Credits: Langelle Photography
A week of protests is under way against the International Tree Biotechnology 2013 conference in Asheville, North Carolina, from 25th May to 1st June. ArborGen, one of the conference sponsors, wants to commercially sell millions of GE eucalyptus trees in seven southern US states from South Carolina to Texas. Eucalyptus trees are a documented invasive species and are explosively flammable. The US Forest Service reports they will use twice the water of native trees. ArborGen claims GE trees can be used for climate change mitigation. The groups protesting the conference say GE trees are a false solution to climate change and will actually worsen it.
+ Press release about the protests by the Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered (GE) Trees, Global Justice Ecology Project, Earth First!, Dogwood Alliance, Biofuelwatch, Global Forest Coalition, REAL Cooperative
+ Article by Rachel Smolker: Genetically Engineered Trees and Glowing Synthetic Plants? No Thanks