PARIS (AP) – Militant French farmer Jose Bove and about 15 supporters called off their hunger strike in its eighth day after the government ordered the suspension of the use of genetically modified corn Friday.
France will suspend cultivation of MON810, the seed for the only type of genetically modified corn now allowed in the country, until a European Union review is conducted, Prime Minister Francois Fillon’s office said.
The move was based on a recommendation this week by a government-appointed panel calling for ‘the need for additional analyses on the health and environmental effects of the genetically modified product MON810 in the long term,’ Fillon’s office said in a statement.
Bove and his supporters began the hunger strike Jan. 3, saying they hoped to pressure the government to make good on a promise in November to suspend cultivation of MON810. He said they only drank water or unsweetened tea during the protest.
The seed, which resists some types of insects, was authorized before a government-ordered moratorium on genetically modified products took effect in 1999. Last year, it was planted in about 54,000 acres in France – mainly in southern farmland.
Bove rose to fame in August 1999 when he and supporters used farm equipment to dismantle a McDonald’s branch under construction in Millau, in the foothills of France’s Massif Central mountains.
He has faced repeated trials and served jail time for destroying genetically modified crops.
The Associated Press, 11 January 2008
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