3 August 2002

ACTIVIST FARMER GETS OUT OF PRISON

Taken from "The Make Jose Bove Serve His Time Petition" written by Andura Smetacek on behalf of AgBioWorld:

"Jose Bove is a Fasist (sic) and I would prefer that civil society dealt with him through legal means than requiring another generation of young men to take up arms to once again stem the tide of facism (sic)."  Dr. Stevens M. Brumbley

"Good job! Let Jailbird Jose serve his time and help the humanity!" - Prof CS Prakash

1. Activist Farmer Gets Out of Prison
2. WHY FRENCH FARMERS DESTROYED GE MAIZE
3. Bove vs Novartis - BACKGROUND
4. Smetacek vs Bove

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1. Activist Farmer Gets Out of Prison

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-eur/2002/aug/01/080107516.html
By JEAN-MARC AUBERT
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VILLENEUVE-LES-MAGUELONE, France - Activist farmer Jose Bove emerged from a French prison Thursday, thinner but smiling under his trademark mustache, after serving 40 days for ransacking a McDonald's restaurant.

The anti-globalization crusader met his cheering supporters outside the prison in the southern town of Villeneuve-les-Maguelone, championing a new cause - the defense of prisoners' rights.

Bove, 49, was serving out the remainder of a three-month sentence for using farm equipment to tear down a McDonald's being built in the southern town of Millau three years ago, a protest against globalization.

Bove, who staged a hunger strike during most of his prison term, told 1,000 supporters that his incarceration was tolerable but expressed sympathy for his fellow inmates.

"I'm thinking about those who are going to spend many months behind the walls of this prison," Bove told supporters, some with banners that read, "Solidarity with Jose."

"I can tell you they are suffering," he said.

Bove said he had received about 2,000 letters a day from supporters, "which isn't the case for most of the prisoners, who are lonely and abandoned."

The radical farmer subsisted on water and orange juice alone from the start of his incarceration in mid-June until the national Bastille Day holiday on July 14, his lawyer Francois Roux said recently. Roux said Bove had lost about 22 pounds.

Bove plans to leave in a few days for a vacation on his small sailboat with his companion, Ghislaine Ricez.

The farmer gained notoriety in August 1999, when he and nine others used farm equipment to dismantle the McDonald's in Millau. But their protest only delayed construction of the restaurant, which now is in operation.

However, Bove faces other charges that could force him to return to jail.

A court in the southern town of Foix is expected to announce Sept. 16 whether Bove must go back to jail for up to 14 months for his role in ripping up genetically modified crops in two separate incidents.

The sheep farmer is the leader of a campaign against what he calls "foul food" - including genetically modified crops and fast food.

Bove, a leader of the Farmer's Confederation, has recently been advocating other causes.

Last spring, he met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank town of Ramallah in defiance of Israeli soldiers who surrounded Arafat's compound. Bove was then ordered deported by Israel.

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2. WHY FRENCH FARMERS DESTROYED GE MAIZE

http://www.warmwell.com/confedpaysanne.htm

What follows is a moving account of why the French Farmers from Confederation Paysanne destroyed GE maize. It is written by Jose Bove, one of the farmers that stood trial for this 'crime'

Madame,

Today, I am present in this court together with Rene Riesel and Francis Roux, accused of committing a serious crime according to the law. The alleged crime is: the destruction of sacks of genetically modified maize.

Yes, this is serious, and that's why I assume full responsibility for it. I am not going to hide behind collective, anonymous responsibility. As a trade unionist in the Confederation Paysanne, I believe in the ability of everyone to act as an individual. There is no place in our trade union for a hierarchy of responsibility. Each member of the union plays a main part in her or his own future, and is fully engaged in this. The strength of our union movement rests on this determination to mobilise free individuals who accept all the consequences of their acts knowing fully the motive for them.

Yes, on the 8th of January I participated in the destruction of genetically modified maize, which was stored in Novartis's grain silos in Nerac. (And the only regret I have now, is that I wasn't able to destroy more of it.) I knew that by acting in this way I was doing something illegal. But it was necessary, and we had no other choice. The way in which genetically modified agricultural products have have been imposed on European countries didn't leave us with any alternative.

When was there a public debate on gentically modified organisms? When were farmers and consumers asked what they think about this? Never.

The decisions have been taken at the level of the World Trade Organisation, and state machinery complies with the law of market forces. The WTO dictates its own law on the opening of trade barriers. The obligation to import bovine somatotrophine meat from the USA is a good example of this. The Panel of the WTO, the true policeman of world trade, decides what's "good" for both countries and their people, without consultation or a right of appeal.

The countries or groups of countries which refuse the importation of bovine somatotrophine meat or genetically modified products have to prove that these are dangerous, and not the inverse! The Codex Alimentaris, the norm dictated by the multinationals, is there to fix the rules of the game! Why refuse something which is presented as "progress"? It's not because of old fashionedness, or regret for the"good old days". It's because of concern for the future, and because of a will to have a say in future development. I am not opposed to fundamental research. I think that it would be illusory and detrimental to want to curb it. On the other hand, I don't think that every applcation of research is necessarily desired, at the human, social or environmental level.

