Protesta contra transgénicos en Boston

For Immediate Release:May 4, 2007

Contacts:
Brian Tokar, Institute for Social Ecology: 617-513-1241  
biotech@social-ecology.org
Erin Ryan Fitzgerald, BioJustice: 781-492-0795 erf@riseup.net
Ben Grosscup, Northeast Organic Farming Association: 413-658-5374  
ben.grosscup@nofamass.org

International Experts in Boston to Challenge
Biotechnology Industry

BOSTON – Independent scientists and representatives of farmers’  
movements from as far away as Bangladesh are coming to Boston this  
weekend to challenge the biotechnology industry on the eve of their  
annual convention. They will be participating in a series of public  
events under the umbrella of Biojustice 2007.

Biojustice events include an opening program at Old South Church on  
Friday evening, titled “International Farmers Speak Out,” a panel on  
“Biotechnology, Medicine and Human Rights” at the church on Saturday  
morning, and a parade and festival on Sunday highlighting public  
opposition to Boston University’s planned biodefense laboratory.

“International corporations represented at the BIO convention are  
taking control of the seeds that are central to people’s lives and well  
being” explained Farjana Akter, a program officer at the organization  
VOICE, based inDhaka, Bangladesh. VOICE works with traditional farmers  
in Bangladesh to resist corporate globalism and regain power over their  
lives.

“These companies are making it more and more difficult to do honest  
science,” said Ignacio Chapela, Assistant Professor of Microbial  
Ecology at the University of California, Berkeley, who in 2001  
confirmed the genetic contamination of traditional native corn  
varieties in the mountains of southern Mexico. “They are turning our  
public universities into private research centers that can only serve  
corporate agendas.”

Biojustice will also highlight corporate dominance over our healthcare  
system. “American medicine is like a runaway train picking up speed,  
fueled by the commercially generated belief that good health comes from  
ever-increasing medical spending,” said Dr. John Abramson, a family  
physician and author of Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of  
American Medicine. Dr. Abramson will join with others in a panel  
discussion on Biotechnology, Medicine and Human Rights Saturday morning  
(10 am) at the Old South Church.

Sunday’s Environmental Justice events are a unique collaboration with  
the Roxbury-based organization Safety Net, and will feature a colorful  
puppet parade from Dudley Commons (near 339 Dudley St.) to the site of  
Boston University’s planned bioweapons lab.

BioJustice 2007 supports a decentralized local food economy that is  
free of genetically engineered foods and seeds and an affordable  
publicly supported healthcare system not dominated by pharmaceutical  
giants. When BIO was last in Boston in 2000, thousands of people  
paraded from Copley Square to the Hynes Convention Center following a  
3-day international teach-in. A full listing of Biojustice events is  
available at biodev.org.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
---------------------------------

Event Summary:

International Farmers Speak Out: May 4, 7–9:30p.m. Panel discussion  
with Anna Lappé (Small Planet Institute), Ignacio Chapela (University  
of California, Berkeley), representatives of international farmers’  
movements from Bangladesh, Nicaragua, and the Tesuque Pueblo in New 
Mexico. Mary Norton Hall, Old South Church (Copley Square).

Biotechnology, Medicine and Human Rights: May 5, 10–11:30a.m. Panel  
discussion with Judy Norsigian (Our Bodies Ourselves), George Annas  
(Boston University), John Abramson (M.D., author of Overdosed America),  
Sandy Eaton (R.N., Mass. Nurses' Assn.), and Sonia Shah (author of The  
Body Hunters). Mary Norton Hall, Old South Church (Copley Square).

Environmental Justice tour and puppet parade in Roxbury: May 6,  
11a.m.–1p.m. Followed by a community gathering in Blackstone Park  
(Washington and W. Newton Sts.) until 4p.m, with festivities,  
children's activities, and a panel of speakers on the proposed B.U.  
bioweapons facility planned for the neighborhood.

Premiere screenplay reading of The Donors: May 6, 5p.m. A science 
fiction thriller set in 2030 in which a feisty teenage clone battles a  
company that plans to sell off her organs, trying to save the lives of  
other "donor" children. Introduced by Prof. James Sherley (MIT).  
Community Church of Boston, Guatemala Room, 565 Boylston Street, near  
Copley Sq.

Rising Tide Road Show:May 6, 6-8PM. Includes a slide show on mountain  
top removal coal mining, presentations on global struggle against  
environmental degradation and food security, social justice songs, and  
a confronting climate change musical. Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison Ave, 5th  
floor, Chinatown Boston.

For a full and updated listing see biodev.org and biojustice2007.org.

###