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June 24, 2003 LENGTH: 283 words HEADLINE: POLICE AND PROTESTERS CLASH AT GM SUMMIT BYLINE: Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles BODY: ANTI-GLOBALISATION protesters clashed with riot police for a second day yesterday as an international ministerial meeting on genetically modified foods began in the Californian capital, Sacramento. A loose coalition of organic farmers, celebrity chefs - including Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley - world hunger campaigners and critics of US trade policy have descended on Sacramento to accuse Washington of putting pressure on other countries to accept GM crops, to the detriment of biodiversity and small farmers worldwide. On Sunday, up to 2,000 demonstrators rallied and symbolically laid down organic seedbeds before riot police pushed them away from an Imax theatre where delegates were gathering, and sporadic violence broke out. Police said they made 15 arrests. Yesterday, the numbers were expected to swell to mark the first full day of the meeting, attended by ministers from more than 100 countries. Protesters said police had already ripped up their seedbeds. Police say they are determined not to let the event turn into a re-run of the "Battle of Seattle", the founding moment of the anti-globalisation movement in 1999 when tens of thousands of protesters shut down a World Trade Organisation meeting.
Organisers of the Ministerial Conference and Expo on Agricultural Science and Technology say they are interested in sharing ideas and reducing world hunger, not expanding the power of US agribusiness corporations.
However, the meeting coincides with the bitter dispute over the European Union's refusal to admit GM imports on to its market. Some African countries have also questioned whether GM crops will really feed their starving populations. Copyright 2003 Independent Newspapers (UK) Limited
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