The group of five to 10 people, mostly from Santa Cruz County, call themselves the Fragaria Freedom Farmers. They uprooted the fruiting fragarias commonly called strawberries in the latest in a string of international protests against the widespread cultivation of crops that have had their genetic material changed in the laboratory. World trade ministers have been meeting in Montreal to discuss how to deal with genetically modified organisms GMOs. The European Union wants to assure nations the right to reject imports of things like modified soybeans, while the United States and a few allies oppose such restrictions. They still were negotiating late Friday.
Little evidence exists that genetically altered food is harmful to people.
But critics say too little research has been done. Spoiled meat could be recalled, they say. Nelson denied repeated requests for an interview. However, Plant Sciences does hold permits from the U.S. Department of Agriculture going back to 1997 to splice strawberry genes. According to scant information provided by those documents, the research appears focused on genes that would make plants resistant to root mold one of many problems the fumigant methyl bromide controls.