Movimento Verde Eufémia

recebemos este comunicado:

2 meses passados sobre a primeira acção de desobediência civil contra os transgénicos em Portugal, foi publicado na internet um documentário de cerca de 12 minutos, com novas imagens sobre a acção que mostram uma acção não-violenta e simbólica.

A acção do Movimento Verde Eufémia em Silves, no passado dia 17 de Agosto, trouxe a atenção para o problema do cultivo de transgénicos na agricultura portuguesa. Contudo, de uma forma geral, a comunicação social apresentou apenas uma perspectiva parcial desta acção política, classificando-a como um acto de violência e vandalismo perante um agricultor indefeso.

Um vídeo lançado hoje na internet mostra uma outra perspectiva da acção. Nas imagens vêm-se activistas a evitar agressões dos agricultores e a tentar pacificar os conflitos que se criaram. Estas imagens são o reflexo dos dois princípios inscritos que os activistas anunciaram: a não-violência em relação a pessoas e uma atitude que visa a atenuação dos conflitos.

O filme mostra também que há vários activistas que participaram na acção sem cobrir o rosto, assumindo publicamente o seu acto na defesa do bem comum, num acto político que consideraram ser tão justo quanto necessário.

As imagens finais são prova do simbolismo do acto de desobediência civil em Silves, que afectou menos de 1 hectare de uma propriedade com mais de 70 hectares de monocultivo intensivo de milho (dos quais 51 hectares eram de milho transgénico). Ao contrário da imagem que a comunicação social veiculou, o modo de subsistência do empresário agrícola José Menezes não foi de todo posto em causa. Por outro lado, na altura da acção, os participantes no protesto fizeram uma oferta de milho biológico suficiente para recultivar os 51 hectares de milho transgénico, proposta essa que foi rejeitada pelo proprietário.

O filme está disponível em português e inglês para streaming e download em http://ogm.blip.tv/ O vídeo está publicado ao abrigo de uma licença CreativeCommons-NonCommercial que não permite a reedição, mas permite a distribuição gratuita e exibição para fins não comerciais.

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Formatos disponiveis: arquivo XviD (194mb), Flash Video (28mb)

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We received this press release:2 months after the first act of civil disobedience against genetic modified organisms in Portugal, it was published on the Internet a documentary of about 12 minutes, with new images on the action that show it as non-violent and symbolic.

The action of the Movimento Verde Eufémia in Silves, on August 17, brought attention to the problem of growing transgenic in Portuguese agriculture. However, in general, the media presented only a partial view of this political action, classifying it as an act of violence and vandalism against a farmer without defense.

A video released today on the Internet shows a different view of the action. On the images one can see activists preventing attacks of farmers and trying to pacify the conflicts that were created. These images are a reflection of the two principles that the activists announced: the non-violence on people and an attitude that seeks to mitigate the conflicts.

The film also shows that there are several activists who participated in the action without covering the face, assuming their act publicly in defense of the common good, in a political act to be considered as fair as necessary.

The final images are proof of symbolism of the act of civil disobedience in Silves, which affected less than 1 hectare of a property with more than 70 hectares of intensive monoculture of corn (of which 51 hectares were of transgenic corn). Unlike the image that the media transmitted, the way of living of the farmer Jose Menezes was not at all threatened. Moreover, at the time of the action, participants in the protest made an offer of organic corn sufficient to re cultivate the 51 hectares of transgenic corn, and this proposal was rejected by the owner.

The film is available in Portuguese and English for streaming and download at http:// ogm.blip.tv / The video is published under a license CreativeCommons - NonCommercial that does not allow reprint, but allows free distribution and exhibition for non-commercial purposes.

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Formats available: XviD file (194mb), Flash Video (28mb)

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Este fim-de-semana seguranças da Syngenta (a mesma que organizou o “dia de campo” em Silves) assassinaram activistas da Via Campesina que protestavam contra campo de teste de transgénicos.

Artigos de imprensa online.

This weekend security guards from Syngenta (same company as in corn field where MVE action took place) killed activists that were demonstrating against GMO test field.

Press articles online.

Duas pessoas morreram em um conflito ocorrido ontem entre seguranças e trabalhadores rurais na fazenda experimental de soja e milho transgênicos da multinacional Syngenta, em Santa Tereza do Oeste, no interior do Paraná. De acordo com a Agência Brasil, outras pessoas ficaram feridas, algumas em estado grave. A Via Campesina, onde militava uma das vítimas fatais, Valmir Mota, relatou à Agência Brasil que “uma milícia de 40 pistoleiros” atacou o acampamento de sem-terra montado na fazenda experimental. Mota teria sido executado com dois tiros e outros seis sem-terra teriam sido feridos.

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Já estão disponíveis online mais digitalizações dos jornais e revistas que escreveram sobre a acção do MVE ou sobre o tema transgénicos.

