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José Bové
We will start this journey in the South of France, in a town called Millau, with a man called José Bové...
In August 1999 José Bové, a 47 year old sheep farmer got into his tractor and helped demolish a half built McDonalds fast food restaurant in his local home town of Millau. His actions received widespread media attention and brought the plight of local farmers and food producers unto a global stage. It made him a folk hero in his native France and opened up a fresh debate on Globalisation and it's negative consequences.
In the early 1970s José Bové, like many of his generation, had turned his back on mainstream French society. After experiencing the student riots in Paris in the late 1960s he decided to move to the countryside in search of a more meaningful life. He continued to be politically active and joined hunger strikes for better Government subsidies for fellow farmers.
In 1995 he was aboard the Rainbow Warrior ship in the South Pacific to protest against France's resumption of nuclear testing. In the late 1990's Bové began to turn his attention to the Global Agri Business, which he saw as pushing potentially harmful GM (Genetically modified) crops and foodstuffs.
In 1998 he was convicted for destroying a crop of GM maize and received a short jail sentence for his actions. Then in 1999 the United States imposed a 100% tariff on French delicacy foods such as Roquefort cheese after France refused to import hormone treated American beef unless it was labelled clearly for shoppers. This US action made a lot of French farmers very angry and it threatened many of their livelihoods.
Bové Dismantles a McDonalds
José Bové decided to highlight their cause and in August 1999 he helped dismantle a half built McDonald's outlet in his hometown of Millau. This was seen as a symbolic gesture to protest against the rise of GM corporate food, heavy US tariffs and junk food.
The French people had sympathy for the farmers uprising and José Bove was now a folk hero in his country, earning the nickname Asterix after the cartoon character that stood up to Roman invaders and who also sported a big moustache.
A crowd of over 30,000 turned out in Millau to support José Bové and 9 of his colleagues when they went on trail for demolishing the McDonald's. Bové was handed a 9 month prison sentence. He would eventually serve 5 weeks behind bars for this action in 2003.
The Global Plight of Farmers
His main cause was now highlighting the close links between Agri-Business and multinational companies who were dismantling local markets right around the world and forcing millions of small scale farmers of the land. This in turn was pushing families into slums on the edge of big cities in search of work. As Bové has claimed "farming was beginning to be the symbol of the resistance against globalisation, because farming is the thing we do in each place all over the world".
In 2001 José Bové was forced to leave Brazil after leading a non-violent invasion of 1,300 farmers on plantations run by the American biotech GM giant Monsanto. He has also given his full support to anti-globalisation protestors and has joined demonstrators on the streets of Seattle, Genoa and Davos.
Clarity of Action
Although critics have denounced him as an eco-terrorist, his growing legion of supporters describe him as one of those rare individuals who can match clarity of opinion with clarity of action. In April of the year José Bové was refused a visa to travel to Quebec, Canada to speak at a lecture during the Summit of the Americas.
He continues to give talks and lectures around the world to highlight the dangers and negative consequences of globalisation on the lives of millions of farmers and workers around the world.
We leave the final word with popular French singer Francis Cabrel who has described Bové as "one of the last courageous, natural, honest voices left in the world where the rest are tarnished by compromise".
By: Keith Corcoran
