Some people whine about the danges of geneticically engineered crops.
Other people DO something about it.
-- nessie
*******************************************
________________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
http://www.ainfos.ca/
________________________________________________
Friends,
We were unsure of whether you have ever received a copy of our
publication. Let us know if you want a paper copy (with pictures!).
thanks and see you in the fields...
Nighttime Gardeners
Greetings future crop pullers!
At last, the new Nighttime Gardener is ready for distribution.
After two months, many revisions and a few complaints (where
are the Amerikan pictures?) the new guide is done!
Why a new guide, you say?
Well so much has changed that we decided to update new methods
for GE crop decontamination and even include a photo gallery.
New sections on GE forestry and expanded "tools" and
"planning" sections. Plus, its the winter and we want
people to reflect (i.e. plan) their spring planting season
and harvesting accordingly with good information.
The Winter 2000 Version of the Nighttime Gardeners Guide is
a 18 page, self-mailer available through this account and
the Bioengineering Action Network Distro.
For bulk copies, email us at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
or check out the first version at http://www.tao.ca/~ban
Activists/supporters=free but we take stamps and donations.
Infoshops=pay what you can Coporate Price=$5,000/page
We take donations (of course) and encourage all nighttime
gardeners (and everyone else) to send in your stories,
critiques, suggestions, bomb threats etc.
What critics have to say about the NGG...
-"Loved it...If I wasnt such a wanker...Id be doing the same..."
Bob Shapiro, Monsanto
-some well intentioned supporter had this to say (via email):
"You are sociopaths who disgust me. You are criminals of the
highest order...utterly ignorant that the best thought I can
muster for you is that you are entirely stupid.
And lets not forget our friends at UC-Berkeley:
"Let me catch one of them in my field and I'll...
The Nighttime Gardener's Guide...
from the people who brought you the crop action!
(ok, maybe not but it sure sounds good!)
The Nighttime Gardener
-A guide for the shy gardener in North Amerika-
Greetings. The following guide was put together for the WTO
gathering in the hopes that people from all over the continent
would find this informational useful and inspiring. The
corporate biotechnology onslaught embodies the New World
Order perhaps better than any other issue. Johnna Appleseed
of Reclaim the Seeds, one of several nighttime gardening
groups, describes it well: "If you care about wildlife and
think the natural world is fine without mutant genes, you
should resist genetic engineering. If you care about social
justice and don't want to poison farm workers with pesticides
and herbicides, you should resist genetic engineering. If you
care about biological and cultural diversity as opposed to a
global corporate monoculture, you should resist genetic
engineering. If you care about laboratory animals and don't
want researchers creating hybrid genetic monsters, you should
resist genetic engineering. If you eat food, you should resist genetic
engineering. If not you, th!
!
en who? If not now, when? Resistance to genetic engineering is
as transnational as capital."
A section on computer security will be released with a future
draft of this guide. Please make sure and check it out. There
are numerous benefits of encryption technology and anonymous web-surfing.
Also, a read-through of the essential book
Ecodefense will be most helpful, in particular the
"Security" chapter.
These GE plants are held captive as biotech slaves. By
harvesting them early, we free them from the bonds of
corporate servitude. Remember this while gardening because
sometimes it feels strange to garden in this manner. Life is
sacred, which is why we garden at night in the first place.
May nighttime gardening flourish here as it has in Europe and
other lands around the globe.
-This guide shall be continuously updated. Please give us your
input at: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Evening Attire for The Nighttime Gardener
Gardening is a very dirty job. For the least hassle it is
recommended to wear a complete set of old clothes that can
easily be discarded in dumpsters after gardening. Don t be
cheap. It's really necessary, even if like us, you hate
wasting anything. Black evening attire is the most appropriate
for shy gardeners. You may get very wet and cold, so wear
appropriate cold-weather and rain gear. Have some comfortable
clean clothes and shoes to change into before you get home.
A forensic scientist can tell roughly where you've been from
the composition of the dirt and soil that you will have picked
up on your travels. Say, for instance, you've been gardening
at a Monsanto test site of GE corn, then traces of earth will
be upon you, as will traces of plant life, such as pollen that
you may have brushed against.
These traces are used to put you at a certain place, and in
some instances, at a certain time. Once again, it is best to
dispose of any gardening clothing. i.e. give up your attachment
to your clothes! And before you leave for the action, empty
your pockets and don't bring along anything (even to leave in
a vehicle) you don't need and wouldn't want to see in court.