There’s more newspaper scans online, from the ones that wrote about MVE’s action or about GMO’s.

This is an external link, and at there more images will be made available in the future.

http://picasaweb.google.com/verdeeufemia

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For the ones that don’t understand Portuguese language, we are working on translations

Meanwhile you have access to all the posts with english content by click on “english” under “categories” on the right menu.

This link shows a clip of different news published online in english language (only 3 from SIC now):

OnlinePress clip

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Aqui estão todos os clips vídeo online. Este post incluí um player que, dinamicamente, mostrará sempre todos os mais recentes videos.
Here you can see all video clips online. This post includes a player that will be updated with all the most recent videos.

Para mudar de clip basta carregar nos dois triângulos ao lado do botão “play”, tudo isto no canto inferior esquerdo.
Para fazer download dos videos ou ver uma listagem de todos, tem apenas que carregar em mais videos no canto direito

To change clip you can press the 2 triangles next to “play”. To download or to see a list of all videos, you can press on “mais videos” on the right bottom corner

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 Reactions to the statements of the ministry of Agriculture and Internal Administration

 We, as Movimento Verde Eufémia, are glad to see that our action is provoking a lot of reactions within the political field. However, it is important to state that the ministry of Agriculture - taking a completely outbalanced Pro GMO position - seems not to be very willing to open a true participative debate on the issue of GMOs. This goes hand in hand with the statements of the ministry of Internal affairs aiming to criminalize a group of activists that have no other agenda than creating a space in the debate for critical positions on GMOs coming from all corners of civil society. We ask the question, whose interests are being served?

It is impossible to understand that within the discourse of the minister of Agriculture there is not the slightest nuance or doubt that takes into consideration the threats of GM technology in agriculture pointed out by numerous actors in the scientific community, which makes clear that science is at least divided on the matter (see references below). How could than a minister of Agriculture, carrying responsibility for the health of the people which he is supposed to represent, flagrantly state that “there exists no problem, this is scientifically proven”(Público, 21-08-07). The minister has no right whatsoever to claim the truth on the matter for himself, while completely ignoring a clearly existing scientific disconsensus. On the regional and local governmental level those risks are in fact often well understood. The whole Algarve region, which has for that reason been declared as GMO Free Zone by the Junta Metropolitana do Algarve in 2004 serves as a good example for this matter. This political statement was the direct result of associations within civil society defending their ecological rights and health as consumers. Is the cabinet of the minister so far away from its citizens that those disconcerting voices do not reach the ears of Jaime Silva? Or does he just like to play solo? We are wondering whose interests the ministry is serving anyways. Is the ministry protecting its citizens or is it serving the interest of Agro-Biotechnological industry lobby?

Another additional attempt to prevent the initiation of any debate comes from the corner of the Ministry of Internal Administration. The minister of IA keeps up a constant discourse aiming to criminalize the action in all its aspects. It should be clear by now that through the communiqués that we have sent that the destruction of private property is no end in itself. Rui Pereira categorizes the action as “ecoterrorism soft” (SIC, Noticias à noite). But while our interests merely involve bringing attention to the risks connected with GMOs, the only fundamentalist in the debate can be identified as his colleague Jaime Silva. Our interests reveal themselves even more clearly through the statements of Costa Lima, spokesperson of the general command of the police forces: “it was unnecessary to apply force, because when the police [being absolutely outnumbered] ordered to stop the action of destruction, the activists obeyed without showing resistance” (Diario de Noticias, 21-08-07).

It should be clear that it would be too easy to label us as terrorists. Unfortunately, this action involving part of the destruction of the first GM field in the Algarve region, is what it takes to put a spotlight on the environmental, social and health risks that GMOs bring along. Also in the aftermath it became clear that hiding our identities was a necessary precaution to withstand to aggressive counter reaction of the state. We do consider any opinion, if it is well-founded, a valuable addition in the debate. We hope therefore that all actors in civil society who have been criticizing GMOs in the past will use this opportunity generated by the action of Verde Eufémia to make their voice being heard in all corners of society, apart from the fact whether they agree with the act of destroying a minor part of a GM field or not.

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We, as the “Verde Eufémia” Movement, would like to answer to some of the articles that have appeared in the national media concerning our action that involved the cutting down of a small portion of the first transgenic crop in the region of Algarve. We consider that the readers were deprived of some information, and some mistakes were created.

First of all, our decision to apply direct action and civil disobedience strategies, that can be considered as radical, can only be understood considering it within the context of the current situation regarding GMOs in Portugal.

The whole region of Algarve was in Portugal the first zone free of transgenics, after the declaration by the “Junta Metropolitana do Algarve”, in 2004. This means that all community councils in Algarve opposed themselves against the culture of GMO’s in agriculture. This measure was taken with strong support from local environmental groups, farmers and citizens. Even so, transgenic cultures were introduced in the region by the private enterprise of one farmer.

