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The metam-sodium banned from vegetable farms: the government suspended for three months the use of this pesticide, used in particular in the production of lamb's lettuce and pointed at the finger after several intoxications in the West of France, pending a notice of the health security agency.
"The use of phytopharmaceutical 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. Five people were also "inconvenienced" last week in Finistère without their state requires hospitalization, according to the prefecture.
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 much less chew, radish or leeks" on the stalls next season, so 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 you," however, told AFP Mr. Deniaud. He mentioned "a real blackmail to the employment of market gardeners".
– More than 70 intoxications –
Metam sodium is a molecule that does not leave residues in the soil. It's an interesting molecule, except when there is an incident, "said 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 worrying substances for health and the environment 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, underline 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," responded 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.
In the event of a definitive ban, as advocated by the France Nature Environment and Future Generation NGOs, Christian Durlin, vice-president of the FNSEA's environment committee and farmer in Pas-de-Calais, fears a new "distortion" of competition with the agricultures of the neighboring countries of France.
"The Rural Coordination considers this national suspension hasty, especially since the product has been used for several years without impact," said in a statement the union.
"We ask the government to shed light on these intoxications," says its president Bernard Lannes, who wants a study of economic and agronomic impacts of the consequences of this suspension and "an exhaustive list of alternative solutions offering the same efficiency."
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.
AFP
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