Members of the million-strong [Landless Rural Workers' Movement] in Brazil (MST) have invaded a farm owned by biotech giant Monsanto in the central state of Goiás.
The
Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra
produces the only organic seeds in
Latin America
It is the third protest of this kind against Monsanto property this year, and the company has urged the government to take back the land, warning that repeated invasions "damage the image of the country".
It has filed for a repossession order from a court but no decision has yet been announced.
There is torrid debate in Brazil over whether genetically modified (GM) crops should be let in amid mounting pressure on the government from the multinationals.
'Illegal'
Local newspaper reports say between 200 and 2,000 people invaded the 307-hectare farm in Santa Helena de Goiás on Monday morning.
Monsanto says the centre is used for research, training and seed-processing.
The MST says the centre is being used to grow and stockpile seeds, ready to flood the market if GM is legalised in Brazil. "It's an illegal centre," said one MST leader, Luiz Afonso Arantes.
"They might be producing seeds just for research, but they are also planting with the intention of reproducing," Agencia Folha quoted him as saying.
The MST has expressed fears that if GM is made legal in Brazil, big growers will force small farmers out of business.
But in a statement, Monsanto said: "Repeated invasions like this one, as well as compromising the progress of science in Brazil, damage the image of the country on international markets and threaten the development of national agriculture."
It said failing to crack down on land invasions jeopardised international investment in Brazil.
Brazil's new Workers' Party government has expressed sympathy with the aims of the huge MST, but the two have clashed over the pace of agrarian reforms.
GM leakage
There is furious debate over GM crops in Brazil. Many farmers argue that by allowing them in, Brazil will lose lucrative markets for non-GM foods.
Others fear the creeping introduction of GM crops to Brazil, in part through leakage from neighbouring countries.
Earlier this year the Brazilian Government agreed that a large soy crop in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul found to have been tainted by Argentine GM soy could be sold, but said the moratorium on GM crops there would be reintroduced next year.
source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2961284.stm 3jun03
About the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST)
The Brazilian Landless Workers Movement is the largest social movement in Latin America and one of the most successful grassroots movements in the world. Hundreds of thousands of landless peasants have taken onto themselves the task of carrying out a long-overdue land reform in a country mired by an overly skewed land distribution pattern. Less than 3% of the population owns two-thirds of Brasil's arable land.
While 60% of Brasil's farmland lies idle, 25 million peasants struggle to survive by working in temporary agricultural jobs. The Landless Workers' Movement (MST) is a response to these inequalities. In 1985, with the support of the Catholic Church, hundreds of landless rural Brasilians took over an unused plantation in the south of the country and successfully established a cooperative there. They gained title to the land in 1987. Today more than 250,000 families have won land titles to over 15 million acres after MST land takeovers.
In 1999 alone, 25,099 families occupied unproductive land. There are currently 71,472 families in encampments throughout Brazil awaiting government recognition.
The success of the MST lies in its ability to organize. Its members have not only managed to secure land, thereby guaranteeing food security for their families, but have come up with an alternative socio-economic development model that puts people before profits. This is transforming the face of Brasil's countryside and Brasilian politics at large.
These gains have not come without a cost, however. Violent clashes between the MST and police, as well as landowners, have become commonplace, claiming the lives of many peasants and their leaders.
In the past 10 years, more than 1000 people have been killed as a result of land conflicts in Brasil. Prior to August 1999, only 53 of the suspected murders have been brought to trial.
The MST has resisted this repression and has been able to gather support from a broad international network of human rights groups, religious organizations, and labor unions. It has received a number of international awards, including The Right Livelihood Award and an education award from UNICEF.
In order to maximize production, the MST has created 60 food cooperatives as well as a small agricultural industries. Their literacy program involves 600 educators who presently work with adults and adolescents. The movement also monitors 1,000 primary schools in their settlements, in which 2,000 teachers work with about 50,000 kids.
source: http://www.mstbrazil.org 3jun03
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