Word: bove
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...JOSE BOVE...
...called my brother-in-arms, Jose Bove, the French farm leader who has taken crowbars to McDonald's in his homeland. I caught him on his cell phone while he walked the turbulent streets of downtown Seattle. It took him a while to understand the importance of my findings. But eventually he caught on. "McDonald's had a good way to make publicity, and people like that," he said. And then, after some mushy watermelon sounds in the background, he added, "I have a problem with police. Can you call me back here...
Empowered by Bove's bravery, I called Nancy Izquierdo at McDonald's corporate communications, who told me the company stopped counting on April 14, 1994, when, at the shady sounding, acronym-needy McDonald's Biennial Worldwide Convention, then chairman Michael Quinlan announced that the company had passed the 100-billion-burgers mark and somehow missed it. Deciding to focus on the future, he advised the 25,000 franchise owners to switch to the Carl Saganesque "billions and billions." I didn't buy one word of it. So I stopped at my McDonald's on 34th Street in Manhattan, which...
...Bove founded the radical Confederation Paysanne and began launching targeted commando actions in support of traditional French agriculture. Bove denies that his movement is specifically anti-American. "Our struggle is not against America but against uncontrolled globalization," he told TIME. "McDonald's is a symbol of industrial food production. Whether such products are American or French, the effect is the same: the destruction of traditional farming, different cultures and ways of life." He blames the European Union as well as the U.S. for "the imperialism with which they aid agricultural exports." Arguing for the right of every country to "choose...
Such is the message Bove hopes to spread to America this week. He claims a sense of kinship with his Yankee counterparts, noting that a group of American farmers contributed $5,000 toward paying his bail after the McDonald's incident. "There are more similarities than differences between us," he says. "We are fighting for the same things." Question for Seattle: Is this town big enough for Bill Gates, Boeing--and Jose Bove...