Police Tear-Gas Farmers In Clash Over French GM Crops
Growing tensions in France between opponents and supporters of genetically modified crops have led to violent confrontations.
Gendarmes used tear gas and batons to prevent pro-GM farmers from invading a picnic for militant opponents of genetically modified maize at the town of Verdun-sur-Garonne in south-west France over the weekend.
Hardly a day has gone by this summer without opponents of GM maize - both environmental campaigners and small farmers - invading fields and trampling or cutting down crops. The protesters, led by the small- farmers’ leader, José Bové, claim a citizens’ right to destroy crops which, they say, threaten ecological calamity and the subjection of farmers to the whims of agro-industrial, multinational companies.
Tempers have risen to boiling point since the suicide earlier this month of a farmer in the Lot département who had agreed to plant a small section of GM maize. He took his life a few days after he had been warned that anti-GM protesters planned to hold a picnic on his fields.
The largest French farmers’ federation, the FNSEA, called for Saturday’s demonstration to protest against attacks on crops and alleged government inaction. Gendarmes used tear gas to prevent the farmers from crossing a bridge to the site of the anti-GM picnic, which was addressed by the extravagantly moustachioed M. Bové.
“If Bové keeps on cutting down our crops, we’re going to shave his moustache,” said one protester.
Michel Masson, head of the FNSEA in the central area of France, said: “There has already been one death and I can tell you that many farmers, rather than hang themselves from a tree, are now ready to take their rifles off the wall.”
The confrontation is partly between town and country. It is also a confrontation between two different approaches to agriculture. The FNSEA supports a “scientific” and highly productive approach to agriculture. M. Bové and his supporters argue for a traditional, small-scale approach.
Successive governments have shied away from legislating clearly on GM crops. Most types are banned but farmers have been allowed to plant, experimentally, a variety of maize called MON810, developed by the US company, Monsanto, which is said to be immune to insect attack.
© 2007 The Independent
Could this happen here? No. We’d miss “Survivor”.
Who needs a monopoly when you can patent seeds.
Monsanto can kiss my germinator.
Peace to you and yours.
Because gmo scientists are stupid humans and cant be trusted(they think they are smarter than Nature–talk about hubris) of course one has to stop GMOs from spreading–once it gets out there is no going back(though i bet Nature can clean itself of human infection much better than we assume). I recall the scientists betting during the first nuke test if it would ignite the atmosphere. People like that need to be locked in cages, not allowed to develop weapons that can melt hundreds of thousands.
Congratulations to Bove and others like him. You have to be at least as strongly opposed to GMOs as the proponents are in favor if you want to support your cause.
Hopefully Bove’ will trash some farmer’s crops and the farmer will respond with a bullet to Bove’s head.
Bove is a protecting the future of all farmers.Some of them don’t realize it.If Monsanto is allowed to patent all the seeds ,including the terminator gene ,biodiversity will end.The entire food system will be under Monsanto rule and the monoculture crops whichever ones are left will be suseptible to whatever toxic mutation the GM oppressors have created.Do some research.The food system is threatened by Monsanto.We have the right to plant what we want,save our own seeds,keep our food system organic,and protect indigenous crops from blood sucking ,government sponsored corporations.Protect your rights to safe,local,organic,non GM modified crops.Vote 2008 to keep your food system safe.
When food is controlled by the masters of greed it will be used against you. They will cull the populations to their favor…think about that?!
When large central farms control your apatite you will get only what they serve. You will get the same food that is making Americans fat, sick and lithargic. You will be at the mercy of a food source too far away for you to get at it…You will become a slave! By keeping food sources close to the populations the communities enjoy self sufficiency security as well as health and nutrition balanced by nature to the area it is grown. Cultural differences thru culinary experience are maintained. This is fact not myth…Study the Amish or any people who farm their lands for centuries using bio-dynamic (natural farming practices) Check out the Slow Food Site.
Genetically Molested Food is Filth for Profit! It is developed for control of wealth and not for health. It is peddled by lazy imbeciles with insatiable desires to make more and do less at our expense.
Greed fornicates with profit and delights in mutilating our planet.
Burn the fields! Refuse to work for the masters. Don’t buy their shit and serve it to your livestock or children. Support your local organic small farmers. Become one yourself! Take back your right to be sovereign and free!
It is exciting to know that the French still respect their land and themselves. They still have the courage and integrity to fight against the tyranny of the death cults.
An to the fellow who would like to kill M. Bove’ When the need comes…all become leaders! Will you kill all of us? And do you not invite the same fate for yourself.
