Vandals Damage Testing Fields In Whitman County Group Targets What It Believed To Be Genetically Altered Crops

Crime has struck Whitman County’s fields in the midst of wheat harvest.

Early last week, someone vandalized an eight-acre private test site near the tiny town of Dusty, Wash. Now, Whitman County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating.

Responding to reports of a group boasting responsibility for damage there, the Whitman county Sheriff’s office confirmed Friday that five Monsanto Corp. test plots just off State Route 26 had been damaged.

The culprit, according to an announcement from the group sent via e-mail through a separate party to news agencies, is a group of activists calling themselves the Dusty Desperadoes. The group claimed that it used machetes and scythes to destroy genetically altered canola and other crops at the property.

Sheriff Steve Tomson confirmed that about 5 percent of the plots were damaged.

The test plots, which were on private land, held canola, corn, and winter- and spring-planted wheat. The company has said that the field was to test a no-till crop rotation designed to help prevent soil erosion.

In their release, the Desperadoes said even though the site was there to test soil retention, Monsanto still used genetically modified plants in the rotation. They also noted that Monsanto sprays its own herbicides and pesticides on the site as part of its testing process.

A Monsanto spokesman did not return phone calls Monday.

Tomson noted that many farmers and private property owners in Whitman County use Round Up, one of Monsanto’s herbicides.

In recent years, other groups, known by names such as Cropatistas, the Concerned Maine Citizens and the Lodi Loppers, have also attacked test plots containing genetically modified plants in California and on the East Coast. They are following the suit of activists worldwide who are concerned that biotechnology may threaten both human and ecological health.

According to GenetiX, an environmental watchdog news group, about 37 such actions have taken place in North America since 1998.

This isn’t the first time activists have threatened research efforts in Whitman County.

Last winter, around the time of the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, a group identifying itself as Reclaim the Seed called for the destruction of genetically engineered crops at research sites around the state.

The researchers at WSU went on immediate alert, Tomson said.

“They have a pretty good network of alerting themselves and the various other research facilities of threats,” he said. No vandalism was reported at that time.

The latest time any attack was made on a research facility in Whitman County was likely when the Animal Liberation Front took action at Washington State University in the summer of 1991. In a raid, a group invaded a WSU research area and freed coyotes, mink and mice. The group also damaged an office and painted graffiti across a barn.

The Sheriff’s department is continuing to investigate the Dusty crime, but Tomson declined to talk about any evidence that might have been found at the scene.