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GFMM desk: The French government on Friday (December 20, 2020) set a safe distance for pesticides to spread near the home in an effort to resolve heated disputes between farmers and environmentalists, but expressed anger at both groups at once.
From Jan. 1, there must be a five-meter gap between sprayed fields and housing for shorter crops like cereals and a 10-metre zone for taller crops like fruit trees, the agriculture, environment and health ministries said in a joint statement. The statement was in line with recommendations made by French food and environment agency ANSES earlier this year.
France's largest farmer's union, FNSEA, has opposed mandatory pesticide-free zones. Due to pesticide free zones, it has potentially forced farmers to leave large quantities of land. Because of this, they reacted angrily.
“By establishing, in certain situations, incompressible safety distances, whatever the protection practices and measures, the government gives way to ideology and abandons many farmers without any solution,” the FNSEA said in a statement.
Environmental group France Nature Environment (FNE) criticized the measures for not going far enough.
“What we feared has happened,” FNE representative Thibault Leroux said, adding the group was considering going to court to challenge the decision.
Commercial pesticides have already been banned in public spaces, such as parks, since January 2017, and the trend for the ban was extended this year to include private homes and gardens.
The government is aiming to start using the controversial weedkiller glyphosate by 2021, though it has promised to consider farms that have no possible alternative.
Farmers have been outraged by the government's policy, saying that the tractor-driven convoy in Paris last month obstructed traffic, with threats of their livelihoods, and increased social unrest in the face of President Emmanuel Macron.
Source: Online/SZK
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