Neonicotinoids pseudo-ecology
published: 08/12/21, 11:25
One of the most important disinformers with Generation Future on this subject
https://www.facebook.com/groups/165914723494515
For those who don't see it:
"Neonicotinoids have unleashed passions in France, especially since the aphid infestation that ravaged crops in early 2020. It was also at this time when, being interested in agriculture, I discovered agribashing and l The extent of disinformation around the agricultural world Among the many researchers, journalists and politicians who lend themselves to the exercise, one name seemed to have a fairly central role: a journalist from Le Monde, Stéphane Foucart.
Why Stéphane Foucart?
Reading his articles often left me with a feeling of unease: beyond the disinformation around agriculture, very common in the press, I felt a larger, systematic approach. So I started to analyze his literary production. One of his main subjects was neonicotinoids.
Neonicotinoids
Neonicotinoids (NNI) are insecticides that are mainly used as a "coating". The "coated" seed will end up inside a kind of ball containing the substance, which will permeate the plant as it grows. The idea is to only target the insects that are trying to devour the plant. Released from the early 90s, they have become one of the main insecticides used in the world.
They are nevertheless increasingly contested, in particular because of their toxicity for pollinators. The first shock was the poisoning of many hives by the dust released during sowing of coated corn. Some of the coating was going up into the air and wiping out neighboring bee colonies. Regulations have been issued to combat this risk. Then, it was the exposure through the nectar that was found to be dangerous for the pollinators. EFSA issued a severe opinion in 2013 against 3 NNIs, which resulted in a ban on most of their uses in the EU for 2 years, then a definitive ban in 2018. In France, a law passed in 2016 prohibited the all neonicotinoids (NNIs) and their uses from 2018.
Synthesize and analyze 71 articles
The purpose of this book is therefore to analyze the articles by Stéphane Foucart on neonicotinoids. He published 71 articles on the subject between July 8, 2011 and March 26, 2021. I summarize each of them in the appendix.
Overall, the journalist develops two main arguments: on the one hand, the idea that NNIs are largely responsible for the decline of many species, first and foremost pollinators; on the other hand, the idea that it is because of the influence of industry on institutions that these insecticides have not already been banned for a long time (or even have been authorized in the first place). By digging into the subject, we realize that large parts of these arguments are in fact false or seriously mislead the reader. Nevertheless, the author manages to make his speech credible for many readers by using a whole battery of information manipulation tactics, the complexity and power of which we show by examining several articles. "
https://pseudo-ecologie.fr/stephane-fou ... otinoides/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/165914723494515
For those who don't see it:
"Neonicotinoids have unleashed passions in France, especially since the aphid infestation that ravaged crops in early 2020. It was also at this time when, being interested in agriculture, I discovered agribashing and l The extent of disinformation around the agricultural world Among the many researchers, journalists and politicians who lend themselves to the exercise, one name seemed to have a fairly central role: a journalist from Le Monde, Stéphane Foucart.
Why Stéphane Foucart?
Reading his articles often left me with a feeling of unease: beyond the disinformation around agriculture, very common in the press, I felt a larger, systematic approach. So I started to analyze his literary production. One of his main subjects was neonicotinoids.
Neonicotinoids
Neonicotinoids (NNI) are insecticides that are mainly used as a "coating". The "coated" seed will end up inside a kind of ball containing the substance, which will permeate the plant as it grows. The idea is to only target the insects that are trying to devour the plant. Released from the early 90s, they have become one of the main insecticides used in the world.
They are nevertheless increasingly contested, in particular because of their toxicity for pollinators. The first shock was the poisoning of many hives by the dust released during sowing of coated corn. Some of the coating was going up into the air and wiping out neighboring bee colonies. Regulations have been issued to combat this risk. Then, it was the exposure through the nectar that was found to be dangerous for the pollinators. EFSA issued a severe opinion in 2013 against 3 NNIs, which resulted in a ban on most of their uses in the EU for 2 years, then a definitive ban in 2018. In France, a law passed in 2016 prohibited the all neonicotinoids (NNIs) and their uses from 2018.
Synthesize and analyze 71 articles
The purpose of this book is therefore to analyze the articles by Stéphane Foucart on neonicotinoids. He published 71 articles on the subject between July 8, 2011 and March 26, 2021. I summarize each of them in the appendix.
Overall, the journalist develops two main arguments: on the one hand, the idea that NNIs are largely responsible for the decline of many species, first and foremost pollinators; on the other hand, the idea that it is because of the influence of industry on institutions that these insecticides have not already been banned for a long time (or even have been authorized in the first place). By digging into the subject, we realize that large parts of these arguments are in fact false or seriously mislead the reader. Nevertheless, the author manages to make his speech credible for many readers by using a whole battery of information manipulation tactics, the complexity and power of which we show by examining several articles. "
https://pseudo-ecologie.fr/stephane-fou ... otinoides/