Genetically-modified food shipment halted in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- A freighter left Brazil's southern port of Paranagua after Greenpeace environmental activists tied themselves to mechanical loaders Saturday to prevent the ship from mixing conventional soybeans with genetically modified grain. \nThe freighter's destination wasn't immediately known. It had originally been bound for Turkey, Greenpeace said. \nThe activists, all members of the environmental group Greenpeace, chained themselves to the top of the loaders at 11:30 p.m. Friday, shortly before the Global Wind docked in the port, 375 miles south of Rio de Janeiro, a representative for the group said.\nThe loaders take the grain from silos to freighters.\nAccording to Greenpeace, the ship was already carrying 30,000 tons of genetically modified soybeans and came to Paranagua to add another 10,000 tons of natural product, all destined for Turkey.\n"It is a great day for us. It tells us it is possible to keep this port clean of genetically modified grain," said Greenpeace spokeswoman Mariana Paoli, interviewed from Paranagua by telephone. "We are acting to protect our soy production from contamination with the genetically modified product."\nThe activists tied to the loaders said they began to celebrate the departure of the ship as soon as they noticed it was readying to leave. \n"It is a victory for us. We couldn't be happier," Leticia Camargo, one of the Greenpeace activists, told The Associated Press by telephone. She said she was speaking from the top of one of the loaders as the Global Wind was departing. \n"It shows that peaceful actions yield results when people are determined to attain an objective," she said. \nThe whole cargo belongs to the U.S. agricultural giant Bunge, she said.\nThe action by Greenpeace is part of a campaign to support Brazil's ban on genetically modified soybeans. The ban was weakened slightly this year when one of Brazil's 26 states -- Rio Grande do Sul, which borders Argentina -- passed a temporary law allowing producers to use modified seeds.\nThere was no answer to repeated calls to the Port Authority in Paranagua.\nPaoli said the activists want more government support for conventional soybean farmers, to increase production and compete with the genetically modified product.\nThe group also wants the government to start labeling all products sold to consumers, indicating whether they contain genetically modified products.\nBrazil is the world's second-largest soybean producer after the United States. Brazil's conventional soy exports go mainly to Europe, where genetically modified soy is banned because of uncertainty over the long-term health effects.