www.czu.cz ; www.usab-tm.ro ; www.raupp.info

Frances best-known farmer, Jose Bove, a Greens Party lawmaker and seven
others went to trial Tuesday for ripping up a field of genetically
modified corn, telling the court they ravaged the fledgling crop in the
name of caution, September 2005.

About 100 supporters, some wearing masks, greeted the defendants with
a round of applause. If convicted, they face prison terms and fines for
uprooting the corn on July 25, 2004, that belonged to a U.S. seed
company that is a subsidiary of Dupont.

?If we hadnt carried out this action ... there would be no debate,? Bove
told the court. He said nearly half of the open fields of genetically
modified crop ?had been neutralized? this year. However, Bove added that
he is not opposed to GMO research in a closed space.

Green Party lawmaker Noel Mamere said there has been no parliamentary
investigation on the possible effects of GMO products, adding that ?I
acted in the name of urgency and necessity.?

Other defendants said they, too, were acting out of caution, citing mad
cow disease and blood tainted with AIDS as reasons to apply the
?principal of precaution.?

?Give me the maximum sentence or let me go?, Bove said.

Bove, as a repeat offender, faces a 10-year prison term and $150,000
(US$182,000) fine. The mustachioed sheep farmer served just over a month
in prison in 2003 for destroying a field of GMO corn and rice crops. He
became a headline-maker in France after ransacking a McDonalds
restaurant in 1999 that was under construction near his home in the
south.

The eight other defendants each face five years in prison and a $75,000
(US$91,000) fine. The trial ends Wednesday.

The crop they attacked in the town of Menville, near the southern city
of Toulouse, belonged to Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., based in
Johnston, Iowa. Bove and others called the act one of ?civil
disobedience.?

[www.helgeland-arbeiderblad.no]

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