Monsanto Tries to gag GM Protests

Friends of the Earth has slammed US biotechnology giant Monsanto for trying to use the law to deter public debate and protest over genetically modified (GM) food.

Monsanto has already obtained an injunction against six named defendants accused of organising direct action against the company's GM crop test sites. It lost its bid to obtain a further order to force the activists' to hand over a mailing list of recipients of their Handbook For Action. The company is now asking the High Court to order the defendants to surrender the list. The Handbook is believed to have been sent to public figures including the Prime Minister, Prince Charles and even the Pope.

Monsanto's intention may be to target any individual or organisation who might be held to have "encouraged" direct action against GM crops, by for example publishing details of GM trial sites. In the USA such legal action is known as a "SLAPP" - Strategic Legal Action Against Public Participation - and is a regular tactic of large companies facing environmental protests.

Once again, Monsanto's use of these bully-boy tactics in Europe is backfiring. Friends of the Earth would consider such an order a gross intrusion of civil liberties and one which would bring our system of justice into disrepute. Ironically, Monsanto is a convicted "GM criminal", having been fined £17,000 in February for a major breach of consent at a GM trial site in Lincolnshire.