A protest Monday morning outside the Monsanto-owned Seminis Inc. seed plant west of Woodland resulted in the arrests of 10 people, according to the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office.
Sgt. Matt Davis said a group of protesters sat down in front of the plant’s main driveway at about 5:25 a.m., blocking the route for employees to enter. The Highway 16 facility has been an occasional target of objectors to Monsanto’s production of Roundup herbicide and genetically modified foods.
“The group refused to move after the action was declared unlawful and 10 individuals were then placed under arrest” for unlawful assembly, resisting an officer and blocking a driveway, Davis said. All were booked into the Yolo County Jail.
A news release from the Anti-Monsanto Project, the group behind the protest, said about half of those arrested were released from the jail shortly before 1 p.m. Monday and are scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 22 in Yolo Superior Court.
Project spokesman Bob Saunders said the Woodland action was carried out as part of “March Against Monsanto 2017,” comprising more than 400 anti-Monsanto/anti-GMO demonstrations in 47 states and 52 countries over the past week.