REPORTAGE
It should be presented to the press only Wednesday, but we already know the first conclusions of the report of the parliamentary mission on the follow-up of the exit strategy of the glyphosate. The two deputies in charge of this file, Jean-Luc Fugit (LREM) and Jean-Baptiste Moreau (LREM) think it will be difficult to leave the glyphosate for 2021. Worse, they judge "unconscious" to wait until December 31 2020 to know "which cultural situations" will have to stop using the herbicide on January 1, 2021 and which ones will be able to benefit from a delay. The elected officials urge the state to specify the names of crops that will "benefit from a waiver" of glyphosate use, no later than next June.
An additional investment for farmers
In this report, the two members also believe that the removal of glyphosate will be very expensive for farmers. According to them, they will need more manpower and make investments in new equipment. To weed instead of this cheap herbicide, it will also take three to four times more fuel for tractors. According to the report, this represents 50 to 150 euros of additional charges per hectare. But for Joël Limouzin, cereal in Vendée, the note will be even more salty. Up to "600 to 700 euros per additional hectare in some cases", because it will take "three to four tractor passes" more.
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Arguments that arouse surprise and questions among opponents of glyphosate. "I would like to know who they met," says Jean-David Abel, Vice President of France Nature Environment. He is astonished to hear words usually spoken "in the mouths of supporters of conventional agriculture". Jean-David Abel wonders about the work of the two deputies. "It surprises me a lot that parliamentarians have not seen that there are alternative models without glyphosate and that are not on these amounts of inconvenience and extra work."