"El campo no aguanta mas!"

The countryside cannot take it anymore! We start each meeting with a phrase in Spanish that someone learned the previous day, to keep us motivated.

The motivational phrase is introduced and then we all repeat it, sports-team style. This ritual was the brainchild of Gerard Greenfield, GE campaigner for Greenpeace International, who must have spent some time as a kindergarten teacher or football coach.

Today's phrase was introduced by Gerard. He learned it at a meeting of a coalition of campesinos, who have adopted it as their slogan. It is a reference to the liberalising of agricultural policies led by the WTO, a reference to the spread of contamination by genetically engineered species, as happened recently with maize in Mexico.

Yesterdays phrase was "El amo biodiesel", introduced by Ruth Ramos, our super-efficient logistics person here in Cancun. Ruth has the benefit of Spanish as her native tongue. She had spent part of the day with the Rolling Sunlight, Greenpeace's solar truck. It runs on biodiesel. The smell still makes her a little sick.