Radical French farm leader José Bové stood trial today on charges of raiding a research center and destroying genetically modified rice plants in the latest action by anti-globalization activists. Bové shot to fame in 1999 when he led an attack on a McDonald’s restaurant in southern France to protest against corporate-led globalization, in general, and U.S. tariffs on French cheese, in particular. Today in France, several hundred protesters marched to the court with Bové, who faces up to five years in prison and a fine, if convicted of breaking into the Cirad research institute in the southern city of Montpellier, France, in June 1999 and damaging public property. Bové told journalists, “Today we do not need to burn our hand in a flame to know that there is a danger. The experiments confirming the danger are more than sufficient.”