France’s Constitutional Council will decide Thursday whether a farm bill reviving acetamiprid may proceed, confronting President Emmanuel Macron with a two-million-signature revolt over pollinator safety and human health.
Victor Goury-Laffont reports for POLITICO.
In short:
- More than two million verified users signed an online petition demanding repeal of the so-called Loi Duplomb, which reauthorizes acetamiprid and relaxes livestock construction rules.
- The measure follows months of farmer protests over taxes and pesticide bans; major farm unions FNSEA and Jeunes Agriculteurs shaped and support the bill.
- Opponents cite a 2024 opinion urging stricter exposure limits and warnings from France’s medical council about neurodevelopmental and cancer risks, while Macron’s coalition shows internal splits.
Key quote:
"Doubt is not reasonable when it comes to substances that may expose the population to major risks: neurodevelopmental disorders, pediatric cancers, chronic diseases."
— statement by France’s National Order of Physicians
Why this matters:
Acetamiprid symbolizes the tug-of-war between industrial agriculture’s dependence on chemical crop protection and rising evidence that what spares pests can still harm people and other living things. Although regulators say the compound is gentler than earlier neonicotinoids, lab work points to DNA damage and hormone disruption at doses below current legal thresholds. Bees, already battered by habitat loss and climate change, may face navigation problems even at sublethal exposures, threatening pollination of fruits and vegetables. The French fight also foreshadows broader European Union debates over easing pesticide targets to placate farmers angry about costs and imports. Public concern is shifting from worries over acute poisonings to long-term neurological and developmental effects in children.
Related: French doctors warn acetamiprid pesticide risks human health as reapproval looms
