This decision made environmental associations cringe.
“Ecology is not at all on pause,” Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau defended this Monday morning on France Culture, four days after the announcement of the shutdown of the Ecophyto plan which aims to reduce the use of phytosanitary products in fields and orchards.
“No one has paused the government's budgetary resources” on ecological issues, added the Minister of Agriculture.
Associations and elected officials are concerned about an ecological decline.
"No, ecology is not at all on pause [...] We decided to pause a system, the Ecophyto plan", explains the Minister of Agriculture @MFesneau #lesmatins pic.twitter.com/ A67SlstxfT
— France Culture (@franceculture) February 5, 2024
For Marc Fesneau, the suspension of the Ecophyto plan – this “pathway of reducing phytosanitary products” – will not cause “any change to molecules and phytosanitary products”.
“No molecule will be reauthorized during this pause,” he insisted.
“When it
(Ecophyto)
has been a failure for fifteen years, we have to question the way things work,” said Marc Fesneau.
Find a “credible alternative”
According to him, the “priority” remains to reduce the use of products with the greatest impact on “health and the environment”.
But this exit from the use of a phytosanitary product must “be accompanied by a credible alternative”.
“Otherwise it’s useless.
» "There is an Ecophyto subject, let's work on it", also affirmed Marc Fesneau, while the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu had mentioned this Sunday in the Tribune Dimanche a deadline of "three weeks to re-discuss the tools which [were] going to be deployed this year.”
The Agricultural Show will be held in three weeks.
Also read Agricultural crisis: has the executive thrown ecology into oblivion?
For her part, Renaissance spokesperson at the National Assembly Maud Bregeon “confirmed” this Monday morning in “4 Vérités” on France 2 the pausing of the Ecophyto plan.
“We are taking a short break for a few weeks, but without changing our objectives,” she said.
“This little music which consists of opposing ecology and agriculture is nonsense” because farmers “are on the front line facing global warming”, insisted Maud Bregeon.
🔴🗣️ “We are taking a short break for a few weeks but without changing our objectives: the #Ecophyto plan will be confirmed”
Maud Bregeon, @Renaissance spokesperson at AN.
#Les4V @MaudBregeon pic.twitter.com/Pnmsm0xTNE
— Telematin (@telematin) February 5, 2024
“I would not be involved alongside the President of the Republic if I did not have the certainty that ecology was among the number 1 priorities,” she added.
We will be particularly vigilant within Parliament.
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