Around 250 farmers from the FNSEA and JA organisations spread straw and lay down across the central Paris thoroughfare and tourist site on Friday to protest against French president Emmanuel Macron's position on glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup and other popular herbicides.

They held placards reading "Macron kills farmers" and argued that withdrawing glyphosate would cost France's tillage sector €1bn per year. They argued that the chemical had been proven to be safe to use and was key to improving agriculture's environmental performance in areas such as climate change.

Asbestos

Advisers to President Macron met the protesters and Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot came to meet them on the Champs-Elysées. While he acknowledged the current difficulties facing tillage farmers, he insisted that France would continue to oppose the European authorisation of glyphosate. This is up for renewal by the end of this year and a qualified majority of EU member states is required to keep the herbicide on the shelves. Minister Hulot compared the current debate on glyphosate with that on asbestos in the past, before the construction material was banned because it causes cancer.

In a recent speech, President Macron clarified his campaign promise to "gradually phase out pesticides". "Under a transition mechanism, as soon as we have a substitute molecule, we will withdraw those plant protection products that have negative effects," he said.

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