Earth Liberation Front Terrorist Gets 22 Years in Prison for Anti-Biotech Arson

The Associated Press reports the good news that justice has been done 10 years after Earth Liberation Front radicals set fire to a Michigan State University crop biotech laboratory:

A radical activist who helped set a $1 million fire to protest research on genetically modified crops was sentenced Thursday to nearly 22 years in prison _ even more than the prosecution recommended.

Marie Mason decided to "elevate her grievances beyond the norms of civilized society" through fire and destruction, U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney said. The case _ which was prosecuted as domestic terrorism _ was "about an abandonment of the marketplace of ideas," he added.

What frankenfood horror was Mason trying to prevent?

At MSU, Mason and [her then-husband] Ambrose targeted a campus office that held records on research related to moth-resistant potatoes for poor parts of Africa. Computers, file cabinets and desks were doused with a flammable liquid. Vapors contributed to an explosion, and the fire got out of control.

Whole story here.

Addendum: Obviously one can't be sure that the potatoes under development at MSU would have made it out of the lab, but they sure would have been useful in West Africa right now where swarms of moth caterpillars are ravaging food crops:

The black, hairy caterpillars are about three centimeters long and are spreading quickly as adult moths can fly great distances at night.,,

The areas affected are some of Liberia's richest agricultural zones where much of the nation's cassava, plantains, bananas, and potatoes are grown.