On soft surfaces, such as mud, earth, dog shit, etc., shoe impressions
will be left behind. From these marks identification
can be made. The only sensible thing to do is to wear old shoes
and to throw them a long way away immediately afterwards. Shoes
(and clothes) will also carry traces away with them, such as
oil, gas, glass splinters and other such gardening giveaways.
Don't wear them in your vehicle or in your home. When gardening
in urban areas, consider the impact that you may have on a
passer-by wearing all black from head to toe. Wearing
inconspicuous clothes such as dark pants and a hooded sweatshirt
may serve the purpose.
Make sure you don't have activist bumper stickers on your
action vehicle. A "Smash The State" sticker may narrow down
the pool of suspects.
Gardening just after a spraying of RoundUp, Liberty or other
toxic herbicides may pose a grave threat to the health-conscious
gardener Gore-Tex or rubber rain gear (cheaply purchased or
easily stolen from Wal-Mart) as well as medical masks, and
chemical-protective gloves (Home Depot, etc.) are necessary.
It is possible to find out from county extension offices whether
or not there is a particular timing for spraying of certain
local crops. Particularly sensitive gardeners may want to hit
BT or other pest-resistant crops rather than Roundup-Ready/Liberty
Link (herbicide tolerant) crops. It is more likely that commercial
GE. crops (those grown for market) will be sprayed. Be careful!
The Nighttime Gardener's Toolbox
The tools you use for gardening will vary, but for some crops you
won't need any at all. Your hands in good work gloves (for
fingerprint guard and protection) will do just fine. Gardening
without tools is great when the crops are easy enough to rip up by
hand because you'll have less weight to carry, and less gear to
accidentally leave at the site or get nabbed with. Night gardeners
have had success with rolling their bodies over the crops as well,
but this may only bend certain crops at certain ages, instead of
damaging them beyond repair.
However, some GE crops (older trees, for example) are nearly
impossible to take out without tools. Some people like to use saws,
scythes, machetes, hoes, shears, or other gardening tools, but it's
really a personal preference. Think simple and streamlined. Ever try
to carry a machete over barbed wire? Not easy! They can sometimes
be too much trouble, too time consuming, or difficult to part with
after gardening. One group reported that a long metal pole pushed
across one or two rows of corn (dubbed the California Corn Cutter") worked
well for quick, convenient, and energy-efficient gardening.
Be creative. Practice beforehand if you are using any fancy methods.
Bolt cutters are good for getting through locked gates or into
greenhouses. Another technique for gaining access into glass
greenhouses is to duck tape a square one could crawl through, and
then punch it in. The tape will muffle sound by absorbing the blow
and keeping the glass from scattering all over the ground. There are
also hand-held, manual, spring-loaded punches which paramedics use
to break glass on car windows that work very well. Corrugated
plastic greenhouses can be cut into with a sharp knife as well.
Another tool for rows of some crops is a strong board with holes
in both ends through which a rope is strung. The board is placed
on the ground, and then the gardener puts a foot on top of it
and lifts up the rope to a comfortable waist height. Then, the
gardener can go step by step stomping down the crops, and avoid
stooping or kneeling on the ground, which can easily get very
tiring.
Lots of tactics have been created since the need for nighttime
gardening came about to survive in this modern (biotech) world.
If not properly handled, some tools can also be a serious safety
issue.
If you do use any tools, make sure they are cleaned of all
fingerprints before taken on site. A good way to clear up
those pesky fingerprints is with warm, soapy water. In a
time-crunch, extensive rubbing with cloth can be satisfactory.
Be thorough: even the batteries inside a flashlight have
been touched, and you wouldn't want to drop anything while
you were out and about!
On the subject of dropping things, it's easy to lose things
such as jewelry and glasses when working hard in the garden,
so take them off beforehand or make sure they are secure. If
something is dropped (especially a hat with hair stuck to it)
it might be a good idea to go back and get it if it's not too
sketch.
Entry and exit of the site is often the most risky aspect of nighttime
excursions. If you need to use a vehicle, it's worth
parking away from your gardening and walking in, as tires leave
those horrible distinctive marks and can accumulate soils that
are easily identified. Leave someone with your vehicle, as there
can be unexpected people about, and make sure the driver has a
reason to be where s/he is. A pair of people making out can be
a good excuse, or a problem getting the car started. Better yet,
have a driver who can quickly pick you up when done gardening.
The driver might need to come around at several different times
before the final pick-up in order to make sure the gardening is
going well. Set up an interval of time (such as 15 minutes) for
the driver to wait and come around again if nobody's at the
pick-up site. This way if you're running late, you don't miss
your only chance for a pick-up.
