French farmers protest arrest

of activist

Reuters

PARIS - French farmers, rowing against a powerful tide of globalization and falling prices, demonstrated around the country Tuesday against the arrest of an agricultural activist who had ransacked a McDonald's restaurant.

Stung by US. sanctions on certain luxury goods and the growing muscle of local supermarkets, farmers say they are fighting to defend rural traditions and food diversification.

Several hundred farmers took to the streets of several cities, including Paris, Nantes and Grenoble, to highlight their cause and demand government action.

By coincidence, the rallies came one day after retail chains Carrefour and Promodes joined form to create a French shopping giant - a move that has only added to fears that big business will eat into farmers' earnings.

The largest protest took place outside law courts in the southern city of Montpellier, where magistrates were hearing an appeal for the release of activist Jose Bove, who was detained last week for his part in an attack on a McDonald's construction site.

"We are here to defend the right of people to feed themselves with their own food in their own way and against the determination of the United States to impose their way of eating on the whole planet," farmer Guy Kastier said.

U.S. corporate icons McDonald's and Coca-Cola have been targeted by F'rench farmers since July, when Washington slapped tariffs on goods such as Roquefort cheese and foie gras in retaliation for a European Union ban on imports of North American hormone-treated beef.

Both companies have been eager to quell the discontent, and McDonaid's said Monday that it would drop a civil lawsuit against the farmers who seriously damaged their restaurant in Millau, in southern France.

The state can still press criminal charges against the farmers, and a decision on the release of Bove, seen by the police as the protest ringleader, will be made Thursday.

French farmers have grown increasingly militant in 1999 as wholesale prices for various products have tumbled while food retail prices have stayed largely static.

Farmers are worried that a united Carrefour-Promodes will use its weight to grind fresh price concessions from producers - something the government wants to prevent.