If the legal State is unable to protect the common good, we think that civilian movements need to organize themselves and act with conscience and responsibility, to re-establish the necessary order. In our view, all political and judicial measures in the attempt to defend the welfare, social and environmental rights of its citizens have been exhausted, which made us consider as a last option the application of strategies that go beyond legal boundaries of the state. Strategies of civil disobedience have thus become a necessary tool to make adequate changes.

In the history of GMOs, the policies and laws of the European Committee and Portuguese Government clearly haven’t been serving the interests of it’s citizens. The last community directive about the certification of Biologic Agriculture, allowed products to contain up to 0,9 % of transgenics. We consider this to be a violation of consumer rights, since this kind of certified products is the only warrant that consumers have in order to choose food free from GMOs. It has been proofed that these organisms are a threat to the health of its consumers, to the environment and that they compromise the social rights of the farmers that choose to plant GMO’s, as well as to who practices conventional and biologic farming.

On the publication “Organismos Geneticamente Modificados e Agricultura” (Azevedo, 2007), are numbered several independent studies that show:

- breaks in the production of transgenic cultures, compared to conventional ones, leading to the payment of fines by the biotechnology companies (Monsanto vs. US Farmers, Report from the Center for Food Safety- CFS, 2005);

- increase in the costs of production with the use of pesticides, during the appearance of resistant insects, super-plagues or secondary plagues (The Case for a GM-Free Sustainable World, Independent Science Panel, June 2003) and with the impossibility of storing seeds to the next years, making thus necessary to buy them yearly;

- increase in production costs for the conventional and biologic practices in order to stop the easy contamination bytransgenics (”Al grano; Impacto del Maiz trangénico em Espana”. Greenpeace and Amigos de la Tierra report, August 2003);

- fines and indictments imposed to farmers, by biotecnology companies, that saw they’re cultures contaminated by neighbor transgenic ones or for returning to conventional practices, after using geneticaly modified seeds (Monsanto vs. US Farmers, report from the Center for Food Safety- CFS, 2005);

- a decrease in the fertility, time span and even death of cattle fed with transgenic products (Mortality in Sheep Flocks after Grazing on Bt Cotton Dields Warangal District, Andhra Pradesh. Report of the Preliminary Assessment, April 2006).

This facts show us that Portugal and EU policies referring to the production and commerce of transgenics serve, in our view, the interests of the GMO industry and not of the citizens that they should protect.

It is also necessary to underline some of the statements made by the farmer José Menezes that declared himself to “starve to death” if his field was to be cut down. Some corrections are necessary. The farmer is known for using for large scale intensive farming for several years, and of planting GMOs since 1 year only. This is in fact a contradiction, since the large majority of farmers in Portugal uses traditional and small scale methods, and also self-support themselves.

We remind that the destroyed surface certainly hasn’t exceeded 1 hectare in a field of 50 hectares, so the loss of profit won’t weaken his future survival. It’s also important to remind that in the several attempts to establish a conversation with the farmer, biological seeds were offered to him, in order for him to replant all his production, in case he wants to abandon transgenic cultures.

Furthermore, we don’t understand in what facts are based the allegations in which some of the protesters had used physic violence against the farmer.

We repeat, just like in our first press release, that we have no intention of harming the farmer in any way, renouncing totally and kind of physical aggression. Although it is possible to understand to some extent the emotional reaction by the farmer and his colleagues during the action, in the attempt to protect his cultivated property from being cut-down, it was the activists that were physically attacked by the farmers in a violent way, as we can see in the television filming. Our principles of action as Verde Eufémia Movement are clear: a non-violent attitude towards living beings and strategies and a behaviour based on a de-escalatory attitude during the action. In this way we deny that any kind of physical violence has been applied by any of the activists.

We also would like to remember the words of the GNR (national guard) commander - Bengala, that confirmed that “all went along in a civilized way”. We would like to compliment the adequate way in which the authorities acted after their arrival on the site, after the cut-down and faced with activists leaving the field by their own initiative, while being attacked by the farmers.

We remind that there is support from the local population and biological farmers to the intention of keeping the region of Algarve free from transgenic contamination.

Hopefully, after this reaction, some details have been made clear. After this press release, we also hope that more citizens stand up in our name and cut-down other transgenic fields in Portugal.

