The Générations futures association published the map of pesticide purchases by department for the year 2019. The Gironde department, a wine-growing region, tops the ranking.
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Are Gironde farmers addicted to pesticides? This is in essence the message delivered by Générations Futures. The environmental association has published a map of pesticide purchases by department. And the Gironde comes in first position, with more than 3,000 tonnes purchased for the year 2019. Then follow the departments of Marne, Loiret, Seine et Marne and Somme.
The association also linked the quantity of purchases of pesticides with the useful agricultural area of these departments. According to these data, collected on the data.eau website, in Gironde, there are 12.5 kilos of active substances purchased per hectare.
Heavy consumers of glyphosate
The association also looked in detail on the nature of the products purchased. The farmers in our department primarily consume total sulfur, fosetyl-aluminum and glyphosate. As a result, the Gironde was awarded a silver Glyph’award, an ironic distinction, intended “for the departments most addicted to glyphosate”. The Glyph’award d’or goes to Charente-Maritime. Another Aquitaine department, Lot-et-Garonne comes in fifth position.
According to Generation Futures, such a list has the objective of “to encourage the farmers of these departments to no longer wish to receive this distinction “. The association wants “promote the questioning of an old model”, specifies Cyril Giraud. Representative of Générations Futures in Gironde, he denounces the ineffectiveness of the strategies put in place.
“So far, we have plans Ecophyto (one of the measures resulting from the Grenelle de l’Environnement in 2018, editor’s note), which promise to halve the amount of pesticides sold. We can see that this does not weigh in the balance, the figures do not drop “, deplores the activist.
The Gironde has fallen behind
Challenging practices established in viticulture, the main agricultural sector of the department, is not easy, recognizes Cyril Giraud. “It’s more technical to change practices in viticulture. But the Gironde has fallen behind, other wine-growing regions have succeeded in changing these practices”, he assures.
He denounces a communication strategy that conceals a lack of real will. “We have been told, for years, that things are changing. We can see that this is not the case. We know very well that a certain number of farmers are making efforts, but they are still too isolated for it to have any real weight in the balance “.
“If we do it, it’s good because we need it”
Unsurprisingly, FNSEA side, the indictment goes badly. According to Jean-Samuel Eynard, president of the FDSEA Gironde, the new standards in force affect the quantity of products purchased. “ We have withdrawn some very effective products because they are considered harmful. To replace them, we were asked to use more ‘light’ products, but which require more traffic “, he assures.
“All the farmers have started to work on reducing phytosanitary products, continues Jean-Samuel Eynard. The use of these products is a burden on the operation, it takes time … If we do it, it’s because we need it “.
Wine growers are asking for progress, and more of them are asking for HVE certifications (High environmental certification).
For his part, Cyril Giraud, who like many defenders of the environment qualifies HVE certification as a “gadget”, is campaigning for an overhaul of the training of farmers. “We must put, for farmers who wish it, organic farming at the center of the training. As long as we first teach intensive farming techniques, the use of fertilizers and treatment with pesticides, we will not see no progress “.
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