Seventh International Gathering on Biodevastation

Post-Gathering Report to Funders

 

Contact: Michael Allen, Projects Coordinator, Gateway Green Alliance

PO Box 8094; Saint Louis, MO 63156.

314-664-1199 or contact@gateway-greens.org

 

 

Report contents

1. Summary

2. Evaluation mechanisms

3. Attendance & audience

4. Goals achieved

5. Media coverage

6. Follow-up activities

7. Financial Report Summary

 

 

1. Summary

 

The Seventh International Gathering on Biodevastation, convened in St. Louis on May 16, 2003, served as a starting point for two major developments in the resistance to globalization and genetic engineering: the integration of the critique of environmental racism with the critique of genetic engineering; and the series of demonstrations that reached a stunning climax in Miami in November.  Throughout the course of the gathering, ideas about how the worldwide struggles of people of color and the disappearance of indigenous agricultures are intrinsically tied to genetic engineering as a corporate technology.  This is the first Biodevastation gathering to directly deal with these ideas, and marks a turning point for the discourse of resistance to genetic engineering.

The demonstration at the World Agricultural Forum during this gathering was the start to a series of demonstrations against the agricultural and trade injustices sustained by global corporations and governmental bodies.  The subsequent demonstrations in Sacramento, California (June), Cancun, Mexico (September) and finally in Miami, Florida (November) were inspired in many ways by the critical ideas developed at the Biodevastation gathering.

 

2. Evaluation mechanisms

 

We relied on several different evaluation mechanisms to determine the success of the Seventh International Gathering on Biodevastation, including:

  • General and specific comments made by participants to gathering organizers during and after the event;
  • A one-hour evaluation discussion following the public dinner at the gathering’s conclusion (Sunday, May 18), from which organizers took extensive notes;
  • Feedback solicited from speakers during and after the gathering;
  • Number of people in attendance;
  • Extent and type of media coverage;
  • An evaluation meeting held by the Genetic Engineering Action Project Committee of the Gateway Green Alliance;
  • New projects, partnerships and networks formed through the gathering;
  • The continuing discussion—in print media and at other events—of new analyses and theories of biotechnology brought forward during the Seventh International Gathering on Biodevastation.

 

3. Attendance & audience

 

            Over 3 million people in the St. Louis area heard or read about the gathering through extensive media coverage.  Approximately 700 people were a part of the events of the gathering, the picnic lunch in Tower Grove Park and final dinner, and the protest at the World Agricultural Forum.  The five panels attracted around 150 attendees each, and the total gathering attendance was roughly 270 people, including organizers and speakers.  The protest was attended by over 400 people.

 

 

4. Goals achieved

 

We set the following goals for the gathering:

  • Link the critique of biodevastation to critiques of environmental racism and warfare;
  • Directly challenge Monsanto and the World Agricultural Forum in their hometown;
  • Engage new groups of people in the resistance to genetic technologies;
  • Develop new strategies for presenting critical facts and ideas about genetic technologies to the public.

We achieved these goals through the gathering panel and workshop presentations, the protest and our post-gathering activities.

Linking the critique of biodevastation to critiques of environmental racism and warfare.

The gathering brought together the issues of genetic engineering, environmental racism and warfare in an urban setting, building on a unity that emerged from previous Biodevastation gatherings.  We planned our panels and workshops so that they would present the interrelations between the resistance to genetic engineering with the fight against racism and the struggle against war.  By showing that the technology of genetic engineering has deadly military applications, destroys indigenous agriculture in the Third World and increases the toxic body burdens of people of color, the presentations at the gathering represent a step forward for organizing efforts in all three areas.  Not only did we have experts on genetic engineering talk about how their work is linked to the study of warfare and environmental racism, but we brought in noted critics of warfare and opponents of environmental racism to present the relationship between their work and genetic engineering.

