On 19th January, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Member States will no longer be allowed to grant derogations on the use of sugar beet seeds coated with neonicotinoids. Fearful of their livelihoods, some 4000 beet growers with over 600 of them in their tractors, drove into Paris and demonstrated few meters from the French Ministry of Agriculture on February 8th. To understand the determination of our farmers, we need to look at the global policy changes taking place in France. European civil society is very concerned about environmental issues. Even more so in our country, where food is considered -a sacred good, civil society is questioning how we manage our fields. While this is commendable, it is also very challenging because the increasingly urban population are far removed from the reality of farming and not well informed about the demands of agricultural production. In the 1980s, 7 of the French worked in agriculture; today, it is around 1.5 . Moreover, France is a country where ideals remain strong - from childhood, we are inculcated with the writings of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who considered nature to be inherently good, corrupted by modern society.
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