the government wants to reverse the procedure for banning a disputed herbicide

He made this announcement, Thursday, March 30, at the congress of the FNSEA, the main agricultural union. The Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau has asked the French Health Security Agency (ANSES) to reconsider its desire to ban the main uses of the herbicide S-metolachlor, still authorized in the European Union.

“I will not be the minister who abandons strategic decisions for our food sovereignty at the sole discretion of an agency”said Marc Fesneau to farmers and union representatives. “We must base ourselves on science to evaluate before deciding (…) but ANSES is not intended to decide on everything, all the time, outside the European field and without ever thinking about the consequences for our sectors. “he added.

The minister “takes control of economic power”, denounces a deputy

ANSES announced on February 15 its desire to ban the main uses of S-metolachlor, an agricultural herbicide widely used in France, whose chemical derivatives have been detected beyond the authorized limits in groundwater. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has been responsible since 2015 for reassessing the authorization of this herbicide. It classified it as a “suspected carcinogen” last June, and seems to be moving towards a ban, according to the NGO Générations Futures.

For the socialist deputy Dominique Potier, the exit of Marc Fesneau “is an extremely serious statement which undermines the independence of ANSES”. “It calls into question a 2014 law which has been a consensus for ten years and which provides that the ministries give up their prerogatives to trust ANSES”, he denounced to AFP. The Minister “puts himself in the hand of economic power in the short term”still lamented MP Potier. “When a product is carcinogenic, it is withdrawn, it is French doctrine and it is not up to an economic lobby to go back on it”, he added. ANSES, which has not yet issued its final decision on the herbicide, did not wish to comment on the minister’s remarks.