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Coisas publicadas online - Things Online published
A acção contada por alguns jornais - The action on several newspapers:

Download scans:
CM: 1,2 | DN: 1,2 | JN: 1,2 | P: 1,2

Letras gordas - Headlines

• Correio da manhã - Diana Ramos com Lusa
  • Foto na Capa
  • “Manifestantes destroem milho transgénico”
  • “Cerca de uma centena de pessoas invade plantação em Silves”
  • Página 19
  • “Algarve - Proprietário impotente perante vandalização”
  • “Ataque ambientalista”
  • “Cerca de cem manifestantes destruíram uma plantação de milho transgénico numa herdade de Silves”
  • “É desta plantação que os meus filhos e mulher vivem”
  • “Os activistas foram expulsos da plantação pela GNR”
  • —
  • Picture on 1st page
  • “Demonstrators destroy transgenic corn”
  • “About one hundred people invade crop at Silves”
  • Page 19
  • “Algarve - Owner powerless before vandalization”
  • “Environmentalist attack”
  • “About one hundred demonstrators destroyed a transgenic corn plantation in a homestead at Silves”
  • “It’s out of this plantation that my children and wife survive”
  • “The demonstrators were expelled from the plantation by the GNR (police)”

(more…)

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Action of civil disobedience against the first transgenic field in the GMO Free Zone of the Algarve

On the 17th of august the “Movimento Verde Eufémia” will go into action of civil disobedience, aiming at the first transgenic field in the GMO Free Zone of the Algarve. We will go in the actual mowing of the crop. Our purpose is to re-establish the democratic, moral and ecological order, which is constantly undermined by the policies of the European Commission and the Portuguese government.

This year the first GMO field ever has been planted in the Algarve Region in Portugal. Already years before the planting of his GM corn there has been strong opposition from civil society against the cultivation of GMOs in the Algarve. This includes social and environmental organizations, farmers and a public opinion that is in general against the cultivation and consumption of GM crops. Also from the political field opposition was made. As a result the Algarve was the first GMO free zone in Portugal declared by the Junta Metropolitana do Algarve already in 2004. On the level of the municipalities over time motions have been passed rejecting the cultivation of GM crops on their territory.

The arguments against GMOs are situated on different levels. For the consumer, the few independent studies that were carried out, indicate that they can induce allergic reactions, cancer and other long term negative effects, which have not been studied profoundly yet. Introducing GM crops in agriculture produces effects that are irreversible. The modified genes quickly start appearing in other crops, on other field and in other species, a process which is impossible to prevent. Besides that the cultivation of transgenic may induce cumulative effects, since the appearance of weed resistant to herbicides and insects resistant to insecticides until the death of organisms that do not form any danger to the agricultural crops, going along with the appearance of multiple forms of ecological and instabilities. The major study about the effects of transgenic in the environment as published by the British government in 2003. It came to the conclusion that cultivating GMOs is a lot worse to wild life than conventional agriculture. North-American farmers that chose to cultivate GMOs already understood the disadvantages: higher expenses on seeds, more consumption of pesticides, closing international (and even local) markets, products that are less profitable because they are GMOs. Because of genetic contamination, biological farmers are forced to emigrate or change profession. Insurance companies are not willing to secure transgenic cultures because of the high risks involved. Lloyds, one of the major insurance companies allocated GMOs in the same financial risk level as acts of terrorism. The use of GMOs implies that farmers are forbidden to use second generation seeds produced by their own crop. This is an assertion for the seed selling companies to continue their business the next year. Already tens of farmers in the US have already been convicted in tribunal, having used second generation seeds without authorization.

Despite the strong opposition within layers of civil society and from local authorities against GMOs the policies of the Portuguese Government and the European Commission constantly disrespect the moral and democratic right of those opposing actors to ban GMOs from their fields and their plates.

For this reason an informal group of peasants, ecologists and concerned citizens have gathered to take direct action with the aim to re-establish the democratic, moral and ecological order. The movement that we are now starting will go under the name “Movimento Verde Eufémia”, in homage to the peasant struggle against the former Portuguese fascist regime.

The struggle of Caterina Eufémia and the peasant movement of which she was part aimed at defending the rights and the well-being of peasant communities. Our movement will continue this struggle in the context of new appearing threats, namely the agro-biotechnology sector and their powerful lobby.

On the 17th of august we will take action of civil disobedience, mowing the first GM field in the Algarve, located near the city of Silves with the purpose of keeping the Algarve a GMO free region. With this action we will exercise the right according to Article 66 of the constitution… The mowing will be supported by a parade to provide visibility to the action and will be with music, theatre and other artistic and political expressions. While this type of action, involving the mowing of a GM field, will be happening for the first time in Portugal, it will certainly not be an isolated case in Europe. Other groups have been mowing GM fields in several EU countries already. With this action we will follow their example to safeguard GMO Free Zones all over Europe.

We would like to state that we intent no harm to the farmer who for one or another reason chose to cultivate GM crop. Therefore, we propose the farmer to convert to organic farming. For this we offer organic corn seed for the area that is now being planted with GM corn.

We call upon associations within civil society and all concerned citizens to join this civil disobedience movement by mowing existing GM crops in the country. We want Portugal free of GMOs!

We invite the press and all interested people to be present at the meeting point just before the action.

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