permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: World Agriculture Forum conflict info
Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 18:53:30 -0700
From: Julia Negele <julia_negele@YAHOO.COM>
Reply-To: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group
<SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Hi,

I just did some web research on the World Agriculture Forum and the
Biodevastation conference that was organized in response.  The World
Agriculture Forum was organized by Monsanto (though the offical website
doesn't reveal this), in a similar style to the World Economic Forum and
World Water Forum, in efforts to promote the use of "Round Up Ready"
genetically modified wheat.  The Biodevastation/Biojustice conference is
the seventh annual event in an international grassroots series and it is
subtitled by its local sponsor, Gateway Green Alliance, as "A Forum on
Environmental Racism, World Agriculture and Biowarfare," who see it as
"a definitive event linking genetic engineering to discrimination
against communities of color."  It seems that 20 to 30 people have been
arrested (I was just informed by the St. Louis police that they all
posted bond and were released last night) and two known movement homes
were invaded in "pre-emptive raids" to preve nt their attendance at
Sunday's demonstration against the World Agricultural Forum. Others were
taken into custody while riding their bicycles to the BioDevastation
gathering at Forest Park Community College, and the police have left the
bicycles lying along the road. Sarah Bantz - organizer for MORAGE and a
speaker at the BioDevastation conference - was arrested for having a
container of Vitamin C capsules, which police are claiming to be an
illegal drug.
Some useful websites for more information on the convergence and arrests
are:
http://www.biodev.org/ (homepage of the organizers of the Biodevastion
convergence)
http://www.biodev.org/archives/000052.php (more specific info on the
convergence)
http://www.gatewaygreens.org/biodev7/waf.htm (homepage of the local
organizers)
http://stlouis.indymedia.org/ (St. Louis IndyMedia website, coverage of
arrests etc.)

The official website of the World Agriculture Forum is:
http://www.worldagforum.org/default.htm
Their website has information on the meeting in Missouri (which,
incidentally, was subtitled "A New Age in Agriculture: Working Together
to Create the Future and Disable the Barriers"), general descriptions of
the group's purpose (which is made out to sound very neutral and food
security oriented) as well as links to their Board of Directors and
Advisory Board (which is comprised of high level executives of
Anheuser-Busch, Monsanto, Dow Agro-Sciences, Nestle, IGA; also
represented are various agricultural schools, banks, government
agencies, NGOs and multilateral organizations, trade associations,
research and scientific organizations, and other industry)

I hope this information helps.

-Julia Negele

julia_negele@yahoo.com <mailto:julia_negele@yahoo.com>

--
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech