Environmental Activists Blockade GM Crops Company

Press Release for immediate use

25 April 2003

Environmental activists opposed to GM crops this morning blockaded the UK 
headquarters of Bayer CropScience [1] near Cambridge [2]. The blockade is 
timed to coincide with the Annual General Meeting of the firm's parent 
company Bayer AG in Cologne, Germany where UK GM activists are 
simultaneously holding a protest. Bayer CropScience is the company leading 
the rush to commercialise GM crops in the UK and Europe [3].

The activists blocked vehicle access to the company's buildings by locking 
themselves together with metal tubes. One of the protesters, David Locke 
from Oxford, said "I simply do not trust a company with a safety and 
accountability record as poor as Bayer's [4] to introduce a technology as 
inherently unpredictable and potentially dangerous as GM crops."

Laura Nauder from London from London said "This year is going to be make or 
break time for GM crops. I think it is really important to send a clear 
message to both the UK government, and biotech corporations like Bayer, 
that the public still don't want GM crops, and that we will resist their 
introduction every step of the way."

Sarah Wise from Totnes in Devon said "would you trust the company that 
brought the world heroin, sarin, VX and Agent Orange [5] to make your food? 
- Because, frankly, I don't."

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Notes for the editor

1. Bayer CropScience was formed in June 2002 when Bayer AG purchased 
Aventis CropScience and merged it with with its existing agrochemical 
business.

2. The blockade is located at Bayer CropScience just outside Hauxton on the 
A10, west of Junction 11 of the M11, near Cambridge.

3. Over 80% of the GM field trials conducted in 2002 involved GM crops now 
owned by Bayer CropScience. Should the UK government give the go ahead, 
Bayer CropScience's GM herbicide tolerant fodder maize and oil seed rape 
will be among the first GM crops to be grown commercially in the UK.

4. Bayer are currently embroiled in a series of multi-million dollar law 
suits after 100 people died and many more suffered serious side-effects 
after taking an anti-cholesterol drug made by Bayer known as Baycol or 
Lipobay. The Baycol scandal has wiped millions of pounds off Bayer's share 
price.

5. For more information on Bayer's history see www.bayerhazard.com , 
www.cbgnetwork.org and Uta Harnischfeger's recent article on Agent Orange 
in the Financial Times (Apr 15, 2003).