Latest news with #farmbill
Free Malaysia Today
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
French farm bill sparks record-breaking petition signatures
Launched by a 23-year-old student this month, the petition against the farm bill gathered 1.3 million signatures by Monday morning. (Envato Elements pic) PARIS : A petition against a French farm bill loosening environmental rules for farming, including over the use of a pesticide accused of harming bees, has set a record for signatures, increasing pressure on the government to revisit the law. Launched by a 23-year-old student this month, the petition poses a fresh challenge for president Emmanuel Macron, already under strain over his cost-cutting budget. It had gathered 1.3 million signatures by Monday morning, becoming the first petition on the National Assembly website to surpass 500,000. In France, petitions with over half a million signatures can prompt a parliamentary debate, but do not require a new vote. National Assembly chairwoman Yael Braun-Pivet and former prime minister Gabriel Attal are among those who have said they would back a debate. The draft law, proposed by conservative Laurent Duplomb, would reauthorise the use of neonicotinoid pesticide acetamiprid, one of a group that European food safety agency EFSA has assessed as representing a risk to bees. It also aims to simplify approvals for livestock breeding facilities, and to ease irrigation rules. The petition, however, calls it a 'scientific, ethical, environmental, and health aberration'. French farmers protested in Paris in May against amendments filed by opposition lawmakers to the bill, which it said would help them compete with EU peers. France is the EU's top sugar beet grower and home to major producers such as Tereos and Cristal Union. Growers argue that acetamiprid, allowed in other EU countries, is vital to fight yellows disease, which cut yields by 30% in 2020 and slashed sugar output. 'We need to maintain our means of production, and I believe there's a lot of exaggeration in the comments being made,' the head of France's largest farm union FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau told franceinfo radio. The government defended the bill, but acknowledged the outcry. 'We must listen (to this petition),' government spokesman Sophie Primas said. 'Perhaps we haven't explained or reassured enough. The aim of this law is to put French farmers back on an equal footing with their European counterparts.'
Reuters
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
French farm bill sparks record-breaking petition signatures
PARIS, July 21 (Reuters) - A petition against a French farm bill loosening environmental rules for farming, including over the use of a pesticide accused of harming bees, has set a record for signatures, increasing pressure on the government to revisit the law. Launched by a 23-year-old student this month, the petition, opens new tab poses a fresh challenge for President Emmanuel Macron, already under strain over his cost-cutting budget. It had gathered 1.3 million signatures by Monday morning, becoming the first petition on the National Assembly website to surpass 500,000. In France, petitions with over half a million signatures can prompt a parliamentary debate, but do not require a new vote. National Assembly chairwoman Yael Braun-Pivet and former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal are among those who have said they would back a debate. The draft law, proposed by conservative Laurent Duplomb, would reauthorise the use of neonicotinoid pesticide acetamiprid, one of a group that European food safety agency EFSA has assessed as representing a risk to bees. It also aims to simplify approvals for livestock breeding facilities, and to ease irrigation rules. The petition, however, calls it a "scientific, ethical, environmental, and health aberration". French farmers protested in Paris in May against amendments filed by opposition lawmakers to the bill, which it said would help them compete with EU peers. France is the EU's top sugar beet grower and home to major producers such as Tereos and Cristal Union. Growers argue that acetamiprid, allowed in other EU countries, is vital to fight yellows disease, which cut yields by 30% in 2020 and slashed sugar output. "We need to maintain our means of production, and I believe there's a lot of exaggeration in the comments being made," the head of France's largest farm union FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau told franceinfo radio. The government defended the bill, but acknowledged the outcry. "We must listen (to this petition)," government spokesperson Sophie Primas said. "Perhaps we haven't explained or reassured enough. The aim of this law is to put French farmers back on an equal footing with their European counterparts."
E&E News
08-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
House Republicans eye adding $60B farm bill package in Trump megabill
House Republicans are aiming to add $60 billion in farm bill programs to the agriculture portion of the GOP's megabill. But they'll have to convince several centrist holdouts to vote for a controversial proposal that pushes some food aid costs onto states in order to do it. The proposed farm bill safety net package includes roughly $50 billion for crop reference prices, as well as money for crop insurance, dairy, livestock biosecurity, export trade promotion and so-called farm bill orphan programs, according to two people with direct knowledge of the talks. Senior Republicans want to pay for that additional farm bill piece of the package by shifting some federal spending for food aid benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to states for the first time. But they're still awaiting an official estimate from the Congressional Budget Office on the cost-share plan that will determine the size of the farm bill package and whether the panel can reach the $230 billion in spending cuts it's responsible for, given deep opposition from hard-liners for any unpaid for pieces of the megabill. Advertisement Still, panel Republicans argue they need to include the new funding given the formal, traditionally bipartisan farm bill has been long-delayed amid partisan fights. Senate Republicans, however, are privately skeptical the package can survive the Senate, where Republicans are already vowing to kill off much of the SNAP cost-share plan.
