|
作者：Donella H. Meadows與 Hal Hamilton, 07.17.00
Jose Bove在法國的Larzac，養了250頭乳羊，這是個多岩、多風的地區，你很難相信農夫在此能有任何收穫。但是，Bove卻能將這裡的羊奶轉變為世界美食佳餚之一，羊乳乾酪。Bove在當地已有名氣，為該地區的羊乳乾酪製造者公會的領導人，這是法國第二大的農夫組織。去年，與9個朋友開牽引機到附近的城鎮Millau，拆毀建築中的麥當勞餐廳之後，他更是揚名全世界。
●羊隻得勝或出局
Bove對麥當勞的不滿，起源於美國的牛肉產業，特別是不滿它們為了讓牲畜快速肥大，習慣以荷爾蒙藥物混合在飼料中的作法（這也是有些運動員偷服禁藥的原因）。歐洲人不願意食用這種需要嚴格檢查的肉類，歐洲聯盟（EU）禁止用荷爾蒙飼養的牛肉，無論是國內養的、或是進口。這讓美國牛肉業者、以及接受業者的大筆競選獻金的政府官員非常不滿。
現在，我們有了世界貿易組織 (WTO)，有正式管道來解決這樣的衝突。WTO的裁決幾乎總是偏袒貿易本身，無視於社會、環境、文化，或是健康上的影響。因此，當WTO宣佈EU禁止荷爾蒙飼養的牛肉為不合法時，我並不感到驚訝。
●Jose Bove - 他出局了
EU拒絕解除禁令，所以WTO只好執行唯一的處罰權力，它允許美國採用報復性關稅，對法國進口的產品課徵高稅金。其中一項受到影響的產品，就是羊乳乾酪。這讓Jose Bove與其同業非常憤怒。
6月30有一場針對Bove與其朋友行為的聽證會，當天至少有50,000民眾擠進Millau，舉行政治性示威運動，其意義與六個月前在西雅圖反對WTO的抗議活動類似。在群眾的心目，即使法院不這樣認為，Bove就是一位英雄。在滿街都可以見到的T恤的正面，印著直接引述自Bove的一段話「Le Monde n'est pas une marchandise.」(這個世界不是貨物、不是產品是不能用來販賣的)，背後則寫著「Moi non plus.」(我也不是。)
Bove's的支持者絕非只在法國，雖然美國媒體傾向於將這個事件報導成法美兩方農民的對抗，但是，的確有些美國農民捐錢給Bove'當訴訟費用。有一位農民說：「今天早上，我們有一些人來合作社討論，希望有管道可以幫助那些法國夥伴們。現在，有了你的電子信箱，我們很高興能捐贈一些金錢，而成為其中的一份子。」
●老兄，我們不要牛
Millau的這十個人已確定有罪，他們欣然承認拆毀麥當勞一事， 9月宣判前他們仍然保有自由。因為Bove還有抗議法國軍方與遺傳工程作物的前科，所以，他有幾個月的監牢要坐。
Bove的故鄉Montredon很小，大約只有6到7個家庭居住。你可能會以為每週三農民的黃昏市場也很小型。事實上，總有數百位民眾特地來此購買蔬菜、水果、蜜餞、乳酪、肉、酒、陶器，以及皮製品。Jose與幾位夥伴搭了一個烤肉架，每個人都可以拿肉來烤。大家圍坐在一起吃、一起喝，接著，音樂聲響起。這是一個小型聚會，無法區分誰是生產者、誰是消費者，許多民眾兩者兼具，這是一個社區。
●拱型招牌的報應
總算，經過幾個世紀，在這難得的Larzac區，人們學會的不只是求得生存而已，而是獲得豐富的人生。Jose Bove選擇了一個出色的、具有象徵性的行動，將這樣的生活品質與麥當勞整潔但缺乏熱情的自大做為對照。他不僅抗議向法國牧羊業者課稅、以強迫歐洲消費者接受美國量產牛肉的不公平，他也抗議將這樣的想法稱之為全球化。
在一個由市場交易邏輯赤裸裸支配的文化裡，每一件事都被商品化，包括我們的時間、智慧、景觀、水，以及食物。Jose與鄰居正在說：不！這並不是我們想要的。不！我們拒絕被那樣的系統吸收。我們堅決認為，每一個人、我們的土地和生活的價值，是不能以金錢來衡量。我們堅決認為，世界貿易組織沒有權力強迫我們食用來自工廠的食物。我們堅決認為，社區、文化、品味、工作與大自然，這些都比廉價食物與自由貿易來得重要。我們堅持保護我們的傳統，以免讓嚴密的、無情的經濟入侵，它們會以只追求「效率」方式製造出來的東西，填充我們的生活。
Donella H. Meadows是永續研究所所長暨達特茅斯學院環境研究副教授
版權歸屬 Earth Day NetWork，環境信託協會 (黃曉菊 譯 ，蘇崧棱 審校)
中英對照全文：http://news.ngo.org.tw/reviewer/donella/
re-donella000731.htm
|
|
by Donella H. Meadows and Hal Hamilton
07.17.00
Jose Bove milks 250 sheep in the Larzac region of France, a rocky, windswept place where you would think no farmer could produce anything. But Bove turns sheep milk into one of the gastronomical treasures of the world, Roquefort cheese. Bove is a leader of the local Roquefort producers association and of the second largest farmers organization in France. So he was well-known locally before he and nine friends drove their tractors to the nearby town of Millau last year and pulled down an under-construction McDonald's restaurant. Now he is well-known globally.
