Env: French activist Bove launches anti-GMO hunger strike

PARIS, Jan 3 (Reuters) - French radical farmer Jose Bove, who became a
worldwide celebrity for his fight against junk food, went on a hunger
strike from Thursday to try and get the government to do more to ban
genetically modified (GMO) crops.

Speaking on RTL radio, Bove said he had only been drinking water since
early in the day to protest what he described as the government's
failure to follow through on a pledge late last year to use a legal
clause to ban GMO use.

Bove and around 15 other activists will carry out the hunger strike in a
building in central Paris.

Bove said the government had promised to write a letter to the European
Commission saying France would use the so-called safeguard clause to
suspend the use of GMOs until scientific studies proved they could be
cultivated safely.

But the government had not sent the letter and had only suspended the
commercial use of maize seeds reliant on the MON 810 technology -- the
only GMO seeds permitted for use developed by U.S. biotech giant
Monsanto (MON.N: Quote, Profile, Research) -- until Feb. 9, he said.

That is the date by which the government is expected to have passed a
new law outlining a framework for GMO use.

"What I hope is that the political will (of the people) will be
respected," Bove said in an interview.

RTL radio questioned the timing of Bove's actions given that the
government was awaiting the opinions of a committee of experts and that
there could still be room for negotiation.

Senior government officials said last month that France would extend
its ban beyond Feb. 9 and use the safeguard clause if doubts over the
commercial use of GMO seeds lingered.

But France would once again allow farmers to cultivate MON 810 maize,
which has been cleared for use by the the European Union, if expert
findings proved extremely positive, the officials said.

While GMO crops are common in the United States, France -- Europe's
biggest grain producer -- along with other European nations remain
highly suspicious of them.

Sup****ters say it could lead to hardy strains to help feed the world's
poor. Opponents, which polls say include a majority of French people,
fear they could harm humans and wildlife by triggering an uncontrolled
spread of modified genes. 

(Re****ting by Tamora Vidaillet and Valerie Parent; Editing by Michael
Roddy) 

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