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EXTRACTS: The property's problems began in March, when some 300 activists from international agrarian reform group, Via Campesina, invaded the property and prohibited Syngenta employees from entering the site. A Parana judge ordered them to leave the property on Nov. 1, and most of them had gone by Nov. 4, Syngenta said.

But a week later, Requiao decreed that the state would take possession of the property because of its alleged conflict with environmental laws and GMO. Four days later, Via Campesina invaded the property again...

The property has 12 hectares of GMO soybeans and corn.

On Wednesday, the local Landless Rural Workers Movement, better known as MST, said dozens of individuals were marching toward the Syngenta property.
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Syngenta Property In Brazil Said Likely To Be Expropriated
Kenneth Rapoza
Dow Jones, December 1 2006

A 123-hectare experimental farm owned by Syngenta Seeds (SYT) is in the crosshairs of the Parana state government and likely to be expropriated for alleged illegal planting of genetically modified corn and soybeans on the border of Iguacu National Park, a government spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Syngenta is one of Brazil's largest researchers of genetically modified organisms. The company sells agrochemicals.

The property is located in western Parana state, two kilometers away from the Igaucu National Park. The park is home to the 2.5 mile-long Iguacu Falls, considered a National Heritage of Mankind by the United Nations. Parana's governor, Roberto Requiao, known for his anti-GMO position in the past by banning exports of GMO soybeans from the Paranagua Port, said Syngenta was breaking a federal law that prohibits GMO plants within 500 meters of public parks. The Syngenta property is closer to the park than that, but was permitted by the federal government's biosafety agency, CTNBio, to run the experiments on site, a CTNBio spokeswoman told Dow Jones Newswires recently.

Syngenta said it was studying its legal options at this time.

The property's problems began in March, when some 300 activists from international agrarian reform group, Via Campesina, invaded the property and prohibited Syngenta employees from entering the site. A Parana judge ordered them to leave the property on Nov. 1, and most of them had gone by Nov. 4, Syngenta said.

But a week later, Requiao decreed that the state would take possession of the property because of its alleged conflict with environmental laws and GMO. Four days later, Via Campesina invaded the property again, claiming they had to harvest some of the crops they planted for food while they were camped on the property over the past nine months.

The property has 12 hectares of GMO soybeans and corn.

On Wednesday, the local Landless Rural Workers Movement, better known as MST, said dozens of individuals were marching toward the Syngenta property.

Both Via Campesina and MST regularly invade property to force the government to change its land and farm policies. Both groups are against GMO.

The local Estado newswire reported Wednesday that the government was considering turning the site into a research center on ecological-friendly farming. A government spokeswoman said there was no definitive date for the property to change hands at this time.