Reporting
France: march to warn of the dangers of pesticides and defend biodiversity
They traveled more than 900 kilometers on foot to defend biodiversity and against the use of pesticides.
Scientist Joseph Garrigue, curator for more than thirty years of the Massane nature reserve, in the south of France, and his partner Françoise reached Paris this weekend.
The objective of this protest march, which began in mid-January, in the Pyrenees is to warn of the dangers of pesticides and to demand an end to their use.
Listen - 01:18
During the climb to the Dame Jouanne plateau in the Fontainebleau forest, south of Paris, Joseph Garrigue and Françoise Taine talk with their local guide, Pascal Villeboeuf, the president of the Save the Fontainebleau forest collective.
© Lucile Gimberg / RFI
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A 180-degree view of the pines and deciduous trees of the Fontainebleau forest.
In Joseph Garrigue's rearview mirror, after these more than 45 days of walking, there remains the memory of the sound desert that the great agricultural plains have become.
The use of pesticides degrades soils and leads to the extinction of birds.
“
You no longer hear the larks, you no longer hear the linnets, you no longer hear the greenfinches
,” laments the scientist, interviewed by
Lucile Gimberg
.
The curator of the Massane nature reserve also remembers this scene, in full mobilization of farmers.
“
It’s the crossing of Pont-Saint-Esprit, on the Rhône.
We are overtaken by the huge tractors honking, which are supervised by the bikers, as if they were heroes
,” he recalls.
Large tractors, symbol, for the scientist, of an intensive agricultural model which poisons everything.
“
We want to tell them “but come back to Earth”.
We push them, okay, but they also know and they continue to kill and they continue to poison.
I hope that conscience will reach them a little
,” hopes Joseph Garrigue.
Defend life and human health
Françoise Taine, ex-bank employee and companion of the scientist, remembers the distress of the victims of chemical pollutants encountered along the way.
“
The combat increased with the march, I think.
There are places where we met young girls who no longer had the right to eat their chicken eggs, no longer the right to cultivate their garden, because of PFAS
(eternal pollutants, Editor's note),
particularly below Lyon .
It’s becoming unbearable
,” she regrets.
The couple hopes that this march will inspire many other citizens to mobilize to defend life and human health.
Also read: Eternal pollutants: a survey maps 17,000 sites polluted with PFAS in Europe
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