French PM placates farmers with plan for pesticide alternatives

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has unveiled a plan to develop alternatives to the most widely used pesticides, assuring farmers of the state's support at her first visit to the annual agriculture show. 

Elisabeth Borne gets the media treatment on her first visit as premier to the agriculture fair in Paris. AFP - CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT

Known affectionately as "France's biggest farm", the Paris International Agriculture Fair is a rite of passage for all French leaders – a chance to meet and greet rural France and show them you care about their daily concerns. 

Hanging out with beef, pork, milk producers and winegrowers, stroking cattle and tasting local produce – including beer and wine – is not familiar territory for Borne, who is rarely seen relaxing.

But she threw herself into the role on Monday, accepting rum and other delicacies from the French West Indies section of the fair. "Am I the only one drinking?" she was heard asking her team.

Elisabeth Borne raises a glass as she samples regional products in the Normandy region's hall at the agriculture fair in Paris. AFP - CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT

Borne hadn't come empty handed. She outlined the first building blocks of the so-called Ecophyto 2030 plan, announced on Saturday by President Emmanuel Macron during his marathon 13-hour visit to the event.

The plan is aimed at coordinating French measures with those of the EU in an effort to offer farmers more visibility over the products they will be able to use in their fields.

Borne told farmers the government would seek to "identify new uses, new tools and new products to better protect crops, while preserving our biodiversity".

She called on her ministers for agriculture, ecological transition and research to present a new national strategy on plant protection products by the summer.

"This new Ecophyto 2030 plan will be built with all the actors involved, first and foremost the farmers. Its resources will be increased," she said without providing figures.

She fixed no objectives in terms of reducing pesticide use.

• Study finds rise in pesticides in European fruit and vegetables

The first Ecophyto plan was launched in 2008 with the aim of halving the use of pesticides by 2018. It proved too ambitious and in 2015 Ecophyto II was rolled out, pushing back the deadline to 2025.

Respecting EU framework

French farmers frequently rail over EU restrictions on the use of pesticides and herbicides, which they claim will reduce yields at a time when France is working towards food self-sufficiency. 

In recent years France has agreed to ban certain substances, such as glyphosate, in advance of EU-wide bans.

"I want to be clear: in terms of plant protection products, we will from now on respect the European framework and nothing but the European framework," Borne said.

"We will not create any regulatory distortions for our producers, except in cases of force majeure, when public health is threatened."

No repeat of chlordecone

The link between pesticides and public health is highly sensitive in France.

"No one here wants to repeat the mistakes of chlordecone," Borne said, referring to the pesticide used until 1993 in French banana plantations in the West Indies and the cause of numerous cancers.

An international study published this week suggested that prenatal exposure to chloredecone negatively impacted cognitive abilities in seven year olds.

• Paris court dismisses probe into mass poisoning of French West Indies

Borne asked that all the substances under review be identified to see which ones were most at risk of being taken off the market in the coming years.

"We need to develop credible and effective chemical and non-chemical alternatives," she said.

The plan aims to reassure farmers who have seen the range of authorised pesticides (insecticides, fungicides and herbicides) shrink in recent years, leaving them facing dead ends.

In January, the government was forced to stop allowing beet growers to use seeds coated with neonicotinoids following a ruling by the European Court of Justice.

• Sugar beet farmers cry foul after French U-turn on bee-killing pesticide

Outraged beet growers said they had no way of protecting their sugar beet from a disease that had destroyed almost a third of the French crop in 2020.

On 15 February the French Health Security Agency, Anses, announced its intention to ban the main uses of S-metolachlor, a widely used herbicide in France.

Higher than authorised traces of the herbicide have been found in groundwater.