French Lawmakers Back Farm Bill Despite Pesticide Outcry
The bill passed 296 to 224 and would let regulators grant temporary waivers for two pesticides after a constitutional court blocked one last year.
- On Tuesday, France's National Assembly approved an emergency farm bill by 296 votes to 224, allowing temporary reintroduction of two pesticides banned locally but authorized in the European Union.
- Sugar industry advocates argue these pesticides protect harvests from aphids, while the bill also eases water-storage rules and addresses farm income, livestock protection, and wolf attacks.
- Greenpeace denounced the bill as "a disgrace" for ignoring scientific warnings, while Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu claimed, "The compromise puts science back at the heart of the decision-making process."
- Ecological Transition Minister Monique Barbut was absent from the vote; Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard and government spokesperson Maud Bregeon declined to comment on her possible resignation on Tuesday.
- Any pesticide waiver requires approval from Anses and cannot exceed three years, following last year's constitutional court ruling that blocked acetamiprid re-introduction due to insufficient safeguards.
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Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu called on the X network not to "instrumentalize for political purposes" this law, after the adoption of the text in the night in the National Assembly in a tense context. "The deputies did useful work for French agriculture", welcomed France Inter the Minister of Agriculture Annie Genevard, about the text, "born of demonstrations (of farmers, NDLR) at the beginning of the year" and "worked with farmers", allowing…
French lawmakers back farm bill despite pesticide outcry
PARIS, July 21 (Reuters) - French lawmakers approved an emergency farm bill in the early hours of Tuesday that could allow the temporary reintroduction of two pesticides accused of harming bees, despite being banned in France but authorised in the Eu...
The government was concerned that the measure allowing the derogatory re-authorization of two neonicotinoids, added by the Senate, would lead to the rejection of the text. The bill was finally passed by the deputies, mostly from the right and the far right.
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