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Paris – Metam-sodium banned from vegetable farms: the government has suspended for three months the use of this pesticide, used in particular in the production of lamb's lettuce and singled out after several intoxications, pending an opinion from the safety agency health.
"The use of plant protection products containing the active substance + metam + or + metam-sodium + is suspended until 31 January 2019", says a decree taken Thursday by the government and published Friday in the Official Journal.
Its use to sterilize soils before planting fruits and vegetables was already banned in Maine-et-Loire where dozens of people have recently been intoxicated by this product.
The decision did not fail to react to the market gardeners, who were speaking for the first time since the beginning of the crisis and expressed their deep concern. They fear that the decision of the authorities does not cast suspicion on a production that supports thousands of farmers in the West of France.
"There will be a lot less chew, radish or leek"on the stalls next season, has alerted Philippe Retière, president of the Federation of market gardeners in Nantes.
Market gardening represents 60% of agricultural jobs in Loire-Atlantique, or 4,600 jobs that can produce large quantities of leeks, cucumbers, tomatoes or lamb's lettuce, according to the figures of the Federation. More than half of the lamb's lettuce produced in the European Union (35,000 tonnes per year) is produced in the Nantes region.
"We do not say that metam sodium is an innocuous product", said Mr. Retière, but"there is no danger to consumers"he insisted.
A point confirmed by Dominique Deniaud, spokesman of the peasant Confederation, hostile also to the use of this product, which states that this substance, very volatile, leaves no trace in the plant or in the soil.
Only farmers who apply the product and residents of farms are therefore likely to be intoxicated.
"Problems with this product, there are many, it's quite common, but it's still", nevertheless told AFP Mr. Deniaud, he mentioned"a real blackmail to the use of market gardeners".
– More than 70 intoxications –
Metam sodiumis a molecule that does not leave residues in the soil. It's an interesting molecule, except when there is an incident", further explained Mr. Retière.
It is indeed shortcomings in the strict regulation that surrounds the product, coupled with an unusually hot and dry climate, that would have caused the more than 70 poisonings reported recently in the department of Maine-et-Loire.
"Metam sodium is one of the most important health and environmental substances of interest identified in the national action plan on + plant protection products and less pesticide-dependent agriculture, for which the government has requested a scientific review by ANSES", however, highlight the Ministries of Health, Energy Transition and Agriculture in a joint statement.
The suspension at the national level is "a wise decision for the health of farmers and citizens", reacted LREM deputies of the Pays de la Loire, including Matthieu Orphelin, in a statement."We must now support the actors in the rapid deployment of existing alternatives".
ANSES must decide on the use of this product in late November, they point out.
"For the season, the usage campaign is almost over, so this is not where the stakes are the most important but for the years to come", said Christian Durlin, vice-president of the environment commission of the FNSEA, and farmer in the Pas-de-Calais.
But in case of definitive ban, as claimed by the NGOs France Nature Environment and Generation Future, Mr. Durlin fears a new "distortion"of competition with the agricultures of the neighboring countries of France.
Alternatives exist and are already widely used by farmers, but market gardeners insisted on their constraints. Solarisation, which consists in using the heat of the sun to disinfect the soil, is thus limited because of the climate in Loire-Atlantique, while steam disinfection is very time-consuming and fuel-consuming.
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