25th/02/2004
(from the liner notes of Another World is Possible)
. . .
From the Channel coast to the Pyrenean mountains, from the highlands of Averyon to the Caribbean, from the Loire estuary to the Indian Ocean, they embody the vitality of our movement. They consider themselves farmers, not mere crop growers, cattle breeders, wine growers, produce makersS They are the women and men of the "Conf". They are farming citizens who have questioned their relationship to the land. They have changed their production methods in order for them to be less polluting and more sustainable. The men and women of the Confederation stand up for worthy causes and their struggles are many: defending a healthy environment and biological balance, the freedom to use their own seeds and to feed their livestock as they deem fit, protecting the living against its commoditization, fostering of local and regional agricultural networks, promoting food qualityS They put words on our relationship to the land and they struggle hard to put meaning behind these words.

 In the past, they said "no" to hormone-treated beef. They said "no" to animal-fat-flour feed. They have said "no" to junk food. Now they are saying "no" to GMOs, genetic weapons of mass destruction that threaten the diversity not only of our seeds but of biodiversity as a whole. 

 They look beyond the boundaries of the fields and enclosures and they say "no" to the threat of an all-devouring, totalitarian agricultural economy that rises in the folds of the star-spangled banner.

 They have crashed the parties of the financial masters in Seattle, Genoa, Evian, and plan to make their voices heard at the upcoming banquets.

 Being endowed with a good memory, they have not forgotten how a tiny group of experts and politicians forced upon us a new technology nuclear power ’for our good’ without any debate or public consultation, all in the name of progress. But being also endowed with hope, they have decided that, from now on, they will not tolerate the slightest democratic deficit when it comes to deciding their future.

 Being part of the anti-globalization movement and critical towards the exclusively market driven society, the members of the "Conf" face financial repression (subsidies and aides are handed out on a partisan basis), as well as legal hardships (union actions are criminalized and individual militants are harassed). These attacks do not weaken their constructive protest and they can claim a part of the responsibility for the European moratorium on GMOs. They have also had an influence on the ratification of the Cartagena Protocol that promotes biodiversity.

 They only want to foster the emergence of planet in which resources are shared in equity, a world where Human Rights take precedence over market rule, where People come before Profits.

 They are not naïve and cannot be fooled by the twist of fate arguments that transnational companies bring up to instrumentalize third-world famines. Life and its reproduction is too serious a matter to be left in the hands of transnational companies motivated solely by profit and a blind race for scientific prowess. To this the members of the "Conf" oppose ethical and philosophical choices that honor them.

 They stand for the sharing of experience instead of vertical communication, for meaningful work instead of mind-numbing rationalized labor, for solidarity instead of merciless competition, for a human work pace instead of morselled tasks based solely on productivity , for biodiversity instead of bioinvasion and monospecism.

These women and men are opponents. They oppose the blind faith in science and GMOs, they oppose the "McDonaldisation" of the world. They know that winning these struggles will take time, but they also know that any battle not launched at the right time is a a battle lost. They are aware that nowadays economic borders reach beyond political borders, that public authorities are now nothing more than subsidiaries of the almighty WTO, or, at best, left to manage a few residual tasks. It is now up to the People, the citizens, to draw the limit of what is acceptable and what is not.

 They favor democratic debate over expert argumentation delivered from up high. Being highly skeptic concerning the promoted benefits of biogenics, they demand to have a voice in the transgenic controversy and refuse to be treated as mere pawns of the economy, simple production workers who do as told.

 They are proud to be called utopians for they know that Utopia has always be the fertile ground of History and that Utopia and Rebellion go hand in hand.. The obvious aversion of the public opinion to GMOs furthermore strengthens their dedication. In the name of necessity, they willingly sometimes carry out acts that can be considered illegal, but always legitimate. The pedagogy of action fuels the debate.

 But above all this, every day, far from the Media circus, these activists are first and foremost stewards of the land. They toil on their farms, their long days filled with the numerous tasks required by a demanding agriculture, a craft they enrich with their skillful and knowing practices.

 Day in, day out they carry out the most noble and most ancient of all tasks : feeding mankind.

José Bové
Spokesman of the French farming union "Confédération Paysanne"
written on July 22, 2003 in the prison of Villeneuve-les-Maguelone
Prisoner number 22377YA07

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