Latest news with #DuplombLaw
France 24
a day ago
- Politics
- France 24
'To feed, not to poison': French chefs push back against pesticide law
"We restaurateurs are in this business to feed, not to poison." A wave of discontent is spreading through France's culinary world as chefs publicly denounce a new law reauthorising a controversial pesticide. The so-called " Duplomb law" has sparked an outcry among food professionals, with a petition demanding its repeal surpassing 2 million signatures on Monday. In a joint opinion piece published last Thursday in Le Monde, hundreds of chefs voiced alarm over the declining quality of ingredients and joined calls for the law's withdrawal. 'If we're speaking out today, it's because we're stunned by the blindness of our politicians and their increasingly obvious ties with agribusiness,' they wrote, following the highly publicised intervention of three-starred chef Jacques Marcon, who rarely speaks out publicly. Marcon took to Instagram to criticise Senator Laurent Duplomb, the law's author, who represents Haute-Loire, where Marcon's restaurant is located. "'Proud to be Altiligerian' [Proud to be someone from the Haute-Loire] is our department's motto, but today I'm ashamed to live in Haute-Loire, the department you represent!" he wrote, addressing the senator directly. The Duplomb law reintroduces, by way of derogation, the use of acetamiprid, a pesticide from the neonicotinoid family long criticised for its environmental impact. Banned in France since 2018, the chemical remains legal in the European Union and proponents say French farmers need it to help them compete. 07:11 Marcon accused the senator of acting as "a spokesperson for the agro-industry, which favours intensive agriculture harmful to future generations". His message, accompanied by a photo of a wild herb field in Haute-Loire, was widely shared and drew strong support from fellow chefs defending local terroirs and food quality. "Thank you, we feel the same here about our Brière landscapes, in Loire-Atlantique, which collect all the water from the surrounding runoff," said Éric Guérin, chef at the Michelin-starred La Mare aux Oiseaux. "Thank you for saying it loud and clear, I'm happy to relay your message." A groundbreaking stand Marcon's intervention – a first of its kind in the fine dining world – carried particular weight due to his standing in French gastronomy. It broke a long-standing silence within the industry on political and environmental issues and sparked an unprecedented mobilisation: nearly 400 chefs and food professionals have since signed a shared statement. "The so-called 'Duplomb law' is an insult to scientists, to farmers who work without pesticides every day, to public health and to our profession," the open letter reads. Signatories include three-starred chefs Mauro Colagreco and Glenn Viel, former three-star chef Olivier Roellinger, and Top Chef alumna Chloé Charles. "I don't understand this law," Viel told AFP, denouncing "pesticides that pollute our soil" and linking food consumption to cancer rates. "We're capable of spending billions to defend our country and rightly so. But can't we find a billion or two to help farmers make this ecological transition?" Speaking to Nice Matin, Colagreco – who heads the restaurant Mirazur, in southern France – slammed the law as 'catastrophic', describing it as a step backward that goes against scientific consensus and 'shows outright contempt for health and environmental standards'. He urged a full repeal of the legislation, calling for agriculture that 'respects nature and our health'. Others were more blunt. 'This law is a hammer blow,' said chef and food columnist Marie-Victorine Manoa, calling for a 'general rebellion'. Thibaut Spiwack, Michelin-starred chef at ANONA, told RTL that the law widens the gap between those with access to healthy food and those without. He warned it will result in "vegetables loaded with chemical, toxic products and very low nutritional value" – a purely commercial logic, he said, 'normalised simply because other European countries do it too". "We are worried. Worried about the future of our food, battered by the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. Worried about the terrifying rise in cancer. Worried about the deteriorating quality of the products we serve, increasingly laced with pesticide residue. Even the water we bring to the table, bottled or tap, is affected." – Excerpt from the column published in Le Monde A rare show of unity The initiative was launched by Ecotable, a company that helps restaurants adopt sustainable practices. The movement has united Michelin-starred chefs, school canteen cooks, bistro owners and farmer-restaurateur collectives. "These are people who rarely speak publicly, but food is their everyday reality," said Ecotable founder Fanny Giansetto. "We restaurateurs are hard workers. We usually keep our heads down and keep going," said Viel. "But at some point, you have to bang your fist on the table." Even Marcon, who proudly claims his farming roots, expressed self-criticism. "I also consider myself responsible for this backward-looking law," he said, vowing to become "a real activist for agriculture and the environment". He also called on the industry to take stock and "help" farmers. "We're fully aware of the daily challenges French producers face," the chefs wrote, "caught between the financial pressures of their profession and growing public demands to move away from industrial agriculture. But the Duplomb law, passed on July 8, addresses none of these issues. On the contrary, it turns a blind eye to the real problems: farmer incomes, deregulated trade and food competition." One Instagram user, identifying as an organic winemaker, responded under Marcon's post: "Your words are welcome, thank you. This law supposedly 'requested' BY farmers is far from unanimous among us!" Senator Duplomb responded on Facebook, accusing Marcon of "lecturing others" and inviting him to "step out from behind his Michelin stars". But in a sector long reluctant to engage in public debate – as seen during the farmers' protests of early 2024 – Marcon's outcry appears to have sparked a shift. More chefs are speaking out, increasingly aligned around the future of food, public health and the responsibility they bear. Watch more One year after protests, French farming still in crisis Among the most visible supporters is Stéphane Manigold, restaurateur and head of the Eclore group. In an Instagram post titled "Truth of the facts according to the text", he challenged Duplomb's claims "point by point", describing the bill as "a limited social measure, which you are attempting to wrap in an opportunistic ideological narrative". "People on the ground are neither blind nor naive," he wrote. According to a poll published Sunday in La Tribune Dimanche, 64% of French respondents said they hoped French President Emmanuel Macron would refuse to sign the bill and instead call for a new parliamentary debate. Macron has said he is awaiting the Constitutional Council's ruling on the law's legality, expected on August 7, before making his decision. In the meantime, the Duplomb bill appears to have triggered a wake-up call, galvanising a cross-cutting wave of anger – from local bistros to Michelin-starred kitchens.
