Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Published January 30, 2008 08:42 AM
France scraps licenses for 1,500 pesticides
http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/30282

 PARIS (Reuters) - France will ban the sale of more than 1,500 pesticides
from February 1 as part of a larger plan to cut by 50 percent the use of
phytosanitary products in the next 10 years, the farm ministry said.

"Michel Barnier, minister for agriculture and fisheries, has announced the
cancellation, before February 1, of marketing licenses for products
containing 30 substances considered as the most worrying," it said in a
statement released late on Tuesday.

"These substances are contained in more than 1,500 commercial phytosanitary
products," it added.

The ministry was not immediately able to provide the names of the companies
producing these pesticides.

France aims gradually to end the use of 53 phytosanitary substances, of
which 30 this year, in its fields.

The sale of stocks of the pesticides will be authorized until the end of
April and farmers may use them until the end of the year, except for
products made of carbendazime, molinate and dinocap, for which alternative
solutions should be available for the 2009 crop.