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It was a rather dreary day on Saturday, May 25 as a group of people from all walks of life took upon Superior St. and Lake Ave. in protest of the American biotech giant Monsanto. There was no specific group responsible for the rally and march but members of Occupy Duluth, Northwoods Wolf Alliance, Socialist Action and Organic Consumers Association and the anti-sulfide mining group WaterLegacy were all present. Two separate rallies were planned without any actual prior connection to each other, one at at 11 am, another at 1 pm. The two groups converged and held chants on the street corner.  

The guest speaker at the rally, Jamie Harvie, noted “we also need to organize‚Ķfrom Ashland, Wisconsin to Grand Rapids, Michigan, from Grand Marais down to Moose Lake we have this study that finds that we can grow our own food‚Ķso we can do it here, we’ve got the know how.”

Approximately one-hundred people were gathered in the early afternoon before the march. Although the numbers were relatively few, they were joined the same day by people all over the world in 52 countries in 436 cities. Crowds ranged from 6,000 protesters in Portland, Oregon to 80 protesters in Birmingham, Alabama where there has been a sharp decline in bee populations that some say has been tied to Monsanto’s products.

While people have taken to the streets over Monsanto’s U.S. Government protected growth, Countries such as Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, New Zealand, Russia, France and Switzerland have put a halt to Monsanto’s activity. In Hungary a regulation stating that seeds must be checked for GMOs was not quite tight enough and some GMO seeds made it out to farmers. In order to contain the GMO crops from natural ones, Hungary destroyed nearly 1,000 acres of corn to assure that the DNA would not spread. The numbers may have been light in Duluth for the march, but others around the world have taken the issue very seriously with things like “superweeds,” “superpests,” and the question of long term sustainability as well as toxins that are within the products that have all been associated with Monsanto.

As it was approaching 2 pm, the group decided to march through Canal Park. They headed out in a line over I-35 on to Canal Park Dr., they cut around on Buchanan St. in front of the Dewitt Seitz Center and up Lake Ave. passing numerous restaurants along the way. They held out for awhile in front of NBC’s KBJR Channel 6 news station before moving back over the highway back to the rally point.

The event was peaceful and the only interaction with police was initially about the issue of using a bullhorn, which is normally prohibited in Duluth during such event but was allowed for the day by officers.