2009, not 1939, German hooligans criminally vandalise activities they hate for ideological beliefs linked to volk-genetics

USDA FAS Office of Scientific and Technical Affairs (OSTA)
Date: 6/9/2009
GAIN Report Number: GM9026

Biotech Opponents Continue their Destructive Work in 2009

Anti-biotech groups continue their destruction in Germany in 2009. By the end of May 2009, the German Plant Breeders Association (BDP) reported six cases of research plot destructions and occupations in Germany. Since there is no commercial cultivation allowed in Germany activists are concentrating their destructive work on research fields and research installations.
In the most recent case, a research project with 274 apple trees was destroyed at the Federal Research Institute for Horticulture, the Julius Kuehn Institute near Dresden. The trees were housed in a plastic greenhouse. In reaction to this, the Minister of Agriculture of the State of Sachsen put out a press release stating that this action caused a damage of about $ 1.0 million. Minister Kupfer stated that this clearly was an action of hostility against progress. Kupfer argued that a number of facts call for support of green biotechnology: bigger yields, improved plant health, lesser need for pesticides and fertilizers. This all is to the advantage of the environment. Kupfer also pointed out that biotechnology is present in modern life, in different vaccines, in detergents and in many foods. He said what happened in Dresden is simply a criminal action and the perpetrators have to be held accountable to the last cent. In 2008, BDP reported 26 cases of field destructions and six cases of field occupations. Ironically, a group of anti-biotech activists also destroyed several bee hives in the neighborhood of a biotech barley field of the University of Giessen. In the late summer of 2008, activists also placed metal posts or bottles filled with concrete in biotech corn fields to damage harvesting machinery