Five French cities have banned the use of agriculture …

Paris, Lille, Nantes, Grenoble and Clermont-Ferrand announced Thursday the ban on pesticides on its territory. With this symbolic measure, since none of them contain large areas of culture, the five French cities join the initiative of dozens of rural mayors who has launched a battle to put pressure on the French government for it to act against these agrotoxic controversies.

"This is a concerted initiative to change the law and protect the invaluable heritage of the biodiversity of our territories and the health of our fellow citizens," the five cities said in a joint statement.

The initiative announced Thursday by the metropolis has been described as a "coup" by the French government, its main intention being to express its support for the dozens of rural mayors who in recent weeks they have banned the use of pesticides with decrees.

The first mayor to take the initiative was Daniel Cueff, mayor of the Breton city of Langouët, which established by decree that the minimum distance between chemical pesticide crops and residential areas should be, at least 150 meters. His decree however suffered a serious setback when an administrative court decided to suspend him after stating that it was not up to the mayor to make decisions regarding the use of pesticides.

A measure considered insufficient

Unlike the proposal of mayors and five cities that added to the restriction on the use of agrochemicals, the current government proposal – subject to public consultation until 1 October– is to put a minimum distance of 5 or 10 meterss, a measure deemed insufficient by environmentalists and badociations.

Since 2017, the law prohibits the use of chemicals in green spaces and public spaces. Individuals and gardeners are allowed to use only natural phytopharmaceutical products.

As a result, cities' decision applies mainly to green spaces in businesses and residential areas. For example, the SNCF company that operates the rail system in France uses glyphosate a lot to weed its tracks and its surroundings.

"This joint action with several mayors of major cities (…) is aimed primarily at giving way to the government," he said. Stéphane Baly, chairman of the advisory group of Lille environment festival EELV.

"We must protect the inhabitants of our city, it is more than a precautionary principle," he told AFP. Penelope Komitès, attached to the city hall of Paris.

Citing a private study of Parisian planning workshopKomites has estimated that the area covered by the ban decided Thursday would affect about 600 hectares in Paris.

"Danger for health"

"We know very well that this decree will probably be denounced, but the danger to biodiversity and the health of the population is important enough for us to take such measures and alert the state to go further".

The Minister of Ecological transition, Elisabeth Borne, stricken the announcement of the five cities of the "blow of effect" on Twitter.

His ministry said that cities are "very disconnected from the realities of pesticide problems for rural and agricultural communities".

On Tuesday, councilors and activists had urged the mayors of France to multiply the decrees against pesticides and to "flood" the public consultation launched by the government on the Internet.