Does one go towards a natural replacement of the pesticides? Not with the glyphosate

Saturday, May 18, of the thousands of people met in Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux or Lille in order to denounce the activities of Bayer Monsanto and other giants of agrochemical following the many complaints engaged against Monsanto in the world.

The biodiversity was in the center of the concern of the demonstrators. They asked the replacement of the pesticides by healthier and natural manures following the judgments by the American justice of the glyphosate which proved to be cancerogenic. The sought–after goal is the prohibition of the hazardous substances for the human ones and health because the financial sanctions cannot be sufficient;  the states must be invested as soon as possible.

But what the glyphosate? It is about a systemic foliar herbicide total, i.e. nonselective, absorptive by the sheets and with generalized action. This weeding more is sold with the world (800 000 tons a year) thanks to its ease of use and its moderate price. Marketed under the Roundup brand by Monsanto since 1974, its patent passed in the public domain in 2000. in the hexagon, it was the herbicide more sold between 2008 and 2013 are 9000 tons used a year (approximately 7500 for an agricultural use and 1500 for a use in garden). However, he was recognized, according to the report produced following a study of about fifteen epidemiologists resulting from research institutes international, that the glyphosate, just like 2 insecticides, the terbuphos and the deltamethrine, were responsible for one plus a large number of risks of lymphomas not hodgkiniens in the farmers, of advantage touched that the rest of the population by these rare leukemias. This research gathered data gathering more than 315,000 farmers on more than 10 years in France, Norway and in the United States. Health and the biodiversity must be preserved harmfulness of the pesticides.

It takes approximately 2 years so that the chemical group Bayer finalizes in June 2018, the purchase for 63 billion euros of Monsanto which loses its name following mistrust and the bad one felt population. This operation makes it possible to the Group Bayer to hold 20% of the global market (seeds and plant health). But it proves that the transaction as juicy as is not envisaged because of many disappointments and legal affairs are turned over against Bayer Monsanto and his herbicide which since 2015 (after about forty years without difficulties), is classified by an agency of WHO, like “cancerogenic probable for the man”.

Following these disappointments, 13,400 requests and lawsuit resounding with the United States where the Group was condemned to pour fines record (including 2 billion dollars to a couple of pensioners reached of a lymphoma non–hodgkinien) because of the “cancerogenic” character of RoundUp, herbicide to the glyphosate of Monsanto, the course of the title of Bayer at the Stock Exchange fell of 40%.  At the time of last the A G, held last Friday, the shareholders dismissed to 55.5% the “actions of the directory”. In addition, the financial sanctions with regard to the firms are not dissuasive and one thinks of going towards prohibition of these hazardous substances.

In France, a national campaign, launched on May 3rd by the collective of citizens and citizens From the Ariège, revealed on May 29th that after a screening test of the glyphosate organized on the urine of 20 people, there was glyphosate in their urines beyond the standard for the drinking water (0.1 nanogramme per liter), a varying result of 0.28 minimum with 2.44 nanogrammes per liter. In the Tarn, 67 people will carry felt sorry for “  against any person implied in the distribution and the diffusion in the probably carcinogenic environment of molecules of glyphosate”.

In the country, 71 departments joined the countryside and 48 of them began the tests in order to prevent that the generations to come are not affected by what they eat. According to the study of the American biologist Michael Skinner, an exposure to the glyphosate could involve persistent genetic modifications on several generations.

After the revelation of an illegal pointing for the group of Monsanto agrochemicals of hundreds of personalities in particular relating to their position on the glyphosate, number of them decided to carry felt sorry for, one raises among them several researchers and leaders of the research institutes of the INRA and CNRS.

Political side, France intends to leave the glyphosate but the expiry seems pushed back, waited until the Ecophyto plan was to make it possible to leave there in 2018;  the pressures of the lobbys seem to slow down the commission of Brussels and the EU not counting the firms which try to intimidate the scientists. Moreover, the use of the glyphosate increases profitability but made disappear family agriculture and the farms following the pressures from large distribution on the prices, with the dumping of the imports, the absence of alternative mature and assistance to the transition towards a new agriculture.

Although the effectiveness is not still proven of it completely effective, there exist products which could replace the glyphosate of which Clairland containing pelargonic acid, just like Bayer Natria Garden and Solabiol.

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VERONIQUE YANG

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