Newsday (New York), February 10, 2006, Friday

Copyright 2006 Newsday, Inc.
Newsday (New York)

February 10, 2006 Friday
NASSAU AND SUFFOLK EDITION

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A46

HEADLINE: Bashing farmer's detainment by U.S. officials

BYLINE: BY JOSEPH MALLIA. STAFF WRITER; This story was supplemented with wire service reports.

BODY:
Labor and anti-globalization activists yesterday criticized U.S. Border Protection officials who detained French farmer Jose Bove this week at Kennedy Airport, then sent him back to France and prevented him from attending an international labor conference in Manhattan.
Bove, who shot to international prominence after he and other sheep farmers dismantled a McDonald's under construction in southern France in 1999, now travels the world as an advocate of local food production. In addition to a 6- month jail term for destroying the McDonald's, he also has been jailed for ripping up genetically modified crops.
Bove should have been allowed entry to speak at the Cornell University-sponsored conference, said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor research at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
"This was a matter of curtailing academic freedom, free association and open debate," said Bronfenbrenner, coordinator of this week's Global Unions Conference where Bove was scheduled as keynote speaker.
Bove, 52, participated anyway by speakerphone in yesterday's conference discussions, titled Fighting the Commodification of Food, and The Struggle Against Monsanto in Europe, said William Kramer, a conference official.
"He was on the phone with at least 100 people, and he was very enthusiastic. Not at all depressed" at being turned away, Kramer said. Bove will seek U.S. government permission to return to the United States in June, he said.
Customs and Border Protection officials have refused comment on why Bove was denied admission on Wednesday.
This story was supplemented with wire service reports.