The Minister of Ecological Transition must come to terms with farmers, opposed to the ban of this pesticide.
Glyphosate is causing tensions in France. This Friday, 200 farmers came to demonstrate on the Champs Elysées their anger at the project to ban this controversial pesticide. Lying on the straw, a metaphor for their economic situation, they were gathered at the call of the FNSEA (National Federation of Farmers’ Unions) and Young Farmers.
The demonstrators explained that they had no alternative to glyphosate, a pesticide widely used in conventional agriculture. The file is currently being negotiated at the European Commission; the discussions relate to a possible re-authorization for ten years within the European Union. France, following the position adopted by the previous government, reiterated its intention to vote against this proposal.
Balancing act
This worries farmers, who are not used to other methods to overcome pests. Informed of the demonstration, Nicolas Hulot went there for an “informal exchange”, reports France Blue. “If we re-authorize for ten years, we know that in ten years nothing will have changed,” he said. If, on the other hand, we agree to say that within ten years we find an alternative, it is already another modus vivendi ”.
The Minister of Ecological and Solidarity Transition seems condemned to play the balancing act. The same day, Stéphane Travert, Minister of Agriculture, suggested that France propose to the Commission an extension of “five to seven years” of the authorization, instead of the ten years desired by the Commission.
“No brutal measure”
“We need to be on the path to getting out of the most dangerous products as quickly as possible. Without constraint, there will be no creativity to find alternatives “, reacted Nicolas Hulot, while assuring that Paris does not intend” to adopt brutal measures with regard to farmers “.
A meeting between the minister and the president of the FNSEA, Christiane Lambert, is scheduled for Monday. Nicolas Hulot repeats that he is not “the enemy of conventional farmers”. “We must create an agriculture which is intensive in employment rather than in fertilizers and phytosanitary products”. A whole diplomatic rhetoric around a weedkiller.
Then President of the Republic, François Hollande had promised to ban glyphosate on French territory, regardless of discussions at the European Commission. What will Emmanuel Macron say about it?
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