Jose Bove's New Zealand tour cancelled

The New Zealand tour early next month of French hero and anti-free-trade and GM activist Jose Bove, has been cancelled due to on-going court appearances, Leigh Cookson, spokesperson for ARENA (Action Research and Education Network of Aotearoa) said yesterday.

Bove was scheduled to visit Auckland, Whanganui, Wellington and Christchurch during a 6-day tour. His interests were directed to agricultural practices that only benefit foreign farm markets, TNC's and monopoly agribusiness.

During the 1970's, Bove, a French sheep farmer in the Larzac region successfully led the resistance against the government's intention to build a large military base in the area, and subsequently, as a member of Confederation Paysanne, the national French grassroots farmer's union, he was involved in a number of attacks on GMO crops and storage facilities.

Protesting again in 1999 at American GM incursion into French food, Bove helped to publicly and non-violently dismantle a McDonald's Restaurant in Millau in 1999. He has since been involved in court action and appeals, on occasion winning some recognition and support from the courts.

Ms Cookson says she hopes New Zealand will be able to welcome Jose Bove sometime in the future. Further information about the effects of globalisation on and in New Zealand is available by contacting ARENA at www.arena.org.nz

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