Frenchman Bove on trial for wrecking genetic rice
Reuters World Report
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By Nicolas Fichot
MONTPELLIER, France, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Radical French farm
leader Jose Bove stood trial on Thursday on charges of raiding a
research centre and destroying genetically-modified rice plants
in the latest action by anti-globalisation activists.
The walrus-moustachioed Bove who shot to fame in 1999 when
he led an attack on a McDonald's hamburger restaurant in
southern France to protest against "malbouffe" (lousy food) in
general and U.S. tariffs on French cheese and foie gras in
particular, was sentenced to three months jail.
On Thursday several hundred militants marched to the court
with Bove, who faces up to five years in prison and a fine if
convicted of breaking into the Cirad research institute in the
southern city of Montpellier in June 1999 and damaging public
property.
"Today we do not need to burn our hand in a flame to know
that there is a danger, the experiments confirming the danger
are more than sufficient," Bove, a 47-year-old sheep farmer,
told journalists before the trial began.
Several dozen police surrounded the court building where
Bove took the dock alongside two other defendants, while
sympathisers set up an impromptu market selling rural produce in
a nearby square to demonstrate against industrial farming.
Prosecutors appealed against the three-month sentence on
Bove as too lenient.
Bove joined poor Brazilian farmers last month in uprooting
rows of genetically-modified soybean at an experimental farm in
owned by U.S.-based Monsanto on the sidelines of a giant
anti-capitalism forum in Porto Allegre in Brazil.
ATTEMPTED INTIMIDATION?
Cirad said it was essential to have a public research
organisation to provide a unbiased scientific view on
genetically-modified foods and provide an alternative to
commercial research undertaken by companies.
"The rise of a public debate is an excellent thing for
everyone," a Cirad spokesman told France Info radio. "What
worries us a great deal is that a systematic attack on all
public research is not debate, it's an attempt at intimidation."
Opponents of GM crops fear they risk spreading modified
genes, risking harm to insects and human or the creation of
pesticide-resistant superweeds.
Supporters of the technology claim it is needed to develop
hardier crop types to help feed the world's poor and grow
tastier and more nutritious plants.
Bove, whose fluent English learned during a childhood stay
in the United States has helped him preach his message outside
France, has shown a sure sense of publicity in planning his
appearances.
An estimated 30,000 protesters swamped the southern French
town of Millau last June to support Bove when he went on trial
for ransacking the McDonald's restaurant there.
Bove, head of the Confederation Paysanne farmers' union,
also played a prominent role in protests at the 1999 World Trade
Organisation trade liberalisation talks in the U.S. city of
Seattle that were abandoned in the face of violence.