“France continues to produce and export dangerous active substances, prohibited for use on its own territory due to their toxicity for health and the environment,” the two organizations underlined in a joint press release on Wednesday. To extend the ban to active substances, CCFD-Terre Solidaire and the Veblen Institute, a think tank which reflects on the ecological transition, want to cancel and rewrite a 2019 circular which “specifies the conditions of application” of the law . They referred the matter to the Council of State on August 7 and filed the final brief on November 4, they indicate.
“Unacceptable inconsistency”
The circular confirms that “the ban measure only concerns” plant protection products and does not concern “the activity of synthesis of active substances”. It “goes against the objective of the law, namely to strengthen the protection of public health and the environment, and makes it ineffective”, judge the two organizations, denouncing an “unacceptable inconsistency”. In 2023, according to figures from Public Eye, France has “approved the export of 7,294 tonnes of banned pesticides” by Brussels, including “4,500 tonnes of banned pesticides in the form of active substance”.
Pesticides increasingly used around the world
Farmers consumed 3.54 million tonnes of active substances in 2021, up 11% over ten years and almost double compared to 1990, according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. agriculture
Health
