the Ecophyto 2030 plan “unravels the few achievements obtained over the last 15 years”, estimates a collective

The Ecophyto plan was put on “pause” in February to try to calm the anger of farmers. The Minister of Agriculture assures franceinfo that the government maintains “the objective of reducing phytosanitary products by 50%” by 2030.

“This new Ecophyto plan unravels the few achievements obtained over the last 15 years”reacted Friday May 3 on franceinfo Michel Besnard, president of the Collective in support of victims of pesticides in the West, while the Ecophyto 2030 plan, the new French strategy for reducing the use of pesticides, the development of which has been put in “break” at the height of the agricultural crisis, will be presented on Monday, as announced by Marc Fesneau, the Minister of Agriculture.

Michel Besnard recalls that the collective “regularly receives calls for help”particularly those living near farms, “who are devastated by this discrepancy between all the studies on the consequences of the use of pesticides on health, on biodiversity, and these decisions which act as if all these findings did not exist“.

A “sleight of hand”

The president of the collective sees in the minister’s announcement “a denial of reality”. Friday on franceinfo, Marc Fesneau said he did not understand “in the name of which we would ask agriculture to eliminate molecules which are not at risk” for soils and health. Michel Besnard affirms that the collective is “constantly solicited by professionals who are overtaken by diseases after having used pesticides for decades in their professional activity”.

Michel Besnard denounces a “sleight of hand” of the government which recorded the abandonment of the Nodu indicator, a reference indicator for measuring the reduction in the use of pesticides, defended by environmental associations, in favor of the European indicator HRI-1 which prioritizes the most dangerous molecules . “There are no synthetic pesticides that are risk-free”, affirms the Support Collective for Victims of Pesticides in the West. The change of indicator amounts to “to say that the objective, which has never been achieved since 2008, will be achieved artificially by changing the thermometer, by changing the measurement indicators”.

Michel Besnard recalls that there are “30 years, Atrazine, Lindane, Gramoxone, Herbogil, it was not dangerous. Today, they have been banned for a long time and we see their persistence and persistence in the soil and water every day.. “What is declared as not dangerous today will turn out to be very dangerous tomorrow and will be replaced by another molecule”warns Michel Besnard again.