The French government has announced plans to ban the sale of glyphosate weedkillers from garden centres around the country. Ecology and sustainable development minister and former presidential hopeful Ségolène Royal asked retailers to keep glyphosate products in locked cabinets and laid out plans for a ban on non-commercial use of the herbicide.

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Glyphosate, thought to be the most widely used agricultural chemical in the world, was first produced by Monsanto in the 1970s, and remains an integral part of its business. The product is used by both commercial growers and gardeners.

Reacting to Royale’s proposal for restricting sales, including the suggestion that its products be sold from behind shop counters, Monsanto said that such a system is already in use in several other European countries including Germany, and stressed that the proposals would cover a range of pesticides and not just its product, Roundup.

Ralph Dyrnes, a spokesperson for Monsanto’s international Lawn & Garden products business, said, “When used according to the recommendations on the packaging, the product does not pose any specific risks to the user.”

Glyphosate ‘probably carcinogenic’

In March this year, the World Health Organisation’s Cancer research arm IARC reclassified glyphosate as ‘probably carcinogenic to humans’.

Reacting to the IARC ruling, Monsanto’s Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs, Dr. Philip Miller, said, “As consumers ourselves, the safety of our products is paramount to each of us who work at Monsanto, and our company is built on a foundation of science. All labeled uses of glyphosate are safe for human health and supported by one of the most extensive worldwide human health databases ever compiled on an agricultural product.

“We don’t know how IARC could reach a conclusion that is such a dramatic departure from the conclusion reached by all regulatory agencies around the globe.”

Dr Miller suggested that the IARC’s findings were selective, and said they “[did] not meet the standards used by respected agencies around the world."

Ecophyto plan to curb agchem usage

French authorities’ ruling on glyphosate comes as part of a much wider push to ‘reduce and improve’ the use of agricultural chemicals and boost experimentation and uptake of sustainable practices.

The French government has made commitments to lead reductions in the use of farm chemicals. Under the banner ‘produisons autrement’ (another way of producing), agriculture minister Stéphane Le Foll has outlined plans to increase the number of farms investigating low-input agriculture practices and pioneering agro-ecology. The government’s Ecophyto 2 plan (which follows the failed first Ecophyto plan, implemented under the previous Sarkozy government) includes commitments to slash the use of agricultural chemicals by 25 percent by 2020 and 50 percent by 2025.

As part of its green growth agenda, the French government plans to prevent public bodies from using herbicides and pesticides from 1st January 2017, restrict sales to amateur gardeners from 2018 and to end the sale of plant protection products to members of the public altogether from 2022. The government has produced guides for gardeners, promoting growing that ‘respects nature.’

** update 25/06/2015 ** Updated Monsanto comments: added response from Garden business spokesperson and immediate reaction to Segolene Royale's proposal.