En 2021 and in 2022, we presented the conclusions of three summaries of scientific knowledge on the impacts of plant protection products (“pesticides”) and alternative solutions. Conducted as part of the Ecophyto plan at the request of the government to inform its decision-making, this work, coordinated by the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Inrae) and the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) are unpublished by the hundred experts mobilized and the more than 11,000 publications analyzed.
Our collective scientific expertise has demonstrated the extent of the impacts of pesticides on human health and the environment, and highlighted agroecological alternatives capable of responding to environmental challenges while preserving agricultural production. Our work has also identified the socio-economic and institutional barriers that limit the deployment of alternatives, and the levers to overcome them. Our findings have fueled parliamentary work emphasizing the need to strengthen the Ecophyto plan, because it has not made it possible to reduce the use of pesticides. However, the government chose to suspend this plan to ease the conflict with part of the agricultural world.
We, researchers, express here our concern about this decision, symptomatic of the disjointed treatment of agricultural and environmental issues. We denounce a shelving of scientific knowledge and reaffirm the need for a large-scale, long-term multi-sectoral policy, in favor of economically viable agriculture that is respectful of health and the environment.
Public and animal health issues
All environments (soil, water, air), even far from application areas, are contaminated by pesticides. Links exist between pesticides and human health among farmers, other professionals handling these products, and children exposed during pregnancy: respiratory diseases, cognitive disorders, Parkinson’s disease, neuropsychological and motor development disorders, cancers. The widespread use of pesticides promotes resistance in the organisms they are intended to eliminate – compromising the effectiveness of products in the longer term – and in organisms responsible for diseases – raising new public and animal health issues.
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