Hundreds of farmers across France drive their tractors through Paris to protest pesticide ban
European Union wants to ensure at least 25% of agricultural land is reserved for organic farming
Hundreds of farmers drove their tractors through Paris on Wednesday to amplify their demand to be allowed to use banned pesticides on sugar beets and other crops to ensure "food sovereignty" for France.
Entering the French capital through a southern gateway, the farmers' convoy rolled to the gold-domed Invalides monument, site of Napoleon’s tomb.
The farmers were protesting what the national farming union FNSEA claims will be the disappearance of French farmers who are competing with cheaper imported products and facing multiple other challenges.
The French government decided last month to ban the use of neonicotinoids, which are chemicals used to killing infects that eat plants, following a decision by the European Court of Justice to end a dispensation granted for the class of insecticides. Farmers notably fear for their sugar beet crops.
Tractors park in front of the Grand Palais museum on Feb. 8, 2023, in Paris. French farmers disrupted Paris traffic with hundreds of tractors to protest an EU pesticide ban. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena / AP Images)
FRENCH CONVOYS PROTESTING VIRUS RULES MOVE TOWARD PARIS
The European Union's executive commission wants to ensure that at least 25% of agricultural land across the 27-nation bloc is reserved for organic farming, compared to 8% in 2020.
"At this rate, French agriculture will disappear," France 3, a regional television station, quoted Damien Greffin, FNSEA president for the Paris region, as saying.
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Greffin noted that Napoleon’s tomb, with a large field stretching before it, was not just a practical site for tractors to gather. He said it was also symbolic because Napoleon imported sugar beets from Poland to ensure France’s sugar independence.