REPORTAGE
The mayor of Langouët, a small village of 600 souls in Brittany, organized Wednesday a meeting about the application of plant protection products. For three hours, Daniel Cueff gathered around the table farmers and collectives anti-pesticides to discuss the minimum distance of spreading to establish. On May 18, 2019, he shook the agricultural world by issuing an order prohibiting the use of chemical substances "at a distance of less than 150 meters from any cadastral parcel including a residential or professional building".
This text was suspended August 27 by the Administrative Court of Rennes, seized by the prefect of Ille-et-Vilaine, on the grounds that a mayor is not competent to make decisions on the use of pesticides. Meanwhile, the elected has decided to open a time of debate with the inhabitants of Langouët.
"If you leave only 150 meters between my house and the spreading area, I would die in a few months"
"For me, the 150 meters will not change anything," replies Catherine, who has lived next to a farm for six years and says he is a victim of pesticides. She is now treated for six tumors. "If you leave only 150 meters between my house and the spreading area, I'll die in a few months, and my seven-year-old daughter too," she slices.
Hearing farmers talk about a 5 to 10-meter ban on housing is driving it up like many others. Spacing distances are simply not essential for them: the solution would be in reducing the doses of the product used.
"We are being attacked by local residents"
On the side of the elected representatives, we ask that the information circulates better in the village. "It is necessary that the farmer warns us when he treats his crops to reassure the populations", proclaims an elected official.
Farmers, for their part, remain cautious. "We are verbally abused now by residents!", Indignant one of them. "I think a lot of farmers will be reluctant (at the introduction of a minimum distance spreading) because they will be afraid to take a slap," says another.
Following the movement initiated by the mayor of Langouët, other officials in Audincourt, Revest-des-Brousses, Val-de-Reuil, have multiplied anti-pesticide orders throughout the Hexagon.