The government put online this Thursday, November 22 the site www.glyphosate.gouv.fr, intended to provide good practices to farmers to stop using glyphosate, a herbicide classified in 2015 "probable carcinogen" by the World Organization of health.
"Glyphosate 2020 goal" : promised in early October by Emmanuel Macron, the website to give visibility to French farmers abandoning this controversial herbicide and to accompany others was put online this Thursday.
The goal of www.glyphosate.gouv.fr is "to have a declarative site where every farmer who wishes it can commit himself either to say that he has already left the glyphosate, or to say that he is committed to go out at three years, "they say at the Elysee.
Good practices
Alongside these two counters, updated in real time, a map of France will show the number of plots, by department, declared without glyphosate, the main substance of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, it adds.
In parallel with this commitment component, the site will offer a support component, starting in the first half of 2019, in conjunction with the "technical resource bank" to be launched by the end of the year.
"The idea is to spread good practices, empower and be in the dynamics of change," says one at the Elysee. Beyond the number of farmers who will engage online, the ultimate goal "remains the three-year ban; we will be judged on documents at that moment . "
At present, no official data is available on the number of French farmers who have abandoned glyphosate, ranked in 2015 "probable carcinogen" by the World Health Organization (WHO).
This site will therefore quantify their number, we note at the Elysee, where it is stated that some 25,000 organic farms can already be part of this approach.
A ban within 3 years
The launch of this platform was announced in early October by the head of state during a visit to Station F in Paris. "All farmers who are ready to go sign up, make it visible, put pressure on others, create traceability to say everything that is done without glyphosate," said Emmanuel Macron.
The Head of State committed at the end of 2017 to ban the use of glyphosate in France within three years - against five years for the other countries of the European Union - while providing for a derogation for the "10% Of cases where there would be no alternative for French farmers.
"To achieve this, the government plans to increase the 1 January fee for diffuse pollution of phytosanitary. This fee will be raised by 50%, one more euro per kilo, for glyphosate, " said the Minister of ecological and solidarity transition François de Rugy in early November.
"This tax will finance, up to 50 million euros per year, the development of organic farming in addition to the 71 million euros devoted to the Ecophyto program for the reduction of use of phytosanitary products" , he declared to the information mission on the follow-up of the glyphosate exit strategy, to the Assembly.