Pesticides: the government claims to “get away from punitive ecology”

Europe 1 with AFP 9:53 a.m., February 2, 2024

Pesticide reduction plans have been "ineffective" for 15 years, government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot said on Friday, justifying the "pausing" of the Ecophyto plan by the desire to "get away from punitive ecology".

“We must move away from punitive ecology and into an ecology of solutions”

The suspension of the Ecophyto plan, announced Thursday by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to calm the anger of mobilized farmers, sparked a chorus of criticism from ecologists and environmental NGOs. “I am quite surprised to hear this little music”, reacted Prisca Thevenot on franceinfo, criticizing in return the successive plans put in place since 2009 which “were ineffective” because “they did not offer any solution to support farmers”.

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The government is "currently working on the Ecophyto 2030 plan" but wishes to "take one more month to ensure that it is perfectly understood, as part of support and not punishment", a- she added. “We must move away from punitive ecology and into an ecology of solutions,” insisted the government spokesperson, stressing that “the first to want to put an end to these products, because they are the first victims, It’s the farmers themselves.”

“We must be able to support them, that’s also why we are investing massively to find alternative solutions,” she continued, affirming that the executive “continues to have ambitions for ecology, but this ecology must be in concrete realities.”