Behind the Duplomb law, beet baron Franck Sander: “I worked a lot with Denormandie, Fesneau, Pannier-Runacher…”
Portrait: The influential president of the Confederation of Sugar Beet Growers has been successfully maneuvering for years to prevent the banning of neonicotinoids in fields. The petition against the Duplomb Law, which has surpassed 2 million signatures, is a shadow over the picture.
Franck Sander stands with farmers from Bas-Rhin who joined the protest movement against rising standards and falling incomes, in Strasbourg, January 31, 2024. LAURENT REA/PHOTOPQR/DNA/MAXPPP
The adoption of the Duplomb law was a bit of a victory for him. Franck Sander, 46, president of the General Confederation of Sugar Beet Growers (CGB), spared no effort to obtain the reintroduction of acetamiprid , a highly controversial neonicotinoid insecticide. On May 26, the day of the debate on the bill that aims to "lift constraints on farming," he declaimed, perched on a platform in front of the National Assembly, between tractors and banners: "When we have no other solution, we use the product [...]. What we are asking is that we can produce at least in the same way as our European neighbors!" Last year, he gave the same speech to Emmanuel Macron, who had invited representatives of the agricultural world to "certify the end" of the crisis. "We are open to innovations but we will always need phyto [pesticides, editor's note] just as we need medicines," he repeats ad nauseam.
For ten years, this Alsatian farmer, who manages 150 hectares of sugar beet, hops, corn and wheat in Ohlungen, has been fighting to get beet growers to chemically eradicate these pesky aphids that transmit the jaundice virus to the plants. "In 2020, we already lost a third of our harvest ," he laments. "This year, jaundice is affecting everyone, growers are already losing yields, and Germany is facing...
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