"The families of farmers are denouncing the devastation Monsanto is producing with transgenic soya," said a member of Via Campesina. (item 1)

Express support for the NZ protesters (item 2):
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4848

1.World Social Forum protests transgenic foods
2.Arrests at Rotorua GE protest
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1.World Social Forum protests transgenic foods
http://www.terradaily.com/2005/050128175927.ff74oab1.html [shortened]

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (AFP) Jan 28, 2005

A hundred environmental groups, from Greenpeace to Brazil's Landless Peasant Movement, on Friday protested genetically modified foods outside Monsanto offices here.

Groups at the annual World Social Forum in this southern Brazilian city have been protesting globalization and unfettered capitalism, as well as the US war in Iraq.

The annual meeting is billed as a counter to the World Economic Forum, of world leaders currently meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Demonstrators outside US-based Monsanto chanted and carried a banner saying, "Monsanto: Don't play with our food and future."

"The families of farmers are denouncing the devastation Monsanto is producing with transgenic soya," said Paul Nicholson, a member of international peasants organization Via Campesina.

Nicholson said the protest had been coordinated with members of Via Campesina and Greenpeace who on Friday boarded a freighter on the high seas laden with 32,000 tonnes of transgenic soy from Argentina, headed to France.

A female theater troupe, Loucas de Pedra Lilas, from Recife, Brazil, clowned in Uncle Sam outfits to protest US promotion of transgenic foods.

Meanwhile, a British group, Stop the War, asked participants of the WSF to join a worldwide mobilization on March 20 to mark the second anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.
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2.Arrests at Rotorua GE protest
TVNZ, Jan 30, 2005
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_national_story_skin/471228%3fformat=html

Four people have been arrested at a protest in Rotorua over genetically modified pine trees.

Police say about 40 protesters marched to the Forest Research Institute, where two field trials of the trees are being carried out.

Police and security staff formed a line in front of the trial site and told protesters not to go any further. However, they say three people persisted and two have been charged with trespass and another with disorderly behaviour. A fourth person has been charged with obstructing police and resisting arrest.

A spokeswoman for the protest group, Felicity Perry, says they want the trials ended because they are akin to starting a bushfire to find out how badly it burns.