Monsanto loses GM court case
20 April 1999
Monsanto loses GM court case
By FWi staff
MONSANTO has lost its second court case in less than three months after a High Court judge refused to make permanent an injunction against a group of environmental protesters.
The biotechnology company requested the injunction against six members of GenetiX Snowball, the group which has uprooted genetically modified (GM) crops across the UK.
But the presiding judge rejected the application, saying that the protesters might be able to defend their actions.
Instead, Mr Justice Klevan granted a temporary injunction until a full hearing into the matter has been completed.
The campaigners claimed that they destroyed a crop of GM oilseed rape in Oxfordshire last July because it could have posed a risk to human health and the environment.
“Ignoring the situation would not sit easily with my conscience.” said Zoe Elford, one of the protesters.
“I took the action with a group of people who had thought meticulously about what they were going to do and the possible consequences.”
Monsanto pleaded guilty in February this year to breaching the regulations that govern the growing of GM crops on one of its trial sites.
The company was fined a total of £17,000 with £6159 costs by magistrates in Caistor, Lincolnshire.