Greenpeace 28 on trial
Owen Davies QC called Paul Bellotti to the witness box as the first witness of
the day. Paul told the jury that he was the caretaker of the Greenpeace office,
and had been looking after the building and the people in it for nine years. He
had gleaned information about GM from literature within the office, newspaper
clippings, and from speaking to campaigners.
Paul took part in the action at Lyng on his birthday, his purpose being "to stop
the pollution that I was very, very concerned about", which he believed would
contaminate everything in the vicinity. He put the cut GM maize into bags
which he sealed and passed on to the lorry. Asked where the GM campaign
ranked in comparison to other Greenpeace campaigns he had been involved
with, Paul answered, "Very high. That is why I'm here."
Judy Khan then called Margaret (Maggie) Weaver, currently doing a degree in
social policy in environmental studies and with a 14-year-old son. She told the
jury she had been a Greenpeace supporter since 1993, but had taken an active
interest since 1994 when she had become an Area Networker. Maggie was
quoted as having said, GM is the biggest experiment and we are the guinea
pigs. She explained that for her the environment included everything, and
pointed out that any land that is owned is 'property'. Asked by Mr Farmer
about her having entered Mr Brigham's field to remove the GM maize - "What
happened to your sense of courtesy?, Maggie replied, "I think it was still
intact."
Owen Davies then called Michael (Mick) Waldram to the witness box, a forestry
contractor whose work includes cutting parts of trees so that they do not pose
a danger to the public, and keeping trees from power lines. He had been in a
maize field on the Saturday before the action, removing branches from trees
interfering with cables, and had stood among the maize in order to protect it
from falling branches. He told the court, "There was a great deal of irony in
that situation". He had become an active supporter of Greenpeace in 1987
following the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior. Asked why he didn't trust
certain scientists about the safety of GM, Mick talked of the thalidomide his
mother had taken during her pregnancy with him, and that he grew up with the
thalidomide generation, following the disastrous effects of a drug that had
been scientifically tested.
Mick told the jury that he had felt incredulity when he found the field-scale
trials were going to be planted: I had spoken to genetic engineers working in
this field and I felt that they hadn't done enough research. He told the
prosecution that he felt at the time of the action that the Government and
agrochemical companies were embarrassed at having cobbled together an
attempt at the trial. At the action itself, Mick drove the Unimog tractor, having
attached the mower to it previously. When the Brighams teleporter appeared,
a bucket was dropped by one of them into the mower rendering it
unserviceably broken, and had then crashed into the Unimog. Mick Waldram
explained, I was there to protect farmer Brigham's land. He may not thank
me for it, but I know that one day he will understand In my mind that crop was committing an illegal act.
Karin (Karly) Graham was then called to the witness box. Karly lived half a mile outside Lyng and a mile from Walnut Tree Farm, and had never joined an organisation, including Greenpeace. She told the jury that she and her friend, Jo Page, had only found out about the crop trial in Lyng (as well as the others)
once it was already in the ground, following an article in the Eastern Daily
Press which talked of the trial at Walnut Tree Farm. She started doing
research into the trials as soon as they found this out. They were concerned
enough about their immediate investigation that they put a news sheet around
the village which quoted from various documents and asked residents if they
were interested in having a meeting about the issues. The news sheet said
that if they were they should contact Karly. She wrote to Mr Brigham asking if
he would be prepared to come, as well as contacting AgrEvo, Greenpeace and
scientists supportive of and opposed to GM crops. Mr Brigham did not come.
Judy Khan then called Alastair Beveridge, who has a first-class degree in
computer science and was a Systems Manager until he started setting up his
own company. He has been a supporter of Greenpeace for seven years, and
became aware of GMOs in 1995-96 with the Greenpeace campaign against GM
soya. When he learned of the planting of the field-scale trials, he told the jury
that he felt horrified. It goes against any kind of normal science to find out
whether the risks are acceptable.
Alastair had removed the GM crop from a Scottish trial site in July 1999 too.
Asked to compare this previous action to that at Lyng, he explained that there
were only five people in the field in Aberdeenshire and that they had no
machinery, whereas at Lyng the Greenpeace action was much better
organised since there were more people and appropriate machinery involved.
He told the prosecution that there was a huge difference between the two.
After lunch Owen Davies QC called Lisa Weatherley, Supporter Services and
Public Information Officer at the Greenpeace office. Employed by Greenpeace
since 1993, she told the jury that Greenpeace received a total of about 50,000
requests for information a year. She became particularly interested in GM after
the volume of requests for information on this issue expanded, with people
wanting to know what they could do to get GM-free food on to the shelves,
among other things. Lisa expanded her knowledge about GM by reading
Greenpeace materials, email list mailings, and DETR and agrochemical
companies sites on the Internet. She helped to put together the Greenpeace
True Food leaflet and produced regional leaflets for local supermarket tours.
The next defendant to be called was Emma Protz, PA to the Director of Political
and Business Affairs at Greenpeace, where she has been working since 1998,
by which time the Greenpeace GM campaign was in full swing. The director for
whom she worked was then managing the GM campaign, so that Emma saw
many pieces of relevant information on a daily basis. She had first become
aware of GM in June 1998 (before she had started work with Greenpeace) after
seeing a leaflet in an Iceland supermarket explaining why they allowed no GM
ingredients in their food. By the beginning of 1999, she said I was quite
scared GM products were being inflicted on the public without giving us any
choice.
At the action Emma had bagged up the cut crop, pulled some maize up by the
root and trodden the maize down, breaking its stalks. Asked by the
prosecution how the Unimog was fuelled since Greenpeace campaigned against
the use of fossil fuels, Emma explained that in this specific instance, it was of
a lesser concern to me than GM the pollution from the Unimog would be
considerably less than that of the GM contaminated pollen.
The trial continues tomorrow.
