USA: Anti-Biotech Activists Shut Down Cargill Headquarters

WAYZATA, Minnesota -- Members of the Upper Midwest Resistance Against
Genetic Engineering (GrainRAGE) shut down the international headquarters of
Cargill today. Before employees arrived this morning, GrainRAGE members in
white biohazard suits and respirators blocked the road into the Cargill
compound with cars and their bodies. Two hours later, the blockade was
cleared, but no arrests were made. "We are following the lead of peasant
farmers around the world by acting in self defense against genetic
engineering and corporate agribusiness," said GrainRAGE member Foster
Wildness.

Cargill is one of the world's foremost proponents of genetic engineering.
It develops genetically modified organisms, and last September donated $10
million to the University of Minnesota for a plant genetics research
facility. Cargill also has ties to biotechnology leader Monsanto. Cargill
sold its international seed business to Monsanto in 1998 and has agreed to
manufacture commercial livestock and poultry feeds produced from Monsanto's
proprietary germplasm.

Scientists, farmers, and ecologists warn that biotechnology will raise
farmers' costs, destroy farm and natural ecosystems, and endanger human
health.

Cargill controls 45 percent of the global grain market, including more than
40 percent of US corn exports and a third of US soybean exports. Cargill is
also one of the world's largest producers and distributors of synthetic
fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers' groups around the world maintain that
they are being put out of business because agribusiness conglomerates,
including Cargill, now control the markets for both agricultural inputs and
products.

In the recent years, direct actions against corporate agribusiness and
genetic engineering have been on the rise. In late 1998, Indian farmers
burned Monsanto's genetically engineered cotton crops. One month later,
Indian farmers stormed Monsanto's offices and destroyed the company's
records. In France, members of the 20,000-strong Peasant Confederation
destroyed Novartis' genetically altered corn seed in January 1998 and
AGR-EVO genetic rice test plots in June 1999. Test crop trashings have also
become frequent in Britain and the United States. And just last month,
Greenpeace volunteers successfully boarded a barge carrying Cargill's
genetically modified soybeans and demanded that the vessel leave British
waters.

GrainRAGE is a network of people in the Upper Midwest who promote small scale organic agriculture and food self-sufficiency by attacking corporate agribusiness and all forms of biotechnology.

• 181 Food and Agriculture