Posted on 17-8-2004
French
Farmers Battle Over GM
17.08.2004 By Alex Duval Smith
A new front has opened up in the controversy over genetical-modified
organisms in food with the surprise emergence in France of a
group of
radical rural campaigners claiming to be in favour of open-field
experiments.
In a maize field near Marsat in the Puy-de-Dome at the weekend,
gendarmes
intervened after anti-globalisation campaigner Jose Bove and
500 of his
supporters came to blows with a new group describing itself
as "volunteer
farmers and researchers in favour of GMO tests".
The clash came amid growing signs that the French authorities
are wavering
in their opposition to open-field tests of GM crops, the seeds
of which
are developed in laboratories to be resistant to certain pests
or to
herbicides.
In recent weeks even the conservative French wine-growing industry
has
announced it wishes to keep an open mind over the possible benefits
of
GMOs.
The weekend clash, which resulted in two arrests, was the first
physical
confrontation between the two camps.
France - where anti-GMO campaigners trample experimental crops
most
weekends - has become Europe's main battleground over the issue
but police
rarely intervene and most confrontations to date have been confined
to
courtrooms.
Mr Bove, the former spokesman of the Confederation Paysanne
small-scale
farmers' union, has called on his supporters - known as "the
volunteer
reapers" - to step up their campaign of civil disobedience
ahead of an EU
Commission decision on the issue due this autumn.
The Commission, which in May for the first time authorised the
planting of
a genetically-modified maize seed manufactured by Swiss company
Syngenta,
is deeply divided and must decide by November whether to authorise
US
chemical giant Monsanto to sell its transgenic NK603 maize in
the EU.
Mr Bove's "volunteer reapers" said yesterday the emergence
of a group
campaigning in favour of open-field tests was an attempt by
the GMO
industry to give a "grassroots flavour" to its efforts
to win over public
opinion.
Green MP Moisette Crosnier said: "Eighty per cent of Europeans
are against
GMOs in their food and 75 per cent of French people are opposed
to
open-field experiments. We have to keep up the pressure on the
government
and remind it of the will of the people."
So far only 21 open-field GMO tests have been authorised on
48 plots
totalling 7.3 hectares.
However, the "volunteer reapers" have strong grassroots
support and have
convinced 3,000 French mayors to ban GMO tests in their area.
One mayor,
in Bax, Haute-Garonne, is now facing court action by the prefect
of his
department who wants to overrule him.
Last year, Mr Bove served six weeks in prison for destroying
GM crops and
he is due to be interviewed by police next week over an incident
in
Haute-Garonne at the end of July.
The "volunteer farmers and researchers in favour of GMOs"
are led by
Pierre Pagesse, a farmer and the managing director of French
biotechnology
firm Biogemma.
He claims to have launched his group because the "continuing
destruction
of crops is playing into the hands of France's competitors".
He said: "At this rate European farming will fall behind.
To have
sustainable agriculture you first of all need to sustain the
farmers."
Mr Pagesse is president of Limagrain, a leading European seed
company of
which Biogemma is the research arm. Despite popular opposition
to GMOs,
the farming industry and French scientists are increasingly
arguing that
the phenomenon is unstoppable.
The French agriculture ministry has launched a process of public
consultation by internet and a report by the French food security
agency,
AFSSA, last month claimed GM maize and cotton, as well as beatroot
and
rice, showed health benefits.
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