Sheep up or sheep out.
Bove's beef with McDonald's began with America's beef industry, particularly its habit of dosing feedlot cattle with the kinds of hormones that athletes are tempted to use for the same reason -- to bulk up fast. Europeans are disinclined to eat this high-test meat. The European Union forbids hormone-raised beef, either domestically produced or imported. That makes the American beef industry, and the government officials to whom the beef industry pays large campaign donations, very angry.
Now that we have a World Trade Organization, we have an official way to resolve such conflicts. WTO resolutions nearly always come out in favor of trade, no matter what its social or environmental or cultural or health consequences. It was no surprise when the WTO declared the EU ban on hormone-raised beef illegal.
Jose Bove -- he's cheesed off.
The EU refused to lift the ban. So the WTO imposed the only punishment within its power. It allowed the U.S. to slap retaliatory tariffs -- high taxes imposed at the border -- on French products. One of the products thus affected was Roquefort cheese. Which made Jose Bove and his Roquefort-producing friends very angry.
At a hearing on the actions of Bove and friends on June 30, at least 50,000 people jammed into Millau for a political demonstration equivalent in purpose to Seattle's anti-WTO bash six months earlier. In the crowd's estimation, if not the court's, Bove is a hero. The T-shirt seen all over the streets said on the front, in a direct quote from Bove, "Le Monde n'est pas une marchandise." (The world is not merchandise, not a product, not for sale.) On the back it said, "Moi non plus." (Me neither.)
Bove's supporters are by no means only French. The American media tend to frame stories like this as a confrontation between French and U.S. farmers. But some American farmers actually donated to help with
Bove's legal expenses. The comments of one farmer: "A few of us were standing around our co-op this morning wishing we had some way to help those French guys, and now we have your email we're glad to send some money so we can have some small part in this."
Don't have a cow, man.
The Millau Ten were found guilty -- they readily admitted that they pulled down the McDonald's. They are free until their sentences are announced in September. Because Bove has a prior record of struggles against the French military and against genetically engineered crops, he faces months in prison.
Bove's home hamlet of Montredon is tiny; maybe six or seven families live there. You would expect its Wednesday evening farmers market to be a small affair. In fact hundreds of people typically show up to shop for vegetables, fruit, preserves, cheese, meat, wine, ceramics, and leather goods. Jose and a couple of other guys fire up a barbecue where everyone brings meat to grill. They sit around eating and drinking, and then the music starts. There's a small play. It's not possible to distinguish producers from consumers; many folks are both. This is a community.
Arch-nemesis
Somehow, over centuries, people have learned not only to make a living in the sparse Larzac, but to make a rich life. Jose Bove chose a brilliantly symbolic act to compare the quality of that life with the antiseptic arrogance of McDonald's. He was protesting more than the injustice of taxing French sheep farmers to force European consumers to accept U.S. mass-produced beef. He was protesting the whole idea that has come to be called globalization.
In a culture dominated by the bare logic of market exchange, everything becomes commodified, including our time, our intelligence, our landscape, our water, our food. Jose and his neighbors are saying no, that's not what we want. No, we refuse to be sucked into that system. We insist that our value to one another and the value of our land and lives not be measured in dollars or francs. We insist that the World Trade Organization not be granted the power to force us to eat food from factories. We insist that community, culture, taste, work, and nature are more important than cheap food or free trade. We insist on protecting our traditions from the narrow, heartless economics that would have us fill our lives with things produced wherever they can be made most "efficiently."
Donella H. Meadows is director of the Sustainability Institute and an adjunct professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College. Hal Hamilton is the Institute's director of sustainable agriculture.
|
