This week the Eucarpia congress on plant breeding takes place during the ETH in Zürich. On Tuesday (30 August 2016) activists disrupted the congress. Among other things, dung was thrown in the auditorium.
Several presentations of congress participants were disturbed by anonymous anti-GM activists. The walls were damaged with slogans and according to the police a mixture of cow dung, rotten eggs and urine was thrown in the auditorium. The damage amounted to several thousand USD, but nobody was injured. The congress was temporarily paused.
At the congress plant breeders and scientists across the disciplines of molecular genetics, bioinformatics, measurement techniques and phenomics are looking for ways to grow new and improved plant varieties for sustainable agriculture, states Agroscope.