"Critic of Genetically Modified Food Is Deported"

The Washington Post informs us that Jose Bove has been deported back to France. "Bove, a French citizen, came to the United States at the invitation of the National Family Farm Coalition to speak at an agriculture conference at Cornell University."

The Associated Press via Newsday adds that "after arriving Wednesday afternoon at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Bove was detained and questioned by customs officials......He was returned to France that evening."

The BBC provides a profile of Bove. He is an occassionally-jailed, radical activist very concerned about GM crops and the entry of GM foods into the food chain, perhaps most widely known for his role in the destruction of a branch of McDonalds in 1999.

His deportation comes the day after the World Trade Organization ruled that Europe's six-year ban on biotech crops violated trade rules. The Associate Press informs that:

The United States and the European Union were again at loggerheads over trade issues Wednesday, with each claiming a World Trade Organization report had favored its position on EU curbs on imports of genetically modified foods.

This is one of more than 400 articles Google News returned from a search on the topic "WTO’s ruling on biotech food bans".

I don't agree with Bove's position on GM foods, and less with his tactics. But I assume that the folk at the National Family Farm Coalition and Cornell University would have contained any danger he might present to McDonalds or the people of the United States during his brief visit. Is it not better to give critics of GM technology a forum to talk about their views than send them away unheard?

The Deutsch syndrome of denying open fora to critics of policies the Bush Administration favors seems to be with us still, even if Deutsch has departed.