UPROOT BT-CORN IN MINDANAO

About 800 farmers, church people, students and other members of the
civil society group bravely stormed Monsanto's experimental field in
southern Philippines uprooting all Bt-Corn plants this morning (Aug 29).

The "operation bunot (uproot)" took only five to 10 minutes leaving two
police officers helpless. No untoward incident happened.

"Faster! Faster!" were the shouts as the protesters hurriedly uproot the
genetically engineered corn in the 1,700 square-meter experimental field
of Monsanto's Agroseed in Maltana village, Tamapakan town of South
Cotabato province, Mindanao.

Around 100 indigenous Lumads also took part in the protest action, the
first of its kind in the countryís history of GMO protest.

Agroseed is currently conducting a multilocation open-field testing of
Bt-Corn in around 30 sites in Luzon and Mindanao amid cries of protests
from various sectors in the country.

In 1999, Monsanto ignored multisectoral opposition, including a series
of City Council resolutions, in General Santos City in Mindanao and
pushed through with the first open-field experiments of genetically
engineered crop in the country.

Bt-Corn contains gene from soil bacterium bacillus thuringiensis, a
toxin that makes this transgenic crop produce its own insecticide to
beat off corn borer. (MNV)

[Masipag News & Views is an occasional information release of the
Farmer Scientist Partnership for Development (MASIPAG). This report,
in whole or in part, could be freely published.]

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