Global Justice Ecology Project partners with Margaret Prescod’s Sojourner Truth show on KPFK–Pacifica Los Angeles radio show for a weekly Earth Minute on Tuesdays and a weekly 12 minute Environment Segment every Thursday. In this week’s Earth minute, Anne Petermann makes clear that, “if the government won’t stop GE trees, it appears some people are prepared take matters into their own hands.”
To listen to the Earth Minute, click here: http://bit.ly/IMCn71
The full text of this week’s Earth Minute:
In New Zealand, a field trial of genetically engineered trees was destroyed by protesters, who broke through two security perimeters to access them over Easter weekend. Damage was estimated at over $400,000 New Zealand dollars.
The field trial was planted last year by Scion, a forestry research venture that is partnered with US-based GE tree company ArborGen. ArborGen has petitioned the US government for permission to sell hundreds of millions of genetically engineered eucalyptus trees for planting across the US south.
But there is widespread public opposition to GE trees–which Scion clearly understood by their high level of security. GE trees are potentially disastrous, and once they escape into a natural forest, there is no calling them back.
The good news is there are no commercial-scale plantings of genetically engineered trees anywhere in the world, except for a small plantation in China. GE trees are still one disaster we can stop. And if the government won’t stop them, it appears some people are prepared take matters into their own hands.
For more information on GE trees, visit nogetrees.org.
For the earth minute and the sojourner truth show, this is Anne Petermann from Global Justice Ecology Project
