This page is a part of the corpus (Annexe 1) used to write Stéphane Foucart and neonicotinoids.
Here, I relate what the journalist said in his article “Un plan de soutien contre le déclin de l’apiculture”. All quotes, originally in French, were translated by me.
Beekeeping declines: “[French production fell by 28% between 2004 and 2010; at the same time, the number of beehives fell by 20% and that of beekeepers by 40%. Each year, more than 4,500 people go out of business.]”
To fight against, the Minister of Agriculture at the time, Stéphane Le Foll released an envelope of 40 million euros to professionalize the sector through training.
He also wants to create an “observatory of pesticide residues in the environment of bees (pollen, nectar, etc.)”, an idea which displeases beekeepers:
“[We have been observing the impact of pesticides on our hives for seventeen years and there have been many scientific studies to corroborate our warnings,” says Olivier Belval, president of the National Union of French beekeeping (Unaf ). Help financially a sector which suffers a huge bleeding from bees? You might as well throw money down a bottomless pit!]”
The author then evokes the 2-year moratorium decided by the European Commission after the opinion of EFSA (mentioned in the previous article) and reports that the UNAF has announced that it is not satisfied by the minister’s program and that ‘she wants “the total and definitive ban of these systemic phytosanitary products”.