On Top Of The Crops

On the evening of Sunday June 21st, in full view of seven gardai and four security men, about 30 people invaded Monsanto's genetically engineered (GE) sugar beet trial in Arthurstown, Co, Wexford, and attempted to pull up what little remained of Monsanto's experiment, most of which had been anonymously sabotaged several nights earlier.

Though Monsanto subsequently downplayed the damage, it has been estimated that 80 percent of their GE plants were actually destroyed by this clandestine action, which, according to one close source, was inflicted by "a group of angry fairies wearing human beings' wellington boots".

As police chased around after the protesters, some 40 supporters and observers remained outside the barbed wire fence. They included Green Party MEP Nuala Ahern, Green TD John Gormley and Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins, who'd been speakers at a public talk on genetic engineering held earlier that evening in nearby Duncannon Fort.

Scrambling round after the men, women and children pulling up plants, the gardaí appeared embarrassed and awkward about having to stop several members of their own community from inflicting criminal damage. It was clear to everybody that these protesters were ordinary people, not marginalised "eco-warrior" types.

"Richie!," I heard a large garda roar at a local man who'd been one of the first to duck under the pulled-out fence and was therefore considered a ringleader. "You led them in here, now you lead them out!"

That was the second attempt to stop Richie. Hailing from the nearby town of New Ross, he'd already encountered the police an hour earlier, when he and John Seymour - a much loved and internationally-respected 84-year-old local poet, author and sustainable farmer - had been arrested for entering the field and pulling up plants. They had got to the test site ahead of the posse and decided to finish off "the fairies' work" while they were waiting. It has subsequently been learned that charges will not be pressed against the two men.

No other arrests were made, despite the fact that the protesters - including myself - remained on the test site for some time, sporadically pulling up Monsanto's GE plants, or surreptitiously grinding them under our heels, and passively resisting the guards' attempts to physically pull us out. Amid the freneticism of the richly absurd situation, I noticed a 10-year-old boy darting around pulling up plants; a teenage girl assailing the gardaí with a barrage of genetic engineering information which she'd picked up at the talk earlier on; and the twenty-something father of a young baby engaged in earnest debate with the guards about who was more criminal - bribe-receiving politicians or a bunch of people trying to stop a highly dangerous experiment?

"The corporations are the eco-terrorists, not us!" shouted the father.

Though the mood was tense, the event was remarkable for its lack of aggressive confrontation. Many of the protesters engaged the gardaí in conversation, explaining to them why it was urgent that the GE sugar beet be destroyed before it spread its genetic pollution to the soil, plants and general eco-system of the surrounding area. Others outlined Monsanto's attempts to impose itself upon Europe's agricultural economies, and how we risk losing our self-determination about what we eat if we let this giant American agri-chemical corporation into a monopolising position over our food supply.

Some of the guards expressed sympathy for these arguments, but drew attention to the compromised situation they had found themselves in, and continued to ask that we remove ourselves, especially now that we'd made our point.

During the fracas, Monsanto security men wearing army fatigues busily filmed the people involved, though they ran off across a field when confronted. (Earlier that day, Dubliners boarding a bus destined for the public talk and protest had also been filmed, this time by a man in a car.)

By the time we left the area only about 10 percent of Monsanto's crop was left standing. As I write, Monsanto's hired security men still guard what remains of the sugar beet trial, camping out in tents that are camouflaged with branches. The continued security presence seems rather pointless however, since the crop's value as a scientific experiment has been completely destroyed. n