Called “Pesticides, let’s learn to do without them!”, This campaign will run until the end of June.
“This national awareness campaign is essential to make home gardeners aware of the dangers to which they expose themselves and their loved ones. It is possible to garden differently by adopting alternatives to the use of pesticides”, declared the Minister of Ecology Jean-Louis Borloo in a press release.
Several alternative tips to the use of pesticides will be regularly communicated through this campaign, such as natural gardening practices, the use of compost or manure to fertilize the soil, or the creation of space favoring biodiversity and the presence of certain insects that are predatory of garden pests.
This campaign is part of the Ecophyto 2018 plan resulting from the Grenelle Environnement. This program aims to reduce the use of pesticides by 50% by 2018. The ministry points out that France is the leading European consumer of pesticides (78,000 tonnes used in 2008), and the fourth globally.
Of the 17 million French people who garden at home, only 32% associate the use of pesticides with the concept of danger, and 20% even consider that these products pose no risk to the environment or to health.
Source: www.jardiner-autrement.gouv.fr
