Neonicotinoids: the beet industry gives pledges without convincing NGOs

Neonicotinoids are talking about them again.

After the bans in 2018, the government is preparing to temporarily reintroduce these controversial insecticides, which are responsible for the deaths of many bees.

The beet industry, which relies on this authorization to bounce back after a difficult summer, presented a transition plan on Tuesday, committing in particular to reducing the use of neonicotinoids.

But environmental deputies and environmental defense associations reiterated their opposition, a few days before a vote on the subject in the National Assembly.

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The beet industry proposes to reduce its use

The government has agreed to grant temporary exemptions from next year, as in a dozen other European countries, in order to curb the "beet yellows" which has affected yields this summer.

In question, a green aphid, vector of the virus, which develops on the cultures not protected by an insecticide.

But this return of neonicotinoids arouses an outcry from both environmentalists and public opinion.

The sugar beet-sugar interprofessional organization (AIBS) therefore wants to give pledges to public opinion and to deputies, two weeks before the examination of the bill which should grant them a temporary exemption from using these seeds coated with insecticide. .

This transition plan includes a commitment to reduce the use of neonicotinoids to 25%.

Concretely: only plant one in four seeds containing the product, and the rest without insecticide.

Scientists speed up search for alternatives

At the same time, INRAE ​​(National Institute for Agronomic and Environmental Research) will accelerate the search for alternatives with 7 million euros in public subsidies.

It is not a question of replacing one chemical product by another, but of setting up a "cocktail of solutions" according to the researchers.

For example: let herbs grow at the edge of the field to attract a micro-wasp, which will attack the yellow beet aphid, after having laid a small worm which will eat the aphid from the inside.

Other alternative: sow more resistant varieties of sugar beet, without resorting to GMOs.

A group of scientists attached to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), however, considered that a re-authorization of these pesticides, even provisional, would constitute "a serious error" and would have "disastrous impacts", in a forum published by

.

Opponents do not believe in these commitments

Among the environmentalists, beekeepers or environmental NGOs, no one believes in this transition plan.

For them, the stake of preserving bees is essential, after more than 25 years of battle to obtain a ban on neonicotinoids.

The Confédération paysanne, one of the main opponents of this reauthorization, draws a parallel with growth hormones in breeding.

"The livestock sector suffers from repeated droughts, breeders find it difficult to have an income. One could very well imagine in this context a return to growth hormones by saying to oneself that this would be the crutch on which the breeders could rely on and thus continue to be paid. We are in the same context with beetroot, "protested Alain Giraud, spokesperson for the Confédération paysanne interviewed by Europe 1.

Monday evening, the LREM deputies conditioned their vote in favor of the bill, which will be debated on October 5 in the National Assembly at first reading: they will vote this text only if the exemption is explicitly limited to only beets.