“Penalties linked to non-compliance with environmental standards are rare and weak”

LFarmers are right to point out that they are disadvantaged by the application of environmental standards which are not respected in the countries from which imported products come. But the problem comes from the rules of the game of international trade, not from the environmental standards which, remember, are adopted to protect the health of the French and the ecosystems.

However, environmental standards linked to agricultural practices today seem relatively incapable of fulfilling this dual function. Take the example of pesticides. The standards on the subject are both insufficient with regard to pesticide pollution, not respected on a national scale, and the related offenses do not generate real sanctions. Let’s take a look at these three points again.

Concerning their inadequacy, the general inspections of three ministries recently denounced the deterioration of the quality of drinking water due to contamination by pesticides. Between 1980 and 2019, 12,500 drinking water catchments were abandoned (there are 33,000 today), including 40% due to pesticide pollution. In addition to these closures, the annual social cost of treating pesticides in water is estimated at 1 billion euros.

Old strategy

In 2022, 11 million French people will receive tap water that exceeds the authorized pesticide thresholds. This situation is notably linked to the fact that the political objectives on the subject are not respected. This is our second point. While it was expected, in the first Ecophyto plan, that the use of synthetic phytosanitary products would drop by 50% between 2010 and 2018, it increased by 15%.

This objective, postponed to 2025 in the Ecophyto II plan, will still not be met. France is 9^e consumer of pesticides in the world and the countries which are ahead of it are much larger (United States, India, China, Argentina, Canada, Russia, etc.). Rather than recognizing a failure on the subject, the State recently chose to change the evaluation indicator, an old strategy of the French public authorities.

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