If the site is located in a residential neighborhood, a drop-off
may look suspicious. Therefore, it may be appropriate to have
two different pick-up and drop-off points, and possibly alternate
sites as well if access is cut off in one place. It is also
essential to plan an emergency pick-up time/place where a crew
can run to and hide all night if they are detected and the cops
are crawling around the neighborhood.
When you're waiting by the road for a car, you can't make out
what kind of vehicle it is until the last second because of
the headlight glare. One technique is to leave some distinctive
marker, such as a bag of trash (not yours) or a can at certain
place by the road. When the driver comes by, if the marker is
no longer there, s/he knows to pull over and pick up the crew.
Another method is for the driver to flash a turn signal during
the approach if there is clearly no place a regular vehicle
would be turning, and that way the crew can identify their
ride to safety. Lastly and best of all, get radios (see below).
Remember when you get home to vacuum and clean the whole car.
Oh, and get rid of your directions, too!
For a smooth night of gardening it is best to bring along a
reliable set of radios and a scanner. Remove all serial numbers
on the radios, and make sure you purchase them discreetly and
with cash. Ear pieces work best while gardening because they
free up your hands. Check everything thoroughly before you
leave, wipe them down, and have extra batteries. You can then
be in communication with your driver (and other gardeners) and
they can alert you to any possible disturbances.
The Best Time To Go
The best gardening time for the shy gardener is obviously at
night. And at the new moon is better than when it is full. You
have two main choices: early a.m. is quite dead, but remember
how long the job will take, starting earlier in the evening will
give you more of an excuse to be out and about. Try and start
at a time that provides you with enough time to garden thoroughly
for the specific site and have a buffer for the drop-offs/pick-ups
if they take longer than expected, which is common. Agricultural
areas or neighborhood garden plots can be a busy place as farmers
usually get an early start on the day, sometimes before dawn. At
this time a flash-beam or light of any sort will draw attention.
Cover flashlights with blue or red saran wrap, tinted tape, or a
gel to filter the stark white light into something more subtle.
It is worth bearing in mind that when it's raining hard it will
wash away most traces and provide visual and audio cover. You'll
often get drenched from the dew alone. It is a good idea to scout
your site of interest at many different times throughout the
day/night to get a clear idea of what the scene is like.
An all-night recon is a really good idea to make sure the garden
is right for you. There may be cameras at university test
sites/greenhouses or biotech corporation labs/sites/greenhouses.
For the main part, these cameras serve to deter potential
"gardeners," and instill a healthy sense of paranoia. Paranoia,
Nah! Those who are careful stay free!
How To Spot Your Crop
Firstly, the timing of your harvest is important if you want
to actually sabotage their research and cause economic damage.
Too early could let them replant, and too late could harvest
their crop for them! Just before flowering obviously prevents
the mutant genes from escaping through the plant's pollen, and
if you can't get it by then, you can cut down the plant before
the seeds are fully developed. Don't just harvest the beans or
corncob either, harvest the whole plant from the stalk/stems,
or better yet, pull it right up out of the ground. A slick trick
would be to bag up some of the offending matter and leave it on
the doorstep of the facility, or on your local USDA or State Ag.
Dept.'s doorstep!
It's important to research WHAT you are targeting and WHO.
Considering how pervasive commercial GE crops are, it's a good
idea to target research, both at universities and corporate
facilities (is there really any difference??). Industry links
up with local farmers as "co-operators" to grow seed and test
varieties in their fields, often in return for advertising their
more impressive trials with big signs advertising the company and
the variety. Oftentimes you may see signs for a certain company's
seed trials in a field that is obviously belonging to a small
farmer (there may be a house and driveway and family-type items
around the yard). Targeting these types of sites will likely
bring into question the intentions of night gardeners and may
confuse the message of opposing the Ag-Biotech industry by
targeting already desperate farmers.
On occasion you may be able to identify a commercial crop that
is being grown specifically for a company, or on Agribusiness
farmland where no family is present. You can sometimes find
these type of sites by checking out property maps ("Plats")
at the County tax assessor's office in the County Building
closest to your target crop (or the local library, but they
often don't have current maps), or through the LEXUS property
records database at your local library.
This is also a good process for locating corporate facilities
not listed in the phone book (or on www.yellowpages.net). If you know the
address of a facility or a plot of fields, a quick search on the county
assessor's web site will tell you the value of the property, the acreage,
and possibly the types of structures on the site.
The basic reality is that commercial GE crops cover 20 million
acres of American farmland, and attacking random commercial fields
is simply not strategic, especially when there are so many better
research targets. If a research project is "nipped in the bud,"
so to speak, it may never make it to the commercial market!
