José Bové – The Man Who Makes GMO Corn Tremble
by Charles Capaldi
Dateline - April 2, 2010 – Farmer-Pirate news captured from the French press
As most of Europe slid into a languorous Easter weekend, stalks of genetically engineered corn the world over trembled in fear. The Correctional Tribunal of Béziers (France) had found José Bové guilty of damaging a field of transgenic corn … again.
“José who?” A household name in France and in many parts of the world, José Bové (pronounced /Josay Bovay/) is best known on this side of the Atlantic for his involvement in the destruction of a McDonald’s in southern France in 1999. José is the French diminutive form of Joseph, but this guy definitely isn’t your average Joe.
José Bove going incognito as a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese
A vocal small farm leader in France, a farmer-pirate, activist — a skilled one at that, as you can see from his seamless McDonald’s Big Mac disguise — Bové is well-known for non-violent acts of civil disobedience … Non-violent, unless you happen to be a stalk of GMO corn in Brazil, or a McDonald’s franchise trying to get a foothold in a medieval town.
Sure, the milk from his flock of dairy sheep is transformed into Roquefort cheese, like that of the other members of his dairy coop. But how many activist shepherds do you know who also serve as a Member of the European Parliament? Elected under the banner of the Europe Écologie party, he is the vice-chair of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and a member of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance.
It all started back in 1976 when Bové joined a band of peasant-farmers who were building a sheep barn on public grazing land, all in an effort to oppose the extension of a military camp that would otherwise have displaced shepherds on France’s Larzac Plateau. The protest succeeded. The military expansion was halted and Bové was tried and convicted of destroying documents belonging to the French military. After, and perhaps as a result of that experience, he became a sheep farmer producing Roquefort cheese, a style of artisanal cheese better known as ‘bleu cheese’ here in North America.
Bleu de la Moutonnière (Photo courtesy of Fromagerie la Moutonnière)
He continued on the farmer-pirate path, forming the Confédération Paysanne (The Confederation of Farmers) in 1987, a farmer’s union that promotes organic agriculture, emphasizing humans and the environment rather than profits and maximum production.
In 1999, Bové made world news as a result of his involvement in the “dismantling” of a McDonald’s franchise in Millau, a town in southern France famous for the world’s longest and highest viaduct spanning the valley of the River Tarn. McDonalds’ was importing hormone-treated beef from the United States and imposing punitive tariffs on certain French imports. Among them was the Roquefort cheese made from sheep’s milk by some of the very same farmers who would later dismantle the McDonalds franchise with their bare hands and screw drivers. Never underestimate the power of a pissed off farmer! The act was alternately perceived as an act of terrorism or of non-violent resistance depending on which side of the fence you were standing. For his involvement, Bové was sentenced to three months in prison.
1999 was a busy year for Bové, who came to Seattle to participate in protests against the World Trade Organization. Since then, he has redoubled his efforts in the Worldwide Peasant and Anti-Globalization Movement. Ironically, he contends that he isn’t against globalization as a matter of course. He just wants greater clarity and transparency in globalization rules.
More to the point, in opposition to the efforts of many large firms in the profit-oriented agribusiness sector, Bové has remained a steadfast opponent of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In 2001, he participated in a large action to destroy GMO crops in Brazil. In 2003, he began serving a ten month sentence for the destruction of GMO crops in France, although he received a general pardon on Bastille Day, and his sentence was subsequently commuted to seven months by then President Jacques Chirac. In 2005, the Toulouse Court of Appeals sentenced Bové to 4 months in jail for the destruction of GMO corn from yet another field – other defendants received suspended sentences.
Bové and Greenpeace - A Campaign against GMOs
One of twelve French presidential candidates in the 2007 elections (which is a bit like Wendell Berry running for Vice President and having the visibility of Al Gore or Sarah Palin), Bové is associated with Europe Écologie, a coalition of French environmentalist parties, including the Green Party. The coalition garnered 16% of the pan European vote when Bové was elected to the European Parliament in 2009. Meanwhile, the Bush Administration was busy treating him as a moral terrorist. En route to speak at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations for an event sponsored by Cornell’s Global Labor Institute, Bové was intercepted by U.S. Border Patrol and Customs officers and informed that he was “ineligible” to enter the U.S. because of “moral crimes.” He returned to Paris on an Air France flight several hours later.
Which brings us right back to the front page of the French paper on April 2, 2010 where Bové is once again being charged for destroying GMO corn. The translated text of the article follows or you can read it in the original French at Le Monde.
[TRANSLATION BEGINS ...
On Friday, April 2nd, the correctional tribunal of Béziers, found European Deputy José Bové guilty of damaging a field of genetically modified (GMO) corn growing in Murviel-lès-Béziers in August of 2007. Deputy Bové was fined and ordered to pay 1,500€ / 2,025 $US in damages. The Prosecutor of the Republic [the equivalent of a State's Attorney in the United States] originally requested a 12,000€ / 16,200 $US fine (200 days fined at 60€ / 81 $US) at the February 5th hearing. But on Friday, the charges were downgraded from “public gathering with intent to destroy”, to “willful and voluntary light damage”.
Deputy José Bové, who was not present at the sentencing, will also be held responsible for paying 60€ / 81 $US in interest and damages. “Justice,” the European Member of Parliament said, “understands that the intent of our demonstration was to sensitize people, to help them understand our struggle against GMOs, especially since this demonstration was undertaken before the moratorium” against GMO crops adopted by France. “The interest and damages for which we are being held responsible prove that it was not our intent to destroy, but rather to take action as a way to alert others,” he added.
On February 5th, prosecutor Patrick Mathé, acknowledged that more than two years had passed since the incident and that France had adopted a moratorium against GMO crops in the meantime. “None of this excuses the fact that an illegal course of action was undertaken,” Mr. Mathé pointed out. Defense attorneys asked for leniency. On Friday, Mr. Bové indicated that he would not file an appeal.
…TRANSLATION ENDS]