France Nears Ease on Insecticide Ban That Saves Bees
France Nears Ease on Insecticide Ban That Saves Bees
(Bloomberg) -- France moved a step closer to partially lifting a ban on insecticides blamed for killing bees, highlighting the difficulties in balancing environmental concerns with helping struggling farmers.
Two years after the European Union widened a ban on neonicotinoids, the French National Assembly on Tuesday voted to approve using the chemicals coated on sugar-beet seeds for four months a year through mid-2023. The move comes as farmers suffered heavy losses from a crop virus spread by a pest that neonicotinoids help control, at a time when low prices hurt incomes.
While farmers across Europe have bemoaned the pesticides ban for curbing crop production, environmental campaigners argue that their use causes the unintended deaths of bees and pollutes soils, streams and other plants.
“Its not an easy problem to solve,” said Francois Thaury, an analyst at Paris-based adviser Agritel. “If the government hadn’t done this, then it would have been absolutely disastrous for the French sugar sector. We would have to import sugar from other countries and risk thousands of jobs when food and industrial sovereignty is becoming so important.”
The bill still needs to be passed by the Senate later this month and would come into effect for beet plantings that typically begin in March, with neonicotinoids spraying remaining prohibited. Other EU nations such as Belgium have also issued exemptions.
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