Another notable accomplishment is that we were able to build upon our urban location and include serious discussion of linking the struggle of people of color to the resistance to genetic engineering.  This has strengthened our organizing alliance with people of color in St. Louis, and has opened a creative exchange of ideas.  Many attendees commented that the gathering could be the start of a new political strategy that could unite different political organizing into one democratic, ecologically-minded coalition.

Directly challenge Monsanto and the World Agricultural Forum in their hometown.

We are in a unique position among groups who organize against genetic engineering: we are the only active group in the hometown of biotechnology giant Monsanto and the World Agricultural Forum (WAF) that its sponsors.  In preparing for the gathering, we wanted to demonstrate to both Monsanto and the WAF that there is a critical mass of local citizens who oppose their dangerous technology.  Thus we coordinated with people who were organizing a protest at the World Agricultural Forum on May 18, and encouraged gathering attendees to go to the protest.  We invited Canadian canola farmer Percy Schmeiser, who has been sued by Monsanto for allegedly stealing its genetically-altered canola seeds when in fact Schmesier is opposed to genetically-altered crops.  Schmesier accepted our invitation, and came to St. Louis to present an update on his case and speak with the local media. 

We gained the attention of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.  Possibly acting on information from the WAF, the police arrested several protestors and raided three buildings, including our offices, on the first day of the gathering, May 16.  This generated publicity for the gathering, much of it positive, and for the WAF, much of it negative.  We continued with our plans for a May 18 protest undeterred.  On May 18, we held a public vegetarian lunch in historic Tower Grove Park and then traveled downtown to the Centenary United Methodist Church, where we held a rousing pre-protest rally.  After this, we marched to a site outside the hotel where the WAF was being held and held a peaceful protest.

Local and national media covered the pre-emptive arrests and the ensuing peaceful protest, showing that Monsanto and the WAF aren’t widely praised as good neighbors in St. Louis. The protest was attended by a diverse group of St. Louisans and people from out of town, and introduced many younger St. Louis activists who attended to the widespread resistance against genetic engineering.

Engage new groups of people in the resistance to genetic technologies.

We made a concerted effort to bring new groups of people to the gathering, especially people of color and young people.  These groups of people have not been consistently included in anti-genetic engineering organizing but are directly affected by it in unique ways.  Many people of color carry heavy body burdens of toxins due to the pollution present in their communities, and are thus adversely affected by the untested affects of genetically altered foods.  People of color also comprise a majority of the population of the city of St. Louis, where we held the gathering.  Young people are not often taught about biotechnology in school. 

To attract people from these groups to our gathering, hired an African-American outreach coordinator who purchased ad time and interview slots on two prominent African-American radio programs.  We developed an Environmental Racism panel and made sure that other panels and workshops presented themes relevant to people of color.  These efforts brought many people of color to the gathering, some of whom were familiar with the issues presented and some of whom were not. 

For young people, we created the workshop “The ABCs of Biotechnology” to provide an interactive lesson on the basic science behind biotechnology.  We attracted many young people, including two classes (largely African-American) from two different middle schools.

Develop new strategies for presenting critical facts and ideas about genetic technologies to the public.

The gathering led to two important new ideas:

The preference of organizers of past Biodevastation gatherings to make future gatherings regional and perhaps more frequent events.  This move could build upon this gathering’s linking of biotechnology, warfare and environmental racism by focusing organizing efforts on gatherings with immediate local impact that are organized by local groups composed of people active in all three struggles.

The creation of a model “Biodevastation Curriculum” that would provide middle and high school students with the scientific and political knowledge to make informed criticism of the technology.  This would integrate a critique of biotechnology into practical education, expanding this critique beyond the realm of research institutions, gatherings and publications and into the lives of millions of American students.

 

5. Media coverage

 

Early in the planning process for the gathering we decided that local media coverage of the gathering would be beneficial.  In the days leading up to the gathering, we sent press releases to local television and print media outlets.  Since the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department issued releases denouncing the WAF protesters around the same time, the local media provided significant coverage.  When the Police Department arrested several protesters before the protest on the first day of our gathering, the media heightened its coverage.

