Associated Press | September 8, 1999 | By SUSANNAH PATTON, Associated Press Writer
DEAUVILLE, France (AP) -- Movie stars arriving at the annual American Film Festival in this Normandy resort town over the weekend heard more than the usual squealing of fans.
On the chic beach boardwalk, cow mooed and pigs grunted. The impetus behind the display: 200 French farmers, all of whom gathered here with their livestock to protest American trade muscle and what they see as the creeping threat of U.S.-driven globalization.
The farmers, carrying signs saying "Vive le Camembert" and "Hormone Beef Go Home," singled out the film festival because of its American connections. The protest was only one of a wave of anti-American demonstrations that have hit McDonald's restaurants and other symbols of U.S. influence over the past month.
The protests range from farmers trashing McDonald's franchises to 100 percent "taxes" on Coca-Cola in certain towns.
They reflect a simmering French hostility toward U.S. global influence. France has long sought to preserve its cultural and political identity, whether by remaining outside of NATO's military command or limiting the number of American shows on TV.
"The Americans came to help us 50 years ago," said Hilaire Taillecours, 62, who raises cows and grows wheat on his 125-acre Normandy farm. "But that doesn't mean they can tell us what to eat and how to film."
The outcry against the spread of globalization -- the buzzword for the American model of a free-market driven, borderless world economy -- comes as France itself is bowing to economic pressures by selling off state assets and supporting corporate megamergers.
While the French are increasingly accepting the rule of market forces, and eagerly flocking to American movies and chain stores, the current dispute hits them where they are the most sensitive: the stomach.
"In France, food equals identity," said Guillaume Parmentier, who heads the French Center on the United States, a new, private Paris think tank. "There is a growing fear of being taken over by new types of technology and a general ambivalence toward globalization, of which McDonald's has become a symbol."
Europeans fear that American marketing muscle will gradually lead to a worldwide standardization of food, stamping out old culinary traditions. And the protests come after several food crises -- from mad cow disease to dioxin-tainted chicken -- have shaken consumer confidence in industrialized agriculture.
The latest protests follow U.S. sanctions on a slew of products ranging from Roquefort cheese to foie gras. The tariffs were slapped on European goods in retaliation to the European Union's decision to ban imports of U.S. hormone-treated beef.
In France, the protests have been spearheaded by the radical Farmers' Confederation, a left-wing union that represents a vocal minority of French farmers. Union leader Jose Bove, a sheep farmer from southwestern France, quickly became the movement's poster boy after he was arrested and jailed for vandalizing a McDonald's under construction in southern France.
McDonald's France dropped its damages claim against Bove, who was released on bail this week. And the company has launched a nationwide ad campaign to repair its tattered image with the slogan "Born in USA, made in France," emphasizing that a Big Mac here is actually made from native beef and produce.
The French government, meanwhile, is taking special care not to further rile the farmers.
French President Jacques Chirac regularly espouses free-market principles. But he showed subtle support for the farmers' movement in recent days, saying France would continue to oppose genetically modified foods and hormone-treated beef at World Trade Organization talks set for Nov. 30 in Seattle.
Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
