French minister quits as farm bill opens door to contested pesticides

“I told the Prime Minister yesterday that the conditions for me to stay in the government were no longer being met and I presented my resignation to the president today as a result,” Barbut wrote in a post published on LinkedIn.The most contested measure allows, by a waiver, the use of acetamiprid - part of the neonicotinoid group of pesticides - on hazelnuts and flupyradifurone on sugar beets, apples and cherries.Environmental campaigners and some unions representing small-scale farmers have said the bill benefits the large-scale agro industry and ignores scientific warnings about risks to pollinators, ecosystems and health, with Greenpeace denouncing the bill as “a disgrace”.The sugar industry has said the pesticides are needed to protect crops from aphids, which have ravaged beet harvests in previous years.A waiver wiil need to be approved by France’s health and safety agency, Anses, and cannot exceed three years.A petition against the bill last year gathered over two million signatures, a record for a petition on the website of France’s National Assembly.Last year, France’s constitutional court had blocked the re-introduction of acetamiprid over insufficient safeguards.(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide and Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Susan Fenton and Makini Brice)