genetic engineering


local and national features

Apr 22 2008
Marathon Monday Banner Drops Target Menino to Stop the Biolab

BOSTON--On April 21, 2008, Marathon Monday, activists around the city participated in direct action to publicly confront Mayor Menino about the proposed Biosafety Level 4 Lab in Roxbury, by hanging numerous banners along the marathon route, including one in Copley Square near the finish line, reading: "Menino: Residents Say No Biolab."

Apr 13 2007
BioJustice 2007 to Hit Boston!!

The biotech industry [Biotech Industry Organization, BIO] is bringing thousands of executives, lawyers, public relations people and corporate scientists to Boston in early May to promote their agenda of genetically engineered food, unaffordable high-tech medicines and dangerous 'biodefense' research that increases the threat of new biological weapons. Through parades, rallies, educational events and publications, music, a free health care clinic and free daily non-GMO meals, Biojustice 2007 will dramatize popular resistance to this agenda and highlight a wealth of community-based alternatives. Read More & Schedule>> | Audio Report by Homefries

See also: biodev.org | biojustice2007.org

Jan 22 2007
BioJustice 2007: Organizing Gets Underway

On Saturday, January 20th, around thirty people gathered to plan a week of activities in protest of an upcoming meeting of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). In May, BIO will convene in downtown Boston; organizers anticipate a large, energetic counter-convergence involving many factions of the movement against biotechnology.

Nov 29 2006
MODIFY THIS! BIOTECH SPREADS TO AZ

Impacts of Biotechnology to be Examined at Conference before Grand Opening of New BIO5 Institute

Oct 23 2006
CONFLUENCE: India and the Battle Against Biotechnology: Anuradha Mittal Interview

Anuradha Mittal is the director of the Oakland Institute, a California-based research and education institution. She is an expert on trade, agriculture and development in India (her native country) and globally. Confluence had a chance to talk to her at the Reclaim the Commons events last April. See Related: GM Cotton Disaster in India

May 18 2006
BU Accuses Bio-Lab Oppenents of Misinformation & Unwarranted Disruptions

From Micah Lee: The following is a letter sent to my parents and carbon-copied to me by Joseph Mercurio, the Executive Vice President of Boston University, followed by my response. If you have any questions, please contact me. Feel free to publish my letter, and feel free to publish the letter that Mr. Mercurio sent to my parents.

Background: On Thursday, April 27, three individuals concerned with the threat posed to the Boston area by Boston University’s proposed Level 4 Biolab, funded by a $128 million grant from the National Institute of Health using Department of Homeland Security money, spoke out during the inaugural ceremony of BU’s tenth president, Robert Brown. Read Full Report

Operation: Over! high school speaking tour

Update: Community Residents Sue to Stop BU's Bio-Lab

Apr 05 2006
Reclaim The Commons! Convergence in Chicago, April 8th - 10th!

Come join a movement about reclaiming – safe and healthy food! sustainable farms! access to healthcare! our genes! the right to save and plant seeds! community garden space! science in the public interest! the forests! intact ecosystems! the genetic integrity of all life! biodiversity! human rights for Global South farmers! a world free of genetically engineered bioweapons!

The Biotech Industry Organization (BIO) is coming to Chicago this April for their annual international convention and PR Extravaganza – BIO 2006. BIO is an organization of the world’s biggest agribusiness, pharmaceutical and bioweapons corporations.

Reclaim The Commons is responding with three days of events, from Saturday April 8th to Monday April 10th, to educate, inform and link together people and movements that are working to reclaim our public space and common heritage from transnational biotech corporate interests. Please join Reclaim The Commons in Chicago -- check out the schedule of events here!

see also: BioETHICS 2006, AlterCampagne, biodev and BioTech IMC

Apr 05 2006
Concerned citizens "die" at BU biolab site

A crowd of people gathered outside the site of BU's proposed biolab late Tuesday afternoon and fell down "dead," faces streaked with fake blood. "We wanted to show the public what an outbreak might look," said Derek Garcia, a Boston-area resident. The street theater, which was staged by anti-biolab protestors, was intended to draw attention to the dangers of placing a Biosafety Level 4 (BSL4) facility in the middle of a densely-populated urban area. Participants included members of the direct action campaign Operation: Over, people from the Coalition to Stop the Bioterrorism Lab, and members of the Green-Rainbow Party.

