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European MP, Activist Jose Bové Avoids Jail for GM Attack
FORMER French presidential candidate José Bové has avoided time in prison and been allowed to keep his job as a European MP for his involvement in an attack on genetically modified crops in 2006.
Jose Bové Prosecutors had called for the anti-capitalism activist to spend eight months in jail and be banned from public office for four years office for helping to destroy more than 2,000 tonnes of GM maize in the Gironde.
A court in Bordeaux yesterday revised the sentence to one year suspended, with a €12,000 fine. Bové will be allowed to keep his seat in the European parliament, where he is vice-president of its agriculture committee.
Bové, who represents the Europe Ecologie party, has been charged for 25 separate attacks since 1976. He spent three months behind bars for pulling down parts of a McDonald's restaurant under construction in Millau in 1999.
No GM crops are being grown officially in France, after the government last year banned the only strain of GM maize under cultivation, MON810, produced by US agribusiness giant Monsanto.
20 Comments so far
Show AllHere in the US, he would be regarded as a full-blown terrorist serving a life sentence under various laws. In France he in the EU parliament and VP of the ag. committee. His infractions are prosecuted, but winked-at and "praised with faint damning" (Obedient Servant).
The place is practically a paradise compared to here.
pjd412,so very true.Even the fine was fair considering 2k tons of corn.U.S. courts would have thrown away the key.Viva La France and congratulations Jose Bove. peas
I'm not sure about the fine, thinking that, instead, Monsanto should be fined at least the same amount for every ton that Jose Bove and the others he was with had to destroy to get rid of this environmental pollution, hazard, for the greater interests, benefit of everyone in France. Of course if that was the just ruling, then I guess the French PM or President who authorised this GM maize cultivation might have to also be fined, for the court to be integral; unless it was done without the government's knowledge.
Anyway, it's better than prison for Jose Bove, but he helped do France a big favour and gets fined for it, and that doesn't seem wholly fair, still. Fine Monsanto until it's out of business altogether.
Good points Mike C. peace
Anyone who travels to France is immediately struck by their regard for the land. There is a high diversity of crops, the farms are smaller in size, they are carefully tended, and there is a long tradition of pride in locally produced food. They have a reverence for the agrarian life and are much more aware of where their food comes from. In the U.S. agriculture is merely business, another way to maximize profit; and food a mere commodity.
From France
Don't romantecize France too much, we might be attached to a certain idea of the land and good food, but in the real world we are totaly cut of from it, 80% of the population lives in urbanised areas. It's also the country in Europe that uses the most pesticides and herbicides and it's becoming a huge health problem because more and more agricultors have cancers, and the governement is angleling towards a health care system a la Obama.
Good points. I live in France, too, and have been alarmed at these facts and other development. That they would want to "Amercanize" the health care system boggles the mind.
I forgot to say:
"Vive José Bové!"
Vive Bove!
And as to romanticizing France, my apologies in advance, but please realize the temptation to those of us living with agricultural, political, and healthcare systems not only Americanized, but American.
And my best for the early deposition of Sarcozy.
we need to clone this guy and put him in the senate
seat in charge of the agricultural matters here.
now that would be funny.
I marched next to him in Seattle in 1999 at the WTO demonstrations. Good, brave man - need millions more like him.
To veenataos: can't agree with you more. You've taken the words "out of my mouth".
The authorities, made up of city dwellers, couldn't care less about the fate of small farmers.
Just yesterday there was a huge demonstration by winegrowers and winemakers in Montpellier (South-East) because they can't survive, and are "killed" (among other reasons) by prices paid by supermarkets and the apathy of the authorities.
I wouldn't worry too much about the vinegrowers; they are sort of the "aristocracy" of the farming class in France. What hurts them most, however, and what hurts most modest to median income people here, is the heavy taxation. This is true of the small wine producers, in particular. As in the US, there is a ceiling for "social taxes" (though in the US this concerns only Social Security, while in France it goes for a whole array of services): the taxed percentage tops out at incomes of 82,000 euros, which means that a yearly earner of 82,000 euros pays the same amount in social taxes as, say, an earner of 8 million euros. Because the social taxes are imposed on top of the income tax and constitute a far greater percentage of one's earnings than the amount paid in straight income tax for the lower to middle income groups, this is very unfair. Indeed, the injustice of this distribution of tax burden is killing the middle and working classes of France, and is one of the reason that so much individual labor and commerce is done "under the table."
right on pjd412. I have liked Jose Bove ever since he tore down the Golden Arches. He is also a great example of someone who is doing something to make a difference. The French let him off easily because they secretly love what he is doing. Viva la France.
Nov 26, 2009 Thanksgiving.
Thank you to the Bordeaux courts for your integrity and wisdom. It's becoming ever so rare in the world today. You've given me the chance to feel my heart tugged, my eyes well with tears, and a felling that something in a big and meaningful has gone right. That sensibility is not completely extinct in the minds of men, not yet.
Jose Bové, today I celebrate Thanksgiving in America in your honor. I've never met you, never head of you until I read this article. You come to me like a surprise, a gift. Thank you for being you.
Veenataos writes:
"From France
Don't romantecize France too much, we might be attached to a certain idea of the land and good food, but in the real world we are totaly cut of from it, ..."
France is being subjected to the global neo-liberal NWO agenda as much as most of the rest of Europe and the world. That agenda includes destroying any safety net for the average person, cutting wages and benefits, making people feel insecure as a matter of course, and privatizing health care. They just like doing things more quirkily. I mean Sarkozy?
-30-
I agree with you olemanriver and they have many ways to do so. Here they’ve been organizing the rarity of work for 30 years now, the unemployment rate has never been under 8% and up 11% officially, so that there is not enough money entering the system to pay for everything that’s common like healthcare, retirement, education, social lodging, justice and what ever makes a society. They are thus telling us that if we want employment we have to reduce charges on business and finance (exit social safety net) to be able to compete with workers in the developing countries. For a long time there was the feeling, on the right and on the left that maybe we owe to help those workers earn enough money for a decent living and a system similar to ours with it’s social safety net. Well not any more or barely, we still have huge demonstrations here (and the occasional riots) the likes I’ve never seen anywhere in the US, we still resist and Jose Bove is one of us, i had the privilege to vote for him, question is though how is he going to fare, i'm not sure the solution lies with the politicians they are too corrupt.
Yes, globalization is creeping into France and all over the globe. I applaud your resistance. Americans as a whole are far more brainwashed and docile. Have you traveled to the U.S.? If not, you should try it, get a taste for it, and see whose safety net is more effective, whose politicians are more corrupt, whose people are more ignorant of the forces controlling their lives, who is more willing to eat whatever crappy food and buy whatever crappy products are shoved in front of them.
I lived in the US from 1996 til 2003, i had no health insurance and 2 jobs, thank god i was healthy but you can find the best like the worst. I stayed away from beef and pork and any undustrial food, it's possible, even when you are bordering povrety.
In the end what got me was a flag waving, the attitude of they know better, i just could't and anyway i was getting scared being french and all, nobody really knew what was going on in Gitmo and i'm dark skinned my mediteranean ancestry showing...
I've just been watching a movie called "The World According to Monsanto".
It's hard to believe corporations have such a strangle hold on world governments.
The world is headed for a world government a la China and ruled by corporations.
I hope everybody likes twelve hour days for subsistence wages. Maybe it's time for the human race to exit the scene, leaving behind only a few to try to do better next time.
Global warming is no joke. And from what I've read will take 100,000 years for the planet to correct itself.
James Lovelock predicts only about a billion people left by the year 2099, trying to eke out a living in Northern Canada and Antarctica.