In the age of fake news and conspiracy theories, some find it seductive to assert that evil agrochemical lobbies would make rain and shine in agriculture.
When decisions don’t go the way you want, the average citizen tends to look for secret and unmentionable causes that gave birth to this result. For environmentalists, it is downright a Pavlovian reflex. Not following them in their narrow ideas, leading to an impasse, is to be under the influence of lobbies. When it comes to ecology, they always find a person or organization to blame.
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Political decisions are always based on batteries of expertise. The marketing of a phytosanitary product, for example, must follow a very supervised and very long process (more than 10 years) both at European and national level. Thus, any decision taken is justified and is based on independent scientific opinions, foremost among which are those of EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) and ANSES. The National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety has 1,350 agents and 800 scientific experts.
Wanting to believe that its studies and results are the result of pressure from agrochemical lobbies amounts to saying that all these researchers and experts are dishonest or at best naive.
[Editor’s note: This article has been translated from French and edited for clarity.]
