In France, and more precisely in Alsace, farmers are protesting in a very original way by directly involving the products on the shelves of supermarkets. On Wednesday morning, about thirty farmers of the lower Reno – members of the Fdsea and young farmers – showed up with the tractors in front of five hypermarkets, including that of Mundolsheim, near Strasbourg.
The goal? Remove from the shelves all the products that, according to them, contain raw materials grown with acetamiprid, a pesticide prohibited in France but still used in different European countries and authorized for imports.
But to better understand the protest you have to take a step back.
Acetamiprid and Duplicomb law
Acetamiprid is an insecticide of the neonicotinoid family, already under accusation for years for its effects on pollinating insects and on the environment. In France it had been forbidden, but the recent Duplicomb law – at the center of heated controversy – ended up reopening a glimmer, allowing in some cases the reintroduction of this pestidic.
The Constitutional Council, however, confirmed the stop to the use by French farmers, while at European level the food security agency has even raised the maximum threshold of residues admitted in imported foods twenty times. A contradiction that, according to farmers, risks penalizing only those who produce in France, forced to renounce certain active ingredients while must compete with foreign products that use them freely.
Retour en Vidéo de Notre Mobilisation Loi Duplicomb du Mercredi 20 août. Les Ja67 et la Fdsea du Bas-Rhin Se Sont Rendus Ce Mercredi Dans 4 SuperMareés Différents: Auchan à Hagunau, Carrefour à Mungolsheim, Lidl à hochfelden et leclerc à soufflenheim.Notre approach east Simple: sensible le Grand Public à La L’Andarition de Certaines Filières Françaises à Cause des Norms Françaises too much strictes comparées à nos voisins européens.n’ortons pas la agriculture que nous vaulons pas
Rendez-vous cet après-midi au super u de marckolsheim pour the dernière mobilisation de ces deux jours, nous ne lâcherons back!
Posted by Jeunes Agriculteurs du Bas-Rhin On Wednesday, August 20, 2025
What French farmers ask for
“Either it is forbidden for everyone, or authorizes for everyone” is the motto of the French farmers who armed with trolleys have emptied entire lanes: biscuits, sugar, hazelnuts, baking products and even spreadable creams, including Nutella. At the end of the morning, the shelves of the spreadable creams appeared almost empty. The only brand remained was that of a manufacturer who uses hazelnuts collected entirely in France.
We want to show our fellow citizens who exist products from foreign agriculture in which acetamiprid is used. We ask that these products are no longer on the shelves. We simply ask for consistency. If this molecule is prohibited for French farmers, it must not end in French foods – explained Thomas Lux, president of the young farmers of the lower Reno.
Dominique daul, vice president of the Fdsea added:
The idea is to demonstrate the inconsistency of the Constitutional Council. Fitosanitary products are prohibited, even if consumers eat them every day. The hazelnuts we eat, the biscuits, contain them. But also sugar from sugar beets produced elsewhere in Europe contains them. I say it’s not fair. I feel abandoned today when I see what is sold to consumers and what is imposed on us.
The image of Nutella’s jars stacked in the center of the supermarket remains the symbol of a battle that raises a crucial issue: can we really speak of protecting health and the environment if the rules do not apply to everyone in the same way?
French farmers are right: it makes no sense to prohibit acetamiprid at national level if it is then tolerated in imported products. But the solution cannot be to allow its use in France again; The true protection of consumers’ health would be to ban it everywhere, without exception.
Don’t you want to lose our news?
