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Attempt made to inform ArborGen of quarter of a million petition signers rejecting GE Trees
Ridgeville, SC (28 September 2015) — A plan by activists to inform Andrew Baum, President and CEO of ArborGen that over 250,000 people signed letters and petitions [1] rejecting Genetically Engineered (GE) Trees was interrupted when police arrested the two people who intended to deliver that message.
Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project and Coordinator of the international Campaign to Stop Genetically Engineered Trees Anne Petermann, and Global Justice Ecology Project’s GE Tree Campaign organizer, Ruddy Turnstone were stopped by police and arrested.
The letters and petitions rejecting GE Trees and international protests mark a growing concern about the dangers of GE Trees and the threats they pose to the environment. ArborGen is developing genetically engineered loblolly pine trees with no public input, no risk assessments and no method for the public to receive information about ArborGen’s activities.
Outside of ArborGen facilities, demonstrators did a guerrilla theater skit demanding that ArborGen “Tear Down the Wall” of secrecy surrounding the secret information being withheld by ArborGen.
Petermann and Turnstone were to be arraigned at 4 p.m. (eastern US time).
