Greenpeace undertook a direct action on a farm near Lyng, Norfolk, England, on 26 July 1999. Twenty-eight activist volunteers, including Greenpeace executive director Peter Mond, 4th Baron Melchett, cut down part of a field containing genetically modified (GM) maize owned by agro-chemical company AgrEvo (later Aventis, now Plant Genetic Systems) on Walnut Tree Farm. While it was part of a larger movement by Greenpeace against GM crops, the inclusion of Melchett and the number of arrests led it to be particularly well-covered in the national press. The eventual acquittal of the activists of theft and criminal damage was seen as a "landmark legal verdict" for activism against GM crops by BBC News.
Background
Walnut Tree Farm was an area of farmland on the outskirts of Lyng, Norfolk, owned by the Brigham family of William, Eddie and John Brigham, who had been a farming family for almost 300 years. William owned Walnut Tree Farm, was the eldest member of the family, and was the former chair of the Norfolk National Farmers' Union (NFU). William had accepted a trial of GM maize by the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE) on behalf of the UK Government, the biotechnology industry, English Nature, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, as part of a four-year farm-scale government trial of various GM crops over seven plots of land, including experimental T25 maize made by the Norfolk agro-chemical company AgrEvo. The maize was modified to be more tolerant to the ArgEvo Liberty pesticide, as well as more resistant to insect damage, making it a potential alternative to pesticides that featured atrazine. The Lyng crop was planted in May 1999, covered a 2.4 hectare field of maize, and was expected to flower in August before being harvested in October. Brigham surrounded the crop with a 300 metre gap to prevent contamination, which was more than the ITE reccomendation of 100 metres.
The action was one of the 30 GM crop destructions that had also occurred in the UK in the past 15 months, from which 60 people were arrested and 3 were remanded. 3 of the 7 large-scale trials of GM crops in the UK were cut down by protesters. Earlier actions included the full destruction of a field of GM potatoes outside Cambridge in December 1997, during which activists engaged in a game of cricket and used the potatoes as cricket balls. Also that month, Human Genome Project members painted a large X across a rapeseed farm in Scotland, and demonstrators pulled up a crop of spring wheat in Lincolnshire. Four activists from the small group Genetix Snowball uprooted 200 rapeseed plants being grown by Monsanto at a farm in Watlington, Oxfordshire in 1998.
Lyng public meeting and preparations
William Brigham had given an interview to the Eastern Daily Press about the AgrEvo deal, which prompted villagers in Lyng to hold a public meeting about the crop trial at its village hall. Brigham received a letter inviting him to the discussion but did not attend, under advice from AgrEvo. Lyng villagers would later state after the incident that the brothers had "consulted no one" before beginning the trial. The environmental organisation Greenpeace had already been opposed to the use of GM maize at the time, with Peter Mond, 4th Baron Melchett, former Labour minister, Norfolk farmer, and executive director of the organisation, being particularly vocal and attending the meeting himself. He was described by a meeting organiser as "very persuasive." Melchett later wrote to Brigham, asking him to discontinue the trial. Brigham gave another interview to Farmers Weekly shortly after the letter, and said that the maize was due to flower within a week, prompting local Greenpeace activists to begin planning for the protest, though the international branch of Greenpeace was reportedly opposed to the action. Trials of T25 maize had been banned in Switzerland weeks earlier, further persuading Melchett to take action. After the protest, Melchett would state that "it was vital that the crop was removed before it flowered, spreading GM pollution. Locals had urged the government to destroy the crop. The authorities are not taking the correct action and unfortunately it has fallen to Greenpeace to protect everyone's interests."