GM wheat trial vandalized
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A week before a planned protest was scheduled to occur against a field trial of wheat genetically altered to repel aphids, the site was vandalized Sunday.
“Take the Flour Back” protesters have scheduled May 27 as a day of protest. The group has encouraged people to break into Rothamsted Research in Herfordshire, England, and tear the crop out.
A 50-year old man has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage for the recent break in, where damage to certain parts of the 400-acre site was found. It is not known if he is associated with “Take the Flour Back.”
The Telegraph reported, “Toby Bruce, a researcher at Rothamsted, wrote on Twitter that wheat seed appeared to have been strewn onto certain plots and in one area the tops of ‘quite a few’ plants had been cut off and removed from the site, although a spokesman for the laboratory warned that the report was anecdotal and may not be accurate.”
Researchers at the site issued a video pleading with the protestors not to go through with their planned protests because some of the experiments on the land have been running since 1843.
Police are investigating the current incident.
Despite going through with the planned debate between the researchers and the protesters last week, the planned protest is still scheduled to happen on May 27.
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