May 30, 2001
		Chicago Anti-Biotech Group Thrown Out of Biotech Conference GeneWise has only been around for about three months, and they've already staged their first successful action, disrupting a major agricultural biotechnology conference by very nearly setting up shop in a suite across the hall before biotech executives discovered their identity and pressured the sponsoring hotel to have them illegally thrown onto the street. Not to be deterred, the young but well-organized upstarts staged a spirited and noisy protest in front of the Wyndham Hotel, while anxious members of the National Agricultural Biotechnology Council (NABC) peered nervously from the windows above. The crowd of nearly one hundred listened to impassioned speeches from Canadian canola farmer Percy Schmeiser, who has been successfully sued by Monsanto for patent infringement for possession of biotech seed that the wind had blown onto his land, as well as other angry farmers from Illinois and Wisconsin, and a scientist from Consumer's Union. Memebrs of GeneWise, aided by activists from the radical puppetmaking group Art and Revolution also staged a passionate street theatre drama featuring a retelling of Percy Schmeiser's story using more than a dozen elaborate puppets including a ten-foot tall Schmeiser and a 15-foot tall demon known as Lord Monsanto. GeneWise had signed a contract with the Wyndham Hotel to use a large room right in the middle of the NABC confab to hold a press conference and hand out materials that had been specially prepared for the event. The hotel staff had been working closely with members of GeneWise until less than 24 hours before they were to occupy the room, when a hotel clerk hastily stammered an unlikely story about having rented the room out to another tenant months before. The lie was all the more apparent after spies from GeneWise who had infiltrated the conference remarked that the room was only minimally used as an impromptu lounge for conventioneers. And in an apparent attempt to avoid the inevitable lawsuit (and much to the chagrin of the Chicago Police Department), hotel staff gave GeneWise free rein over the Wyndham's sidewalks and outdoor spaces to hold their protest. Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser talks to reporters at the GeneWise protest outside the NABC conference at the Wyndham Hotel News of the protest has been broadcast on farm reports over dozens of radio and TV stations across North America, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has requested and was sent a tape of the protest for an upcoming feature on the dangers of genetic drift on farmers and our food supply. "This [agricultural press] is exactly the best medium for the story we're trying to relate," explains GeneWise spokesman Sophia Suhu. "The biotech companies have no control over the way their products are spread by the wind, water, and insects. And instead of accepting responsibility for that, they're trying to force farmers to cover all the damages and pay them royalties in the process. They've literally declared war on farmers and on the consumers who will ultimately be eating this food." An attendee of the NABC conference, speaking anonymously, admitted that the protesters raised issues that the biotech industry has failed to address. "the industry has relied on the mantras, 'this food is safe' and 'this food will feed the world.' There are no answers coming out of [this conference] to charges of genetic drift, crop contamination, super pests, and the liabilities over personal damages to farmers." "I think it would have been more powerful if the Wyndham Hotel had honored their contract and let us use the room," remarked Suhu. "But I think we achieved a lot, especially when you consider that a lot of us are completely new to this." Veteran activist Mike Durschmid believes that groups like GeneWise are the missing link that may ultimately be the downfall of the biotech companies. "I've never seen a lot of these folks before. These aren't anti-globalization radicals -- they're ordinary people. They've only recently became activists because of genetic engineering." GeneWise formed in the wake of an anti-biotech conference that the Genetic Engineering Action Network (GEAN) held in Chicago this past February. Since then, they have met weekly in the basement of a downtown bookstore. GeneWise will be staging its second protest at noon on June 5th in front of Chicago's Hyatt Regency Hotel, which will be hosting another biotech conference. The new protest demontrates how agricultural biotechnology has brought about "the Death of Food." Visit GeneWise's website Visit Percy Schmeiser's website Read stories about the Wyndham Hotel's eviction of GeneWise and the subsequent street protest from IndyMedia. photos by Robert J. Chesrow