German action forced to stop

Activists in Germany were forced to stop a blockade against the GE soya freighter 'Perast' which is carrying 26,000 tons of GE soya from Argentina this afternoon as two of our inflatables were destroyed, and the activists' lives endangered. The ship has docked in the port of Brake/Niedersachsen despite the valiant attempts of our volunteers and activists, who had to stop their protest when one of the inflatables sank.

"The behaviour of the captain is totally unjustified," said Christoph Then, our GE expert in Germany. "Is the GE industry going to ride roughshod over the consumer the way it has done today to Greenpeace? Genetic engineering is being forced onto the German market. These protests against GE crops will continue."

Today's protest against the ship started peacefully enough this morning with 30 activists in nine inflatables following the freighter up the River Weser. They fastened a 25 metre-long banner to the hull of the ship with the banner 'GE Soya: not safe, not needed, not wanted'.

The ship is carrying up to 26,000 tons of GE soya from Argentina, which is intended for the German animal feed market. The German animal feed manufacturers are currently trying to prevent the development of GE free markets. However we are demanding that GE free crops should be readily available to farmers at standard prices as an alternative to this contaminated feed.

"The cultivation and import of GE soya must be stopped," said our GE campaigner Ulrike Brendel in Brake." Many companies are refusing to supply GE free animal feed. They are ignoring consumers' interests, in addition to supporting the massive cultivation of GE plants abroad. Cultivation of GE Soya in the U.S. and Argentina has already resulted in superweeds, which require ever more poisonous pesticides. The broad application of these pesticides has already led to damaging health impacts within the Argentinean population."

The soya from Argentina is supplied to German animal feed manufacturers, for example the Raiffeisen Partnership, which then sells the GE Soya to farmers. The majority of farmers have rejected GE animal feed, but there are hardly any alternatives. In January, the Raiffeisen Partnership announced that they would only offer GE free animal feed in the future as GE free is regarded as being a niche product and therefore too expensive.

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