The World is Not For Sale: Farmers Against Junk Food (Hardcover)

by Jose Bove (Author), Francois Dufour (Author), Gilles Luneau (Translator), Anna de Casparis (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
No Logo, Fast Food Nation, The Silent Takeover and now Bové's book are the bibles of the anti-capitalist movement. -- The Guardian --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description
The small town of Millau in south-west France was the scene last summer of an extraordinary protest. Responding to America's hike of import duties on the locally produced Roquefort cheese, an angry group of local farmers marched to the site of a McDonald's fast-food restaurant, then under construction, and dismantled it. They piled the building on the back of their tractors and drove it through the town in front of cheering supporters. The protest made front-page news around the world as the latest indication of burgeoning public concern about the growth of junk food and the agribusiness it depends on. Leading the protest in Millau was a local sheep farmer, José Bové, who has emerged as a charismatic and eloquent spokesman for the movement. In this lively and hard-hitting book Bové, together with the General Secretary of the French Farmers Confederation, François Dufour, recounts the dramatic events of the demonstration and Bové's subsequent imprisonment. They examine the issues behind the campaign: the industrialization of agriculture in a global economy, the massive environmental damage this is wreaking, and the tasteless, unhealthy food that results. Bové and Dufour propose an alliance of farmers, consumers and ecologists to promote public awareness of these issues. They launched their campaign to enthusiastic support at the WTO protests in Seattle last November.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Verso (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859846149
• ISBN-13: 978-1859846148
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #783,836 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's not just France, August 28, 2001

By	Bill Clifford (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

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 without such disasters, the quality of food is deteriorating and taking traditional culture with it. The WTO had not specifically addressed agriculture before the Seattle round, but its proposals for Seattle clearly favored agribusiness' interests over those of small farmers and of less developed countries. This conflict led to the internal failure of the WTO in Seattle.
Bové points optimistically to "[b]uilding on the international gains won in Seattle." What his critics saw as a hodgepodge of dissimilar interests without a clear agenda, he sees as a new nonideological politics that succeeded in stopping the WTO . He suggests that the different viewpoints within the opposition to the WTO are exactly the point: local interests should not be steamrollered by the one-size-fits-all approach of the free-traders. Further trade agreements will require openness to public scrutiny. Although The World Is Not For Sale emphasizes globalization's impact on farming and rural areas, it also touches on the dangers of genetic modifications of plants and animals and on globalization's erosion of human rights--including trade union rights--and cultural diversity. The Farmers Union is not opposed to foreign trade agreements like the WTO, but insist that they must incorporate protection for workers, culture and the environment. The book offers tentative proposals on achieving these protections.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We Don't Want to be Assimilated!!!!!, March 13, 2003

By	Gail Moore "avid reader" (vancouver canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The World Is Not for Sale: Farmers Against Junk Food (Paperback)

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 farming
3rd - 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.