Monsanto Plant Occupied In Brazil

On Jan 26th, 1200 workers from the radical Landless Workers Movement (MST), plus foreign activists, stormed a Monsanto biotech plant and threatened to camp out indefinitely in protest against genetically modified food. The unit is in Rio Grande do Sul, Southern Brazil, an area at the centre of the country’s battle over transgenics.

The unit was invaded just before midnight on Jan 25th. The protest was timed to coincide with the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland and a Brazilizan WEF counter conference.

Hundreds of families took over the research centre and warehouses. Graffiti on the walls included “The seed of death!” and “Monsanto is the end of farmers!”

“We’re staying here indefinitely,” said Solet Campolete, a local MST leader. “We want to make a statement ... these seeds trick farmers and create dependency on seeds produced by a big multinational.”