The debates promise to be agitated. The National Assembly seizes this Monday of the government bill which authorizes the reintroduction of neonicotinoids. These insecticides harmful to bees have been banned since the Biodiversity law passed in 2016, which entered into force in 2018. But the beet growers are calling for exemptions, faced with bad weather conditions and an unprecedented attack by aphids, vectors of jaundice.
The European regulation on plant protection products makes it possible to derogate from the ban in the absence of an alternative. The French government provides for the controlled use of neonicotinoids for a maximum of three years. The only solution to save the sugar beet industry which employs 46,000 people (including 25,000 farmers), says the government. He has undertaken to limit the exemption to beets only.
The text is the subject of much criticism, from environmentalists but also elected by the majority. The government is accused of slashing its will to green its policy. MEPs are due to vote on Tuesday. Among them, Jean-Baptiste Moreau, LREM deputy (Creuse), and Delphine Batho, of the Ecology, democracy, solidarity group (Deux-Sèvres), with opposing opinions. They give us their point of view.
Jean-Baptiste Moreau, farmer and LREM deputy:
“We are in a situation of total impasse. An entire sector, representing nearly 50,000 jobs, risks disappearing in less than a year. I will vote for the derogation, especially since all measures are taken to ensure that we run a minimum risk for biodiversity. Neonicotinoids will be used as a coating. The only alternatives that exist are much less effective and spray, therefore more dangerous for insects. In coating, only the insects that land are affected, but the bees do not come on the beets because they do not flower. When spraying on a surface in reverse, all insects are destroyed. Another point: there will be no cultivation of flowers in the two years following the cultivation of beets, because neonicotinoids are actually stored in the soil.
A supervisory board must be set up to reassure consumers and so that politicians continue to have control over this exemption. It will not be granted systematically, but every year depending on the climate. We must mobilize all the research teams to find an alternative within three years. The public authorities will put in five million euros. We also need support because neonicotinoids will not be replaced by a single molecule. This will involve changes in practices towards agroecology, with hedges, reservoirs to store auxiliaries that fight against aphids, etc.
I understand the tensions, but we need to get back to reason and science when it comes to pesticides. We must stop hysterizing the debates as some environmentalists do. Our political role is to measure the balance between benefits and risks. “
Delphine Batho, Member of the Ecology, Democracy, Solidarity (EDS) group:
“I will vote against because they are extremely toxic pesticides, persistent in the environment. They are the cause of the collapse of insects, pollinators, earthworms… In France, we have seen the disappearance of 85% of insect populations and a third of field birds. Neonicotinoids are 7,000 times more potent than DDT that France banned fifty years ago. Adding more to 450,000 hectares of beet crops will have dramatic consequences for biodiversity. This will also penalize other agricultural sectors, such as honey, whose production has been reduced by three since the 1990s.
The farmers are first victims of the abandonment of the European sugar quota system which protected the volumes. Since 2017, four sugar factories have closed, and it’s not the aphids’ fault. The 15% of losses suffered this year, which are also linked to global warming, must be compensated. Our political group is preparing a harvest insurance mechanism. It must provide the security that farmers expect by guaranteeing their income. It is doable and we see that the government is abandoning them, to preserve the interests of industrialists alone. We are being waved at the risk of an unfounded sugar shortage. Half of the sugar produced in our territory is exported.
Beetroot is only the Trojan horse of a much broader text, with re-authorizations that will be granted by ministerial decree. This bill is a disgrace. It is contrary to the environmental code (law of 8 August 2016) and to its principle of no backwards step. If the text is adopted, we will file an appeal with the Constitutional Council. “
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