January 31, 2001
		Anti-Globalization Protesters in Brazil Storm Monsanto More than 1,000 Brazilian farmers from the progressive Landless Workers Movement (MST) stormed the U.S.-based Monsanto biotech plant on just before midnight on January 25 and threatened to stay indefinitely to protest genetically modified (GM) food. The Monsanto unit, which is in Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande de Sul, has been the site of many protests recently, but until last Thursday had never been invaded. The protest was timed to coincide with an economic summit in Brazil which countered a global business gathering taking place in Davos, Switzerland. Genetically modified corn and soybean crops were pulled out at the experimental farm on Friday morning. Families took over the research center and warehouse, setting up hammocks and mattresses. The wrote on the walls, "The seed of death!" and "Monsanto is the end of farmers!" "We're staying here indefinitely," said Solet Campolete, a local MST organizer. "We want to make a statement... these seeds trick farmers and create dependency on the seeds produced by a big multinational." Monsanto said in a statement on Friday that it had requested that local authorities "restore order" at the facility. A statement from the biotech giant reads, "Monsanto regrets this incidence in which it was a victim of an aggressive movement."