By Sybille de La Hamaide and Elizabeth Pineau
PARIS (Reuters) -A petition against a French farm bill loosening environmental rules for farming, including over the use of a pesticide accused of harming bees, has set a record for signatures, increasing pressure on the government to revisit the law.
Launched by a 23-year-old student this month, the petition poses a fresh challenge for President Emmanuel Macron, already under strain over his cost-cutting budget.
It had gathered 1.3 million signatures by Monday morning, becoming the first petition on the National Assembly website to surpass 500,000.
In France, petitions with over half a million signatures can prompt a parliamentary debate, but do not require a new vote. National Assembly chairwoman Yael Braun-Pivet and former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal are among those who have said they would back a debate.
The draft law, proposed by conservative Laurent Duplomb, would reauthorise the use of neonicotinoid pesticide acetamiprid, one of a group that European food safety agency EFSA has assessed as representing a risk to bees.
It also aims to simplify approvals for livestock breeding facilities, and to ease irrigation rules. The petition, however, calls it a “scientific, ethical, environmental, and health aberration”.
French farmers protested in Paris in May against amendments filed by opposition lawmakers to the bill, which it said would help them compete with EU peers. France is the EU’s top sugar beet grower and home to major producers such as Tereos and Cristal Union.
Growers argue that acetamiprid, allowed in other EU countries, is vital to fight yellows disease, which cut yields by 30% in 2020 and slashed sugar output.
“We need to maintain our means of production, and I believe there’s a lot of exaggeration in the comments being made,” the head of France’s largest farm union FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau told franceinfo radio.
The government defended the bill, but acknowledged the outcry.
“We must listen (to this petition),” government spokesperson Sophie Primas said. “Perhaps we haven’t explained or reassured enough. The aim of this law is to put French farmers back on an equal footing with their European counterparts.”
(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide and Elizabeth Pineau; Editing by Jan Harvey)
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