How do we calm conflicts with farmers: quick, we change the usage indicator! Even an elementary school student understands the subtlety. We measure the quantities of substances used on a field without considering the toxicity of each product. Thus, if a farmer uses X grams of a product 100 times more toxic than another. As an expert member of the Ecophyto commission says, it’s like adding A-bombs and sticks of dynamite. Another example, glyphosate (around 50% of herbicides used in France) is authorized for 1.6Kg/hectare, a new molecule 1600 times more effective (therefore 1g/hectare) would result in a better index (less pesticide). Beyond the battle of numbers remains an overwhelming observation. You must read Nicolas Legendre’s book “Silence in the Fields” (Arthaud publisher) to realize the magnitude of this catastrophe. Official data from the Brittany Environmental Observatory show that 51% of the 327 active substances spread on our fields are toxic for the environment and 21% for humans (carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic).
The aberration of the system reaches peaks when we justify the creation of hundreds of basins which will pump water from groundwater, losing at least 20% in evaporation to water corn fields to export the results to feed animals that will come back here as meat! this to the detriment of farmers and the neighboring population who will run out of water.
