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01/02/08 - Jose Bove on a hunger strike in France to protest gene-altered crops

Excerpted from: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/02/europe/gmo.php

The militant French sheep farmer Jose Bove and as many as 15 of his supporters were expected to begin a hunger strike Thursday aimed at raising pressure on the French government to impose a long-term ban on growing genetically modified crops.

In a newspaper interview published Wednesday, the anti-globalization activist vowed not to eat again until a ban was in place.

Bove captured worldwide attention for helping to organize the ransacking of a McDonald's restaurant nine years ago to protest the influence of multinational corporations. Since then he has served time in a French prison for damaging gene-altered crops.

While his campaigns have struck a sympathetic chord in many parts of France and Europe where gene-altered foods are widely mistrusted - and where Bove is something of a folk hero - the latest protest against altered crops comes as divisions over the potential benefits of the technology appear to be deepening across the region.

In October, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, disappointed supporters of a long-term ban by announcing a temporary freeze on genetically modified seeds pending the outcome of a review of the technology that is expected early this year.

Bove has said he is undertaking his hunger strike to push the French government into making a much longer-term commitment to end seed cultivation.