GMW: U.S. violated freedoms by barring French farmer at JFK

[Guest guest]

GMW: U.S. violated freedoms by barring French farmer at JFK

" GM WATCH " <info

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 09:56:06 GMT

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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EXCERPT: " Evidently, the Bush administration is behind this decision, "

said George Naylor, president of the Washington-based National Family

Farm Coalition. " No one would think of fearing Jose's presence in this

country except multinational corporations with a profit motive. "

 

GM WATCH COMMENT: This is how the news of the French farmer Jose Bove

being banned from entering the U.$. was received by CS Prakash's

AgBioView: " And Now for Some Really Good News... Jose Bove Sent

Packing by U.S. "

 

It's interesting that the banning of people who challenge major

corporations is considered " Really Good News " , while the exclusion of

those companies' suspect imports is considered an " Outrage! " that requires the

intervention of the WTO to try and force through their entry.

 

" But Bove has been to prison for his actions " , we can hear the likes of Prakash

protest. Well, so too has Prakash's fellow GM propagandist, Dr Douglas Powell,

and for far worse than tearing up GM crops, yet steps were specifically taken to

get round Powell's criminal convictions in order to allow him to continue to

enter the United States. (see Powell's profile)

http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=257

 

Somehow we don't remember Prakash saying that that was an " Outrage! "

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Activists: U.S. violated freedoms by barring French farmer at JFK

VERENA DOBNIK

Associated Press, 9 February 2006

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/state/13833001.htm

 

NEW YORK - Activists criticized the U.S. government on Thursday for

stopping a French farmer - a key figure in the anti-globalization

movement - from entering the country to voice his opposition to genetically

engineered food.

 

Jose Bove, best known for ransacking a McDonald's restaurant in France, was

detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport upon arrival for an

international conference on globalization and labor organized by Cornell

University. His supporters were furious.

 

" Evidently, the Bush administration is behind this decision, " said

George Naylor, president of the Washington-based National Family Farm

Coalition. " No one would think of fearing Jose's presence in this country except

multinational corporations with a profit motive. "

 

Bove arrived in the United States under a visa waiver program that

allows citizens of certain countries, including France, to travel here

for tourism or business for up to 90 days without a visa.

 

Janet Rapaport, a New York spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border

Protection, said Bove was refused admission on Wednesday for reasons she said

she could not discuss.

 

In a telephone interview from his farm in southern France, Bove told

The Associated Press that when he arrived at the airport U.S. officials " knew

exactly who I was. And they told me, 'You have to get out.' "

 

He said he had visited the United States last year, speaking at Yale

University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

" The fact that they don't want me to come in now is a new way for the

Bush administration to build coalitions against us, " the 52-year-old

farmer said.

 

He noted that his trip on Wednesday coincided with a World Trade

Organization ruling against European Union curbs on imports of

genetically modified foods.

 

A key topic of the New York conference was " how people can fight (U.S.

agriculture giant) Monsanto. This is an international struggle, " Bove

said. " The American government is fed up with this fight because such

companies are losing a lot of money. "

 

Monsanto, a St. Louis-based agriculture giant, produces genetically

engineered corn, soybean and cotton seed for sale to farmers. The United States

accounts for more than half of all biotech crops grown worldwide - mostly

soybeans and corn.

 

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said recently that agricultural

biotechnology " provides tremendous benefits to farmers and rural communities. "

 

Monsanto spokesman Chris Horner said farmers buy the company's seeds

because " they provide real, tangible benefits - reduced costs, reduced

pesticide use with insect-protected crops and more yield. "

 

Bove had planned to attend the New York gathering of farmers, labor

advocates and academics from around the world on Thursday and Friday,

participating in forums titled " Fighting the Commodification of Food " and " The

Struggle Against Monsanto in Europe. " The conference was sponsored by Cornell's

School of Labor and Industrial Relations in upstate Ithaca, N.Y., where Bove

planned to address students and visit farmers.

 

He said he would speak to the gathering from France via speaker phone

on Friday.

 

" I'm going to talk about the struggle of farmers all over the world for seeds, "

he told the AP. " Big companies like Monsanto have patents on genetically

modified seeds, and you have to buy those seeds each year - you can't keep the

ones you have. That's how they control food in the world, by controlling what

farmers put in the soil. "

 

Bove, who raises sheep and produces cheese, shot to fame in 1999 after

leading protesters who dismantled a McDonald's restaurant under

construction in Millau, near his farm in southern France.

 

He also participated in protests during the World Trade Organization

meetings held in December in Hong Kong, where he was briefly detained but

eventually allowed to enter.

 

A month earlier, he was sentenced to four months in prison for

destroying a field of genetically modified corn planted by an American

seed company in southern France.

 

Associated Press Writer Tim McCahill contributed to this report.t

 

 

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