A new force stopping ecocide that is more controversial than tree spiking and which makes monkeywrenching looks like child' s play is making its way across the Atlantic. Put down those tripod poles, lay down that monkeywrench, sit back and relax. Help is on the way. At risk of giving a heads-up to law enforcement, we' d be doing a disservice to the Earth First! movement by not reporting on the latest breed of our very own Aikido warriors - the gnomes. Their stature alone is intimidating; much havoc can be wrought three apples high off the ground.
In March a troop of incensed gnomes entered bio-tech giant AgrEvo' s experimental crop of oilseed rape in Fife, Scotland and painted a large red X across the field before placing "biohazard" placards on the nearby road. "It' s time you humans woke up to the dangers of this technology," said UnGnome, a spokesgnome for the Human GeneGnome Project. "We have no option but to oppose the genetic experiment, as gnomes of good conscience."
The global resistance to the nascent science of genetic engineering arises from complex concerns. Multinational corporations are limiting the gene pools of available crops, saturating our fields with pesticides and patenting life. Meanwhile, they introduce foreign genetic "pollution" into wild flora and fauna, affecting unintended target organisms as experiments leave controlled laboratories and enter the natural world. Multinational companies have invested heavily in research and are rushing products to the market as soon as they have an organism which has the desired, financially favorable traits. Gnome Chomsky warned, "All [the biotech companies' ] talk of enhancing food production is nothing more than a smokescreen for their experiments. Identical claims were made for the mass use of pesticides and fertilizers years ago. Irreversible damage may be done to the environment as these companies ' engineer' that which they don' t understand simply in the interests of profit."
In late March, a coalition of 50 or so people and gnomes held a protest march to the site of AgrEvo' s UK oilseed rape test crop near Cupar. Under the gaze of local police, the demonstrators pulled the experimental plants from the ground. Others decorated the field with a banner reading, "Stop The Crop," placards declaring the site a biohazard and a Frankenstein scarecrow.
Across the Irish Sea, gardening with Monsanto is a national pastime. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the same folks who brought us Agent Orange, dioxin, Nutrasweet and bovine growth hormone are testing sugar beets that have been altered to resist the herbicide RoundUp. Should the altered beet enter the market, farmers planting the engineered seeds would have to pay a technology fee to Monsanto and would be required to use Monsanto' s weed-killer. Monsanto started planting in early April, about the same time a High Court judicial review on the planting started. Apparently Monsanto isn' t concerned about pre-empting the court a little, since it' s confident it will win the case.
Elsewhere in Europe, three French farmers who destroyed five tons of biotech multinational Novartis' genetically engineered maize were less lucky than their gnome counterparts and have been handed stiff sentences: Rene Reisel and Jose Bove face eight months suspended imprisonment and Francis Roux five months. They are also required to pay Novartis 500,000 francs damages.
With a record of dangerously misleading research and an atrocious environmental record under its belt, researchers at Monsanto might do good to sleep with one eye watching over their test sites. To learn more about genetic engineering in the UK contact Genetic Concern, Room 13, 24-26, Dame St., Dublin 2, Ireland; 353-1-670 5606, fax: 353-1-670 5561; ge_campaign@geocities.com. The Gnome Nation can be reached c/o Fife EF!, 91 South St., St. Andrews, Fife KY169Q, Scotland.
ASEED Europe in Amsterdam is compiling an activist guide on the genetics superpower Monsanto. Contact them at POB 92066, 1090 AB, Amsterdam, Netherlands; e-mail: aseedeur@antenna.nl.