This is a summary of coverage during the gathering:

  • The local CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX affiliates all aired short reports on the gathering and interviews organizers. 
  • The St. Louis Post-Dispatch published four front-page stories on the gathering, Monsanto’s reaction to the gathering and the arrest of protesters.
  • The Associated Press and Reuters sent reporters to the gathering who sent out wire reports from the gathering.  These reporters interviewed organizers before, during and after the gathering.
  • Filmmaker David Kaplowitz filmed interviews with speakers at the conference, including Percy Schmesier, M.M. Lewanika, Lawrence Tsimese and Mae-Wan Ho, for a documentary on agriculture in the Third World that he is producing.

Since the gathering, there has been additional media coverage:

  • National Public Radio’s popular Democracy Now! Show featured an interview with of the people arrested during the gathering (May 21, 2003).
  • The weekly Riverfront Times covered the arrests during the conference in two articles in June 2003, one of which was a eight-page cover story.
  • The local Arch City Chronicle published an interview with one of the arrestees in August 2003.
  • The Southwest City Journal, part of a chain of neighborhood newspapers in St. Louis, published a front-page story covering a June press conference held by Biodevastation organizers at St. Louis City Hall.  The press conference reported on the local biotechnology industry’s role in the arrests and progress in a police internal affairs investigation.

 

6. Follow-up activities

 

We have been continuing to build local resistance to genetic engineering through a series of follow-up activities and projects:

  • Synthesis/Regeneration, edited by St. Louis Greens, has published two issues containing a section of presentations to the gathering and it preparing a third issue for publication.
  • So far, the Gateway Green Alliance has produced four episodes of its cable-access program Green Time, which is broadcast to 400,000 cable subscribers in the greater St. Louis area, that feature footage from presentations at the gathering.  Additional
  • We have offered audio CDs of the five panels for sale (at cost), and posted one panel recording online.
  • We have posted media coverage, links to presentations from the gathering and photographs to both the Biodevastation website, www.biodev.org, and the Gateway Greens website, www.gateway-greens.org.  We plan to post this report on both of those sites.
  • On June 6, we hosted a public forum linking the police repression during the gathering to the long history of local police repression against people of color.  This event was attended by over 75 people.
  • On September 6, we brought gathering organizer and researcher Michael Dorsey to speak at Webster University and at the 13th Annual Great Green Pesto Feast, St. Louis’s largest vegetarian dinner.  He his presentations were titled “Who Will Control Agriculture?” and were taped for use as Green Time episodes that aired in December 2003.
  • We have launched a “Biodevastation Curriculum Project” which will become a major focus of future organizing efforts.  This curriculum project was generated by the success of the gathering workshop “The ABCs of Biotechnology for Students 8 to 80.”  We hope to complete a curriculum on biotechnology and genetic engineering suitable for middle and high school students that presents basic science alongside discussion of the political implications of these technologies.
  • Organizers have presented information about genetic engineering and the significance of the police repression at Southwest Missouri State University (Springfield, MO), Webster University (St. Louis), the Al Qubaa mosque (St. Louis) and the University of Missouri (St. Louis).
  • Organizers continued to meet with international guests of the World Affairs Council who come to St. Louis to tour Monsanto and hear an alternative view
    concerning genetic engineering.  In December, Daniel Romano met with a journalist from     Thailand upon the Council’s invitation.
  • On January 7, 2004, we will host a public forum entitled “GMOs and the Corporate Takeover of Food” featuring a live call-in from Percy Schmesier.
  • We are organizing a one-day regional conference on genetic engineering to coincide with the next meeting of the World Agricultural Forum in St. Louis, May 16-18, 2004.
  • The Genetic Engineering Action Project Committee continues to meet monthly and is working on outreach to the African-American and Muslim communities in St. Louis, both of which responded favorably to the gathering.

 

7. Financial Report Summary

Please contact the Gateway Green Alliance to obtain a copy of the financial summary:

contact@gateway-greens.org

314-664-1199

 

 

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