For example, the same colorful signs that hug the backroads are
often posted in the same fashion in front of rows of research
crops at corporate facilities, often boasting the "Roundup Ready"
or "YIELDGUARD" trait, depending on the company. Bt crops are
often listed on signs by a certain variety number ending in Bt.
Corn and Soybeans are the most common GE crops, both commercially
and in research. But at universities, one might also see a wide
variety of GE crops including sunflowers, alfalfa, and wheat.
A helpful, but not infallible, tool for zeroing in on your target
crop is the U.S. government database Field Trials listed through
the USDA/APHIS web site. You can request searches of current trial
notifications and permits as well as registered trials by state,
crop, institution or phenotype (GE trait). The results will tell
you the states these trials are being performed in, the acreage
of the trial, and a contact person, usually a company researcher,
for information.
What To Do When You Get There
Obviously the number of people you need will depend on the size of
the GE site. Most sites can be done quite happily with 2-4
gardeners. The actual work could be 1 hour, or it could be all
night. For larger sites you may need many gardeners, but it's
harder to avoid detection in larger numbers. Again, make sure
you're suitably dressed and scout out the site extensively,
including in/out routes and an emergency escape plan/meeting
place if things go awry. The group should decide what to do if
confronted with an angry farmer. Instead of everyone scattering
on their own, we strongly recommend sticking together as a group,
at least at first, and then making a call to scatter if necessary.
Remember, a well-placed sheet over a camera can have a rather
numbing effect on their security. A well-placed kick or spray
paint shot over the lens can do the same.
The goal is to destroy the plants: you will either have to snap
them off at the stem, or when uprooted pull them apart at times.
At a release site in East Anglia (England), sugar beet was uprooted
and left lying on the site. It was later replanted by the farmer
(and later still, dug up by concerned gardeners and removed from
the site). In 1987, the Strawberry Liberation Front in the U.S.
pulled up a crop of strawberries that were to be sprayed with ice-
minus bacteria. For the photo opportunity the next day, the
scientist placed the strawberries back in the holes from which
they d been pulled.
Remember, the test sites are experiments (with our future). If your
aim is to disrupt this misguided experiment then you may not need
to destroy all of the crop. Destroying 50-75% of the research
plants will call into question any data collected. It will also
disrupt the experiment if all the markers and identification
tags are scattered around or taken, but be safe. Don t stick them
in your closet. Make the garden messy, and it is less likely to be
considered salvageable. Scattering bags and bags of organic or
non/GE seeds can also ruin a test site and spread a little bit of
consciousness as well. A good idea is to scatter seed in the
beginning of the season and not issue a communique about it until a
month later. By that time, your seeds have wreaked havoc on the GE
varieties.
Don't forget to target irrigation equipment, greenhouses, solar
thermometers and the like. Groups such as Reclaim The Seeds and the
Future Farmers have sabotaged thousands of dollars of this sort of
equipment in different actions. It is suggested that computers,
data files, clipboards with research information, and other
documentation should be removed for our own research, or quietly
destroyed.
What You Will Be Gardening
Canola (Oilseed Rape)
There are two different breeds of canola that you might be
gardening, winter and spring. The spring crop is sown mid March
and April, and harvested late September to mid October. The winter
crop is sown late August to mid September, flowering during May and
is harvested mid July - mid August.
The plant has erect branching stems up to three feet high bearing
deep-lobed, grass green, bristly lower leaves and lobed blue upper
leaves, with distinctive yellow flowers. It may be harvested early
by breaking the stalk of the plant. This can be achieved by holding
a large disposable stick outstretched and falling onto a row of the
crop. The California Corn Cutter is used the same way. Corn (Maize)
Corn is usually sown in late March early April and is harvested
from July onward, depending on the region. It has a single main
stem with irregular long thin drooping leaves. It can be harvested
in the same way as canola. A good snap is enough to finish off the corn
plant. Tomatoes
This crop is usually sown in seedbeds at the end of winter and then
transplanted to the test fields between late March and early April.
It is then harvested between mid-July and early September. They
have a main stem with branches. Each branch produces a green fruit
that turn red with ripening. To harvest early, pull or dig up the
plant and snap the main stem. Wheat
Winter wheat is sown between late September and early October.
