BBC News Online: World: Europe

Radical farmer defiant at GM trial

Mr Bove and two colleagues are on trial for the destruction of 3,000 genetically-modified rice plants at a research institute in June 1999.

"GMOs are a necro-technology. They are the result of technological tinkering," he said on French La Chaine Info television.

Mr Bove shot to fame when he ransacked a McDonald's restaurant in his home town of Millau and was a prominent activist at the 1999 Seattle anti-globalisation protests.

Public debate

The trial is taking place under heavy security as police expect protests from the Confederation Paysanne farmers' union, which Mr Bove heads.

Mr Bove and his fellow defendants - Dominique Soullier and Rene Riesel - all admit attacking the centre and could face five years in prison if convicted.

Mr Bove is already appealing against a three-month jail sentence for his destruction of the McDonald's restaurant.

A spokesman for the research centre, Cirad, welcomed the current public debate on GMOs but condemned Mr Bove's attacks.

"The rise of a public debate is an excellent thing for everyone. What worries us a great deal is that a systematic attack on all public research is not debate, it's an attempt at intimidation," he said.

But Mr Bove maintains his actions are for a just cause.

"Scientists only understand about 1% of the workings of genes in organisms and today with this lack of knowledge they are trying to impose technologies which provide no certainty or guarantee," he said.