The current discussion on cloning is like the one on genetic modifications. Is everything that is possible actually desired by and gainful for people?

Today, no intelligent person can say that genetically modifed maize is an example of progress, neither for agriculture, nor for the economy. On the other hand, the greatest concerns surrounding genetically modified maize are as equally important for human health as for nature.

Novartis's Bt maize is associated with multiple long-term risks because of the presence of the three introduced genes. Even the director of Novartis recognises that a "zero risk simply doesn't exist". Is this an admission of powerlessness, or a way in which to cast aside his future responsibility in case there are problems? The problems arising today with certain agricultural practices (such as animal-based feeds, the effects on bee populations etc.) only serve to reinforce our caution when dealing with the sorcerer's apprentices.

The biggest danger which genetically modified maize represents, as well as all the other GMOs, is the impossibility of evaluating the long-term consequences of their use, and to follow their effects on the environment, animals and humans.

No separation of genetically modified and non-manipulated products is carried out. For example, non-manipulated and genetically modified soya are actually mixed together when they arrive in France. As a result, there is no way of tracing the genetically modified soya. There is no choice left, neither for the producer, of which I am one, nor for the consumer, amongst whom we all number. What's going to happen about the French AOC label which verifies the origin of a product, and other labels which indicate quality?

What guaranteee can we offer to those who claim to eat healthy products? This type of culture also poses a threat to the future of farmers. For some decades productionism has served to enslave farmers. From being a producer, the farmer has now become someone who is exploited, who can no longer decide on her or his way of managing the land, nor freely choose her or his techniques for this. However, a real revolution has been taking place for the last 15 years amongst members of the Confederation Paysanne, who have put this other type of agriculture back into action. Today, more and more farmers lay claim to a farmer's agriculture, which is more autonomous, economic, and which integrates problems associated with the environment, employment, and regional planning. We are faced with a real choice for society. Either we accept intensive production and the huge reduction in the number of farmers in the sole interests of the World Market, or, we create a farmer's agriculture for the benefit of everyone.

Genetically modified maize is also the symbol of a system of agriculture and a type of society which I refuse to accept. Genetically modified maize is purely the product of technology, where the means become the end. Political choices are swept aside by the power of money.

Agriculture is a perfect illustration of this type of logic, which pervades every facet of food production. Agricultural production has now become the agro-industry. From the farmers who formed their small cooperatives, we have seen a conversion to the firms who have rationalized their systems of production in order to maximize profits on their investments. Since the 1920s, maize in the USA has been hybridized in order to oblige all farmers to buy seeds through a trust.

The trusts merged in order to invest in new techniques, which were capable of releasing new profits. Novartis, the world's leading pharmaceutical group, invests billions in order to remain number one: they sell seeds, herbicides, pesticides and medicines. But competition is strong, and as a result of the merger which took place between two of their main competitors last week, they have announced a plan to lay-off 2000 employees in order to assure their shareholders of the profitablility of the company.

Is it this kind of logic we want? No - I reject this lurch forwards where the aim of the economy isn't to satisfy needs, but is merely production for production's sake, without any link to the interests of the individual or the whole.

Do we need genetically modified maize in Europe? No - in 1997 the maize production increased yet again. It's overflowing the silos. The European Union has to stock the excess. And who's got to pay for this - citizens. Who needs these new seeds? No-one - it's only Novartis who wants to get the returns on its investment and remain the number one pharmaceutical group in the world!

By destroying the genetically modified maize seeds on the 8th of January at the Novartis factory in Nerac, we wanted to put this short-sighted logic into the spotlight.

A democratic debate simply doesn't exist. The conspiracy of silence organised by the companies and the sovereign states is the sole logic which prevails. Like with the blood contaminated with the HIV virus, or mad cow disease, the public mustn't be alarmed. Everything has to be allowed to continue in silence.

By appearing before you today, I'm aware of being in breach of the law which wants every citizen to be content with expressing her or his views by simply putting their vote in the urn every six years.

But it's not in this way that social and economic problems are resolved - on the contrary. Through the action which we undertook and for which we are being judged, we kicked-off a vast citizen's movement which refuses the use of GMOs in foodstuffs for animals and for humans. These actions will stop when this mad logic comes to a halt.

Yes, this action was illegal, but I lay claim to it because it was legitimate. I don't demand clemency, but justice. Either we have acted in everyone's interest and you will acquit us, or we have shaken the establishment and in that case you will punish us.

There is no other issue. 3rd February 1998, Agen, France JOSE BOVE

Contacts: Parliamentary office of scientific and technological evaluation, tel: +33 1 40 63 88 19;
http://www.mygale.org/00/confpays/qsn.htm
Confidiration Paysanne:
http://www.mygale.org/00/confpays/qsn.htm
tel: +33 1 43 62 04 04.