I prefer the Guillotine, so much more romantic.
quand la nourriture est commandée par les maîtres de l’avarice il sera employé contre vous. Ils cueilleront les populations à leur faveur… pensent à cela ? ! Quand les grandes fermes centrales commandent votre apatite obtiendrez seulement vous ce qu’elles servent. Vous obtiendrez la même nourriture qui rend des Américains gros, malades et lithargic. Vous serez à la pitié d’une source de nourriture trop loin loin pour que vous atteigniez elle… que vous deviendrez un slave ! En gardant des sources de nourriture près des populations les communautés apprécient la sécurité de suffisance d’art de l’auto-portrait aussi bien que la santé et la nutrition équilibrée par la nature au secteur qu’elle est développée. Des différences culturelles par une expérience culinaire sont maintenues. C’est étude de mythe de fait pas… les Amish ou n’importe quelles personne qui cultivent leurs terres pendant des siècles en utilisant le contrôle bio-dynamique (de pratiques agricoles normales) hors de l’emplacement lent de nourriture. La nourriture génétiquement molestée est des ordures pour le bénéfice ! Elle est développée pour la commande de la richesse et pas pour la santé. Elle est colportée par les imbéciles paresseux avec des désirs insatiables de faire plus et de faire moins à nos frais. Fornicates d’avarice avec le bénéfice et plaisirs en mutilant notre planète. Brûlez les champs ! Refusez de travailler pour les maîtres. N’achetez pas leur merde et ne la servez pas à votre bétail ou enfants. Soutenez vos petits fermiers organiques locaux. Deviennent on vous-même ! Rapportez votre droite d’être souverain et libre ! Elle est passionnante pour savoir que les Français respectent toujours leur terre et elles-mêmes. Ils ont toujours le courage et l’intégrité de lutter contre la tyrannie des cultes de la mort. Au camarade qui voudrait tuer M. Bové ‘quand le besoin vient… tous deviennent des chefs ! Tuerez-vous tous les nous ? Et faites-vous pour ne pas inviter le même destin pour vous-même. Je préfère la guillotine, tellement plus romantique. (I used a translation tool, please excuse if it is clumsy)
Too late for the Genie or rather the pollen has been let out of the bag when it comes to corn anyways.
canadian Courts and the World Trade organizaton has already ruled in favor of Monsanto in a case invoving a Canadian farmer who tried to plant non genetic but his fields became cross pollinated by GM fields and his crop was confiscated for patent violation.
teh copuirts in India which is very heavily investing in many forms of GM crops such as rice and corn.
The small farmer is done unless he can find a niche market or else the price of corn takes a very large jump in price not only in France but in US.
What is organinc, naturally fertilized or naturally seeded from a previous crop or both?
If it is both or alone as a naturally seeded then it is done.
The die has been cast and there is no way out of it without a world wide mass uprising to destroy firms and science research facilitys enmasse, right now and then outlaw all research by anyone anywhere.
Won’t and can’t be done!
The only places in world where farmers have been babied more than in US are France Italy and England.
The taxpayers have been supporting farmers in US ever since the dust bowl days yet even with the subsidys they still manage to blow their earnings and then go out of buisness or sell out to more effecient farmers.
Now the taxpayers have guaranteed corn farmers an easy way to riches via tax dollars to become energy firms instead of farmers they are all sitting and smiling like a fat hog with its nose in the swill bin.
It is not just large corporate farmers but many large private held farms that are now in the green.
Where green is king we the mass of populace will pay more and pay twice, once with tax and then with your wallets.
We, the organic dwellers of earth of this time, could well be the last such and in the future you will become what you eat because you have to eat whatever they put in your swill bins from now on.
What will you be eating? Mutations.
Long term mutations of both veggie and animal protein.
In the cloneing of aniamls around the 5th to seven clone has a tendency to turn to mush or bags of bones that not even slightly reesemble the animal they opriginated from.
What then?
Why of curse we just make animal protein blobs and call it beef, fowl, or just plain blobs of meat.
I strongly support these people who are taking an active role in protesting worldwide slavery to Monsanto! I do not want my organic fruits and vegetables to be contaminated, and I will never pay royalties to someone for the fruit trees and vegetables I plant; the seeds belong to the plants, who produces them so that they can live on; we are just a non-essential part of that process, we don’t own it, let alone just a few of us.
http://www.dreamingearth.net
Thankfully there are people like Bove who are trying to rid the world of Monsanto’s creations. As others have pointed the future of food is bleak if farmers continue planting GMO crops. We need to stand up to large corporations such as Monsanto and take a stand. There is some excellent information and discussions on this subject at WiserEarth.
http://www.wiserearth.org/aof/3
“Bove is a protecting the future of all farmers.”
No he’s not. He’s using force to impose his own vision of what farming ’should’ be. He and those who agree with him can grow whatever they want on their own small farms and practice their own methods to their hearts content. He is committing crimes against other individuals who value other things and wish to innovate and experiment in ways Bove dislikes.
Bove is an abuser of the rights of others who were not born to serve Bove’s ideas or desires, or fulfill what his personal desires demand.