Photos and Report on Monsanto Protest

dublin | environment | photo-essay Saturday May 25, 2013 16:55 by T

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The protest against Monsanto and GM food took place today setting off from the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square in Dublin. Initially numbers were slow to build but by the time it was ready to start a surprising number of people showed up for a campaign organised outside of any the existing Leftist parties or groups and it was great to see that it attracted and drew in a lot of new people who perhaps prefer to not get involved in more overtly political campaigns.

As the crowd set of down towards O'Connell street, there were at least 300 or 400 carrying a number of placards on theme of Monsanto and GM food and GMOs.

The protest march made it's way down O'Connell street with organisers handing out leaflets to passerbys some of whom eagerly took them up. The information leaflet itself is perhaps one of the better ones I have seen and was very informative and knocked many of the myths of GM foods on the head.

From there the march wound its way up past Trinity then up to Kildare Street and stopped outside the Dail for a few minutes before finally arriving on the square beside the Dept of Agriculture on Kildare Street, where a brief speech was given by one of the organisers outlining the dangers of GM crops and how these are a danger to our health and environment, how the safety has not at all being established. He also pointed out that much of the GM food we eat is actually in the form of meat since much of it goes in the form of animal feed where it does not have to be labelled at that point. He encouraged people to contact their local supermarkets and restaurants and food outlets that they visit and ask them whether they use GM ingredients

The protest today was part of the wider scale protests where over 400 similar events took place in over 40 countries worldwide at the same time.

People are encouraged to find out more about what these companies like Monsanto and Bayer are up to and educate themselves about the facts or lack of surrounding GM crops and food.

Pictures from the other Monsanto protests around the country are welcome to be posted here.

Original event: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/103610

More info at: http://www.gmfreeze.org/ and https://www.facebook.com/MarchAgainstMonstanto