***

3. BACKGROUND

http://www.warmwell.com/confedpaysanne.htm

On January 8th 1998, one hundred and twenty members of the Confederation Paysanne the 2nd largest French Farmers Union, entered a Novartis conditioning and storage plant/stocking factory in Nirac (France) and destroyed transgenic (GE) maize seeds. This was in order to protest against the decision of the French government last November, to clear the production of gene-altered maize, thus reversing a ban on cultivation imposed by the previous conservative government. After looking around, they finally found 5 tons of transgenic maize which they mixed up with non-modified maize before humidifying it - rendering it useless.

The modified maize has been at the centre of European debate over the use of genetic technologies in agriculture for over a year, with Austria and Luxembourg maintaining national import bans despite EU marketing approval given in December 1996. Genetically modified to resist attack by the European corn borer through the addition of the "bacterial toxin gene", the Novartis maize is also herbicide resistant and contains an antibiotic resistance gene introduced as a marker. Novartis has estimated the damages to 30 tons (more or less 2 to 5.000.000 FF) and claimed 1 million US Dollars in damages (the five tons of seeds destroyed were apparently total seed, kept in cold storage).

Three of the people involved were arrested and put on trial on the 3rd of February. Coinciding with the start of the trial, a coalition of consumers, farmers and environment groups launched a campaign to reverse the French government decision allowing the cultivation of the genetically altered maize. The weekend before the trial opponents of GE staged protests at two Novartis sites in northern and central France.

During the trial the court was packed out and about a thousand people gathered outside. About eleven varied and distinguished witnesses addressed the court on the folies of GM maize. Sentence was passed on February 18th. Rene Reisel and Jose Bove face an 8 month suspended prison sentences and Francis Roux 5 months. Novartis, which owned the maize, was awarded FFr500,000 (Ecu75,000) in compensation.

Although the act of the farmers was made in the public interest, and aimed to bring to full attention the political expediency, scientific deficit and lack of democracy of the imposition of genetechnologies, and specifically the maize, the judge was not really interested. The farmers were given heavy sentences. It is not clear whether the three farmers will appeal the decision or whether they will agree to pay Novartis.

Reni Riesel, one of the farmers involved, is national secretary of Confederation Paysanne, which represents smaller farmers, the association has strongly supported the three defendants during the trial. Though a "guilty" verdict was never in doubt, the case has sparked broader discussions in France over the risks and benefits of using genetically modified crops in agriculture.

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4. ANDURA SMETACEK HAS A WEBSITE!

https://members.tripod.com/~ngin/240602a.htm

Doubtless there will be much glee in some quarters at the jailing of
Jose Bove - not least, amongst those behind "The Make Jose Bove Serve His Time Petition".

The petition has attracted some fervent support. Dr. Stevens M. Brumbley, for instance, writes, "Jose Bove is a Fasist (sic) and I would prefer that civil society dealt with him through legal means than requiring another generation of young men to take up arms to once again stem the tide of facism (sic)."
[http://www.PetitionOnline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?cinagro4&51]

Dr. Brumbley, interestingly, also made clear his support for the attacks on Berkeley researcher Ignacio Chapela over his Mexican maize paper. He told CS Prakash's AgBioView list that those protesting at the character of the attacks on Chapela were undermining, "the very pillars upon which modern day science rests"!
[https://members.tripod.com/~ngin/280202a.htm]

According to the website of the 'Independent Greens', the Bove petition is an "international grassroots effort... to ensure that the French anti-technology radical be forced to go to jail".
[http://www.igreens.org.uk/make_jose_bove_serve_his_time.htm]

According to PetitionOnline.com, however, the contents of this "grassroots effort" were "written by Andura Smetacek". [bottom of the page: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/cinagro4/petition.html]

Sadly, Andura's "grassroots effort" doesn't seem to have garnered much support. Nor does everyone listed on the petition support its aims.

For instance, amongst those who've recently added their name:  77. George Monbiot   If anyone wants to see who "Andura Smetacek" really is, how this campaign has been funded by Monsanto's PR company The Bivings Group, and how the poor sods who have signed this petition in the belief that they are responding to a real initiative by a real person have been duped, please see the article I've written about viral marketing called "The Fake Persuaders", which you'll find on the Guardian website or on www.monbiot.com. Then check out what happens when you click on the link attached to this petition called "those who oppose terrorists and support science"
[http://www.PetitionOnline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?cinagro4&1]

When you click on "Those who oppose terrorists and support science", it takes you to to CS Prakash's agbioworld.org  According to PetitionOnline.com, this is who created the petition.

Amongst the petition's early signatories:

18. C. S. Prakash  Good job! Let Jailbird Jose serve his time and help the humanity!
[http://www.PetitionOnline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?cinagro4&51]

For George Monbiot's articles "Corporate Phantoms" and "The Fake Persuaders", plus all the latest news on Monsanto's web of deceit:  https://members.tripod.com/~ngin/deceit_index.html