Summer wheat is sown in early March and harvested in August or
September. When young it is difficult to distinguish from barley,
both of which look like large-leafed grasses, but as they grow you
can see that wheat has a much larger head. To harvest when young,
pull up, if older use a "grass hook" (a type of crescent shaped
knife). Barley
Spring barley is sown February to March and harvested mid-May to
mid-August. The winter crop is sown September to October and
harvested July to August. Garden the same as wheat. Sugar Beet
This crop is sown in seedbeds in late February and then
transplanted to the fields between late March and late April,
and is then harvested in early November.
It has a whitish conical root that produces a lot of stems each
with a single irregular green, lobed leaf as well as a garland of
flowers. It can be harvested early by pulling or digging up the
crop and removing the root bit from the leaves and scattering in
opposite directions. Potato
There are lots of varieties of GE potatoes grown in North Amerika,
many of which would be appropriate to garden. The description and
the growing times of the plants will depend on the variety, but
generally potato plants look like straggly tomato plants with
either small yellow flowers or small green flowers. To harvest
early, pull or dig up the plant and snap the main stem and pull
apart or smash the root. GE Forestry
Weyerhaeuser, International Paper, Westvaco, and Boise Cascade,
among others, are working in conjunction with the oil industry
($hell) and universities to create GE trees for herbicide tolerance,
higher growth rates, improved fiber yield/uniformity, salt
tolerance, and much much more! Douglas fir, eucalyptus, banana,
papaya, walnut, radiata pine, loblolly pine, Amerikan sweetgum,
poplar, European larch, white spruce, orange, kiwifruit, cottonwood,
alder and elm are all being genetically mutated and mutilated.
GE trees take a lot more energy, time, tools and research. For
nighttime forestry it is important to have the right tools. Saws,
hand saws, loppers, pruning tools, and ring-barking/girdling
equipment are essential. Sometimes just good old brute force can
bring down a small sapling. Or you can just snap it in two with
your gloved hands. For small seedlings, cutting and pulling work
together to make sure they not only are out of the earth, but
cannot be put back in. Apparently, our distant cousins in England
used a tool to "ring-bark" trees, which involves cutting a ring
into the bark in a complete circle, which will end the tree's life.
They also used knives to cut away the bark. The benefits of this
silent method hold great potential.
Some GE tree sites are absolutely enormous and you can easily get
lost in them. Others are small plots that won t take much time.
Research sites generally have various sizes of trees, so come
prepared accordingly. Frankentrees will most likely be out in the
fields year round and are part of long-term research. Years of
research have gone into them, so be meticulous in your work.
Nighttime forestry works because the potency of economic sabotage
is strongly felt at the frankenforest institution.
GE trees are also likely to be in pots in greenhouses at the
research sites. Greenhouses can be spray painted, stink-bombed,
broken, and have every pot within them emptied.
Appendices
A) Genetically engineered organisms that have been released in the
environment in the form of field tests by the USDA/APHIS.
Alfalfa
Amelanchier Laevis
Anthurium andreanum
Apple
Arab. Thaliana
Arabidopsis
Aspergillus flavus
Barley
Beet
Belledonna
Brassica oleracea
Carrot
Cephalosporium gramineum
Chrysantheum
Cichorium intybus
Clavibacter
Calvibacter xyli
Coffee
Corn
Cotton
Cranberry
Creeping bentgrass
Cryphonectria parsitica
Cucumber
Cucurbita texana
E.Coli
Eggplant
Fetsuca
Fusarium graminearum
Fusarium moniliforme
Fusarium sporotrichiodes
Gladiolus
Grape
Grapefruit
Heterorhabditis bactriophora
Kentucky bluegrass
Lettuce
Melon
Metaseilus occidentalis
Oat
Onion
Papaya
Pea
Peanut
Pear
Pelargonium
Pepper
Persimmon
Petunia
Pine
Pineapple
Pink bollworm
Plum
Poplar
Populus deltoides
Potato
Pseudomonas
Pseudomonas putida
Pseudomonas syringae
Rapeseed
Rhizobium
Rhizobium etli
Rhizobium fredii
Rhizobium leguminosarum
Rhizobium melioti
Rice
Rubus idaeus
Soybean
Spruce
Squash
Strawberry
Sugrabean
Sunflower
Sweet Potato
Sweetgum
TEV
TMV
Tobacco
Tomato
Walnut
Watermelon
Wheat
Xanthomonas
Xanthomonas campestris
B) Links/Resources:
Bioengineering Action Network
links to more research, action news, etc.
http://www.tao.ca/~ban
--Genetix Alert
Receives anonymous communiques from nighttime gardeners and
communicates with the press.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--There are so many resources on the internet for locating sites
and researchers that space does not allow for further information.
But it's all out there for you to learn!
********
****** The A-Infos News Service ******
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