French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe weighed in on a row between his environment and agriculture ministers … to rule that a pesticide found harmful to bees would be banned in 2018 as scheduled.
A ban on neonicotinoids, set down in a 2016 law on protecting biodiversity, has been fiercely opposed by cereal and sugar-beet farmers, who dispute research highlighting the chemicals’ risk to bees.
In the first sign of discord in the … French government, Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert has been lobbying for the upcoming ban to be eased.
He complained that French law “went further than European law” on the issue, implying that it put French farmers at a disadvantage against competitors.
The European Union set down a temporary ban on the use of three key neonicotinoids in 2013.
Related on the SLP
Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot, a former activist and high-profile TV presenter, hit back that “where health is at risk, I won’t make any concessions.”
“We have made too many concessions” in this area, he said. “We will find out about the disaster soon enough.”
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: French PM says ban on ‘bee-killer’ pesticide will go ahead
