In supermarkets, “natural” brands and products stamped with AB now have the honors of shelf heads, ie the most visible places in the store.
But according to a study by the Nicolas Hulot Foundation (FNH), unveiled on Tuesday, organic fashion is having a hard time convincing farmers to do without chemicals.
Quite the contrary.
While France aimed to reduce the use of pesticides by 50% by 2025, the use of insecticides and other fungicides has… increased by 25% in ten years!
The environmental association wanted to know why such a large number of cereal growers, wine growers and arborists are addicted to synthetic products.
"Because since 2008, France has given the agricultural world major objectives to achieve in order to reduce the use of these products, but without providing them with the means to do without them", explains Caroline Faraldo, agriculture and food manager at the FNH.
Responsibility of public authorities
French peasants, however, do not lack subsidies.
The Foundation's report estimates that the agricultural and food sectors receive 23.2 billion euros per year.
"But only 1% of this funding has proven effects on reducing the use of pesticides", underlines Christophe Alliot, who participated in this study as co-founder of the societal analysis office for citizen information.
Since the Grenelle Environment Forum in 2007, successive Ecology ministers have nonetheless multiplied the promises of reducing the use of chemicals.
"The weight of failure is too often placed only on the shoulders of farmers while the responsibility is also on the side of public authorities," said Caroline Faraldo.
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"The problem is that the French State and Europe, via the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), allocate considerable sums to the agricultural world each year but that a tiny part goes to the policy of reducing pesticides", sighs former Minister of Ecology, Nicolas Hulot.
The FNH sees this edifying figure as proof: the financing of the Ecophyto plan, supposed to contribute to the reduction of the use of chemicals in the fields, represents only 0.3% of annual public support to the agricultural and food sectors.
"A drop of water in an ocean of funding", fumes the environmental association.
Tax pesticide producers
But no question for Nicolas Hulot to point the finger at the agricultural world as a whole: "We must get out of agribashing," indicates the resigning minister.
More than 55% of the consumption of pesticides in ten years can be attributed to only 9% of French farms.
Rather than waiting for the announcement of yet another plan to reduce plant protection products, the FNH recommends the implementation of radical measures.
Starting with a bonus-malus based on "the polluter pays principle".
Users, distributors and producers of pesticides would be taxed more, while those who do everything they can to do without them would benefit from tax assistance.
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"To achieve our objectives, France would need to allocate five times more resources to farmers who produce organic," adds Caroline Faraldo.
The funds granted by the Common Agricultural Policy should also be given as a priority to those who make efforts: today, only 2% of CAP funding has an effect on reducing pesticides.
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“There is such a gap between the commitments of the State and their realization that this unfortunately contributes to the growing distrust of citizens vis-à-vis the political leaders who make these promises, regrets Nicolas Hulot.
Every euro of public money must contribute to the public good.
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