The World is Not for Sale: Farmers Against Junk Food

Interesting to read firsthand about the work of these courageous activists from France - Jose Bove is certainly not the leader of a group of country bumpkins or Luddites as I had inferred from the popular media. This book covers personal backgrounds & histories of their involvement in various farmers unions , these guys are effective organizers who know their business and also working farmers with a feeling and respect for the land, quality of life and food are goals of paramount importance. Divided into 3 parts:1st - The McDonald's story and other planned protests told from the viewpoints of both Bove & Dufour. The McDonald's incident took place in response to import duties imposed on Roquefort cheese in retaliation for EU's refusal to import American hormone treated beef. Not a random or spontaneous incident but a well planned out protest carried out to attract public attention. Both Dufour & Bove have been involved more than 30 years in various movements for change in France. 2nd - History of intensive farming over the last 50 years in France, farming economics, factory farms. Covers topics here such as genetically modified crops, mad cow disease, environmental destruction caused by intensive pig farming3rd - Farming as a global issue world trade organization and "free trade", protest in Seattle, growth of a movement, a new vision. An inspiring read for those interested in food, farming and globalization.

Since August 12, 1999, Bové has been an icon of the movement against "free" trade and the WTO. It was then that he and nine other members of the French Farmers Union (Confédéracion Paysanne) dismantled a MacDonald's restaurant in their hometown of Millau, loaded the pieces on their tractors and carted them to the local police station. MacDonald's was targetted both as a symbol of corporate domination of public life and as a leading vendor of what the French call malbouffe, food that is not worthy of being eaten.The actual target of this protest was a 100% duty imposed on Roquefort cheese by the United States. The WTO had ruled that the French were violating trade laws by refusing to import U.S. hormone-fed beef, allowing the U.S. to impose punitive tariffs on Roquefort and 78 other French products. Bové and his fellow defendants raise sheep that produce milk for Roquefort cheese.The MacDonald's action by the Farmers Union lit the imagination of thousands of activists and was one of the major events leading to the protests against the WTO meeting in Seattle a few months later. Bové and Dufour were in Seattle as part of the official French agricultural delegation but their official status did not deter them from further political theater. They distributed 500 pounds of his Roquefort cheese at the Pike Place Market and they marched arm-in-arm with farmers and AFL leaders at the head of the big march of November 30. In their book Dufour says, "It was an important signal: that in the first mass demonstration of trade unionists and ecologists, farmers were at the front. It's a particularly powerful image for Third World countries, where the majority of the population are farmers or live in rural areas."In stepping forward as spokesmen against corporate domination of trading rules in general and agriculture in particular, Bové and Dufour have exposed themselves to personal attacks by the major media outlets. They are usually portrayed as nationalistic bumpkins, Luddites or egotistical publicity hounds. Their book puts the lie to much of that. Philosophically they are in favor of policies supporting regional food self-sufficiency--as opposed to policies which promote agribusiness. Why, they ask, should WTO regulations be imposed on all food when less than 5% is actually exported? It is clear that they have spent decades working on agricultural policy; much of the book describes how shifting farm policies since World War II have driven the small farmers out while favoring industrial agriculture dependent on long-distance transportation, monoculture, massive inputs of chemicals and over-reliance on the major agricultural and food distribution companies. Bové and Dufour argue that this is destroying the rural ecology, throwing farmers out of work and putting the world's food supplies at risk of catastrophic diseases (e.g., mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease, which are currently threatening European herds) or of callous market manipulation. Even with