{"id":146439,"date":"2025-06-05T16:06:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T16:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/loi-duplomb-a-call-to-recenter-science-in-the-heart-of-the-debate-teknomers\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T16:06:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T16:06:52","slug":"loi-duplomb-a-call-to-recenter-science-in-the-heart-of-the-debate-teknomers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/loi-duplomb-a-call-to-recenter-science-in-the-heart-of-the-debate-teknomers\/","title":{"rendered":"Loi Duplomb: a call to “recenter science in the heart of the debate” – Teknomers."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Over \u00a01,200 medical professionals\u00a0 and researchers have mobilized for over a month against certain articles of the \u00a0Duplomb Law\u00a0. In an open letter addressed to parliamentarians, they express their concerns regarding the \u00a0reauthorization of banned pesticides\u00a0 and the jeopardizing of the independence of \u00a0Anses\u00a0, the agency responsible for evaluating the dangers of pesticides. They argue that this text, which aims to \u00a0“lift the constraints of the agricultural profession,”\u00a0 lacks any solid scientific basis and endangers the health of farmers, the population, and ecosystems.<\/p>\n

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The \u00a0Alert Doctors Pesticides\u00a0 collective during the noisy spring march on April 5, 2025. \/\/Photo: Extinction Rebellion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rarely has a \u00a0proposed law\u00a0 faced such overwhelming criticism from the scientific community. *\u201cAnd for good reason; rarely have policymakers listened so poorly to researchers,\u201d* laments \u00a0Sylvie Nony\u00a0, a science historian associated with the CNRS. On May 5, she was among the \u00a01,200 scientists\u00a0 who signed a \u00a0statement\u00a0 asserting that *\u201cthe impact of pesticides is no longer up for debate\u201d* and rejecting *\u201ca tutelage of science\u201d* that the \u00a0Duplomb Law\u00a0 would allow.<\/p>\n

A False Dichotomy Between Ecology and Agriculture<\/h2>\n

*\u201cThis law places a false opposition between ecology and agriculture at the heart of the debate, while scientific consensus shows that the only way to lift the constraints on farmers is to develop alternatives offered by \u00a0agroecology\u00a0,\u201d* advocates the researcher. Today, the same collective of scientists publishes an \u00a0open letter\u00a0 to the members of the \u00a0joint committee\u00a0 that will review the law by mid-June. They aim to *\u201cput science back at the center of the debate\u201d*, as the provisions of the \u00a0Duplomb Law\u00a0 propose measures favoring industrial agriculture.<\/p>\n

Formally named the *Law to Lift Constraints on Farmers*, this text is the government’s response to the agricultural protests that occurred in 2024. It is *\u201cpredominantly co-authored with the dominant agricultural union, the FNSEA,\u201d* according to the Ministry of Agriculture, proposing the \u00a0reauthorization of acetamiprid\u00a0, a neonicotinoid pesticide. Dubbed the \u201c\u00a0bee killer\u00a0\u201d, this chemical was definitively banned in France in 2023 but has effective alternatives readily available for nearly all uses. However, the FNSEA and its allies in the National Assembly are adamant about its return, regardless of scientific evidence.<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/strong> Neonicotinoids: \u201calternatives exist, science is unequivocal\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

This is not the only \u00a0regressive measure\u00a0 contained in the \u00a0Duplomb Law\u00a0 that undermines environmental rights. Scientific unions particularly denounce the proposal for the creation of a *\u201ccrops orientation council\u201d*, which would compromise the independence of \u00a0Anses\u00a0, the agency that evaluates the dangers of chemicals used in agriculture. Essentially, the state could dictate Anses’s priorities, obstructing the study of certain pesticides’ dangers. \u00a0Patrick Dehaumont\u00a0, the president of Anses’s board, has stated he would resign from his post should the law pass in its current form.<\/p>\n

A Brief Glimmer of Hope<\/h2>\n

The scientists who signed the statement and the open letter are particularly bitter given that, for a moment, they felt heard. *\u201cDuring the legislative journey of the \u00a0Duplomb Law\u00a0 between the Senate and the National Assembly, the text passed through various committees, where the present parliamentarians seemed attentive to our arguments,\u201d* recalls Sylvie Nony. The \u00a0Sustainable Development Commission\u00a0 and the \u00a0Economy Commission\u00a0 had indeed *\u201csoftened\u201d* the text, removing articles that proposed reauthorizing acetamiprid and creating the contentious crops orientation council.<\/p>\n

Yet, just as researchers were celebrating the fact that their voices had been heard, an unprecedented legislative maneuver in the history of the National Assembly dismantled their efforts. Supporters of the text voted on a motion to \u00a0reject\u00a0, a tool normally reserved for the opposition, to prevent the text from further discussion in the National Assembly. It will thus be a \u00a0joint committee\u00a0, composed of deputies and senators, that will debate the \u00a0Duplomb Law\u00a0 based on the version passed by the Senate\u2014a \u201cmaximalist\u201d version that includes the reauthorization of acetamiprid and the initiation of the crops orientation council.<\/p>\n

An Avalanche of Fake News<\/h2>\n

After this turnaround, biologist \u00a0Marc-Andr\u00e9 Selosse\u00a0 from the Museum of Natural History in Paris accused certain parliamentarians on \u00a0LinkedIn\u00a0 of *\u201ctrampling on science.\u201d \u201cUltimately, Trump is more forthright,\u201d* he continues. *\u201cShutting down research institutes is cheaper than paying them to ignore.\u201d* Sylvie Nony, who has studied misinformation, mentions the \u00a0receptiveness of parliamentarians to lobbyists’ arguments\u00a0. *\u201cThe Minister of Agriculture propagated a fake news story about acetamiprid, claiming it is found in dog collars, thus implying it is harmless. This argument is completely false and widely disseminated online by advocates of this pesticide.\u201d* Nonetheless, the mobilized scientists remain hopeful. They now aim to influence members of the \u00a0joint committee\u00a0 that will examine the text in the upcoming weeks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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General News – 2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over \u00a01,200 medical professionals\u00a0 and researchers have mobilized for over a month against certain articles of the \u00a0Duplomb Law\u00a0. In an open letter addressed to parliamentarians, they express their concerns regarding the \u00a0reauthorization of banned pesticides\u00a0 and the jeopardizing of the independence of \u00a0Anses\u00a0, the agency responsible for evaluating the dangers of pesticides. They argue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}