Feb 23 2006
Prospective BU Students Informed of Biolab During Campus Tours

Seven Boston University (BU) campus tours were interrupted today by members of Operation: Over to inform the prospective students about BU’s proposed BioSafety Level 4 (BSL-4) lab in Roxbury. These interruptions were intended to promote the boycott of BU that Operation: Over has called. The boycott is calling for high school students who are considering attending BU to reconsider, on the grounds that their tuition money will go towards funding the proposed BSL-4 lab, which will be built in a densely populated, low-income community of color against its wishes.

Jun 21 2005
Devastating the BioConference

BioDemocracy 2005 - From June 19 to June 22, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) -- is holding its annual international convention in downtown Philadelphia. In response: Activists in Philadelphia and throughout the East Coast are hard at work mobilizing a diverse smorgasbord of activities to challenge the biotech industry with our own vision of peaceful, sustainable and GE-free grassroots democracy.

Radio
Photos: 1, 2
Video: 1
Audio: Dozens of workshops, screenings, and lectures took place during the BioDemocracy conve rgence. Independent journalists have recorded the very best of these important sources of information that highlight the current dangers Biotech poses and the mounting resistance. - Corruption of Science Panel - Biotech Corporations and Global Trade - GMO's in Latin America - Biotechnology in the Global South - Communities Resisting Genetic Engineering - Ignacio Chapela @ Reclaim the Commons - More audio from morning rally at biodev - Audio from morning biotech - Philly jdc - GENETICALLY ENGINEERED TREES / TALKS AT BIO-DESTRUCTION CONFERENCE - Audio from BioDemocracy teach-in in Philadelphia

[ Philadelphia IMC || Breaking News for 6/21/05 ]

Feb 21 2005
BIODEMOCRACY 2005: Reclaim the Commons!

Call to Action: Converge in Philadelphia, June 18th to 21st, 2005

CALLING ON ALL PEOPLE who resent the demise of democracy and hold to the promise of authentic popular empowerment! All who dare to paint poems of resistance on walls of oppression, dance in city streets in defiance of police states, and plant seeds of sedition in the shadows of Empire: come to Philadelphia! As the world's leading agents of eco-devastation and medical malpractice meet here in June, we cannot stand quiet. Join us to challenge the corporate crime, poisons for profit, and flagrant lies of the biotechnology industry, at the time of their annual international convention, with a creative uprising for truth, life and justice!

RECLAIM THE COMMONS! We recall a custom much older than two-party Republics, in which croplands, grazing land and forests were a public domain that benefited the whole community and belonged exclusively to no one. In today's global society, our commons encompass the biological strata that sustain life on earth --- air, water, food, medicine, energy, biodiversity -- plus the means of communication, education and transit that connect us culturally. Today, to a degree unprecedented in human history, corporations have seized this public wealth and privatized it to reap growing profits for a small and ever-shrinking elite. As public access to and control over the commons has eroded, so has true democracy. For democracy to thrive, for racial, economic, social and environmental justice to take deep root, and for sustainability to flourish ... we must reclaim our commons!

Check these websites in the coming months: [ www.reclaimthecommons.net I www.biodev.org I www.phillyimc.org I biotech.indymedia.org ]

Jan 26 2005
Dispute Over Who Blocked Street First On June 8th- Police, or Protesters?

"Were you at the 2004 Biotech Protest in San Francisco on June 8th? Were you there early in the morning, that is prior to 7:00am? Do you remember the streets, in particular, 4th coming south from Mission down to Howard, being blocked off by the police? And/or do you remember seeing 3rd being blocked going north to Howard? A number of protesters are still facing charges for 'willfully and substantially blocking the free passage' of others when they sat down or stood in the intersections of 4th and Howard and at 3rd and Howard." The legal team for the protesters who were arrested on the morning of June 8th, 2004 at the Reclaim the Commons "Shut Down San Francisco" protest are seeking witnesses for this case whose outcome, they think, will set a precedent on protest in SF.
Read More On Indybay's Globalization Page | Indybay coverage of the protests in the morning of June 8th.

Nov 30 2004
Central Oregon Contaminated With Unapproved Creeping Bentgrass - Comment Deadline Thursday

Oregon's first publicly acknowledged contamination by a genetically engineered organism occurs in Madras area from Roundup Herbicide resistant Creeping Bentgrass destined to be used on 17,000 golf courses in the US. This is a product we do not need, it is an aggressively spread plant either through pollen or vegatatively through its rhizomes and easily crosses with many other grasses. This GE grass threatens to destroy the 3rd largest agricultural market in Oregon - our Willamette valley grass seed industry. The comment period was extended to December 2nd, this Thursday, possibly to allow the industry to catch up to the nearly 700 comments we've helped generate so far. If you are reading this, please send in your comments. read more >>

[ NW Resistance Against Genetic Engineering ]

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