In 1976 Bové joined the Fight for the Larzac, a movement protesting the proposed expansion of a military camp on the Larzac plateau. It would have displaced regional sheep farmers and changed the ecology of the area. He joined a band of peasants occupying the threatened territory and illegally building a sheep barn. The protest eventually succeeded, and the government cancelled the military plan. As a result of that experience, Bové became a sheep farmer there, producing Roquefort cheese.