Euronews
5 days ago
- Politics
- Euronews
The French rebel against a pesticide authorised for use in the EU
It's a debate that is shaking up French society this summer. With 1.8 million signatures collected within just a fortnight, the petition against the Duplomb Law is sending shockwaves through the political world. One point in particular is crystallising tensions: the reintroduction of a pesticide. The legislation authorises farmers to use acetamiprid, possible because the substance is authorised for use in the EU until 2033. It was a 23-year-old student who lit the fuse. She submitted her petition two days after the final adoption of the law on 8 July. For the ecologist MEPs, this text is a dangerous message sent by Paris to its European partners. "The problem is that France could very well have gone to its counterparts in the other Member States and said, let's harmonise our legislation, let's harmonise our bans, let's do it in the general interest and let's work towards that. This is not what France has decided to do," laments Majdouline Sbaï from the Greens/EFA European Parliament bloc. "By taking a step backwards, France is bound to set Europe back", she added. France wants to use this substance, which has been banned since 2018, to protect its beet, hazelnut, cherry and apple crops. Supporters of the law and France's leading farmers' union believe that national producers are at a disadvantage compared to their European counterparts and are talking about unfair competition. Right-wing MEP Céline Imart points out that insect pests "destroy between 30 and 50% of hazelnut crops." "And so what happens in this case is that we import products from our neighbours, from Germany or Italy, but also Turkish hazelnuts in the end, to supply the factories and production in France." A controversial pesticide "Neocotinoids, which include acetamiprid, are considered to be bee killers. A bee is used to pollinate. This type of substance is a real danger for bees and therefore for future pollination," warns Majdouline Sbaï. "But beyond that, it is also implicated and considered as a carcinogen, as a danger to the health of humans." However, the public health debate is more complex. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is cautious on this point. Last year, it stated that "there are major uncertainties in the body of evidence concerning the developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) properties of acetamiprid and that additional data are therefore necessary to (...) allow an appropriate assessment of the hazards and risks." The pesticide could have effects on foetal brain development. The EFSA has therefore proposed reducing the daily dose. "I understand that there is this debate. What is extremely damaging today is that the debate is biased. And when we try to bring science, rationality and scientific studies to the table", we "end up coming up against this emotion generated by the buzz of fear," replies Céline Imart. A blow for climate policy The Duplomb Act is part of a trend towards calling into question the climate policy adopted in recent years. The text includes other provisions that facilitate intensive livestock farming and construction of water storage facilities, otherwise known as megabasins. "Yes, this is yet another attack on the commitments made in the previous mandate," says Majdouline Sbaï. On the other hand, Céline Imart (EPP) welcomes the fact that this law calls into question the European Green Pact. "I'm very proud to be helping to unravel this Green Pact, because I think it's the wrong way to go about things. The punitive logic, the logic that will further burden farmers, their productivity, their profitability," insists the MEP. For the time being, the petition in France has met the criteria for a new debate in the National Assembly. The President of the National Assembly said she was in favour of a further exchange of views between MEPs. However, this debate can only deal with the petition, and will not be followed by a vote that could immediately repeal the law that has already been passed.
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LeMonde
22-07-2025
- Politics
- LeMonde
French left seeks to latch on to success of petition against pesticides
A grassroots petition calling for the repeal of legislation known as the Duplomb Law, which notably provides for the reauthorization of a banned pesticide from the neonicotinoid family, has continued to break records: By the end of the day on Monday, July 21, the petition on the Assemblée Nationale's website had surpassed 1.5 million signatories. As a result, political parties across the spectrum have been watching its progress with interest. The president of the Assemblée Nationale, Yaël Braun-Pivet, from President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Renaissance party, said she supported a parliamentary debate on the law, all while adding that it "cannot, under any circumstances, go back on the law adopted" on July 8. The far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, a staunch defender of the law aiming to "lift constraints on exercising the profession of farmer," has also reacted to the petition. "Even though we regret the lies accompanying the ongoing petition, we fully support holding a parliamentary debate on the Duplomb Law," RN leader Marine Le Pen wrote on the social media platform X on Monday. That evening, Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard said the government was "fully receptive" to a parliamentary debate.
