Protesters in Argentina force Monsanto to destroy GMO seed manufacturing plant

August 27, 2016 in News by RBN Staff

GMOs

Source: www.naturalnews.com
by: Amy Goodrich

(NaturalNews) After a three-year-long battle between multinational corporation Monsanto and local Malvinas citizens and anti-GMO campaigners from across Argentina, one of Monsanto’s half-completed multi-million dollar GMO seed plants will be dismantled. According to March Against Monsanto, the plant would have been Monsanto’s second largest operation in Latin America.

In 2014, activists forced Monsanto to stop the construction of the facility through well-coordinated protests at the construction site. Ever since the building of the site was put on hold, protesters have been marching, petitioning and talking to the government as well as Monsanto to urge them to abandon their plan to build the GMO seed facility.

The protests in Argentina have been marked by two words that made their point very clear: “Fuera Monsanto,” which translates as “Get out Monsanto.”

Adios Monsanto

As reported by Sustainable Pulse, the Fuera Monsanto activists scored a huge victory earlier this month when Monsanto announced it would dismantle the controversial seed plant in the town of Malvinas.

“The plant was designed to treat 3.5 million hectares of maize, however last year only 2.5 million hectares were sown,” an unnamed Monsanto spokesman said. “An investment of almost 1500 million makes no sense,” he added.

While the spokesman claimed financial concerns to be the primary reason for the decision, he also admitted that the local pressure and blockades of the construction site by Malvinas residents and anti-GMO environmentalists did play a part in the decision to halt the construction of the site.

Also, there are still lawsuits ongoing over the illegality of the Malvinas construction permit and the environmental impacts of the project, according to Sustainable Pulse.

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