Amélie Poinssot

All his articles

• The growing evidence that agroecology could and should replace intensive farming

  International

  The post-war development in Europe of productivity-driven intensive farming, with its environmentally harmful use of synthetic pesticides, vast fields of monoculture, and industrial animal-rearing, could be feasibly replaced by large-scale organic farming, capable of feeding the continent’s populations under an agricultural umbrella system called agroecology. That is the conclusion of a large and growing body of international scientific research, and the subject of several recent studies published in France. Amélie Poinssot examines the evidence.

  7 October 2021

  by Amélie Poinssot

  Free access

• Saving biodiversity 'just as crucial' as tackling climate change, says French academic

  International — Interview

  

  The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which is currently holding its annual conference at Marseille in the south of France, has hit the headlines for its latest update on the number of animal species which face imminent extinction on the planet. But there are some experts who query whether the NGO's conserving strategy of preserving species in designated areas such as natural parks is the right one. Mediapart spoke with French geographer Estienne Rodary who argues that this modernist and colonial approach to the environment has become outdated in an inter-connected world. He says that the issues of biodiversity and climate change are interlinked and that when it comes to conserving nature the “carbon cost” of any policies needs to be taken into account. Amélie Poinssot reports.

  10 September 2021

  by Amélie Poinssot

  Free access

• French study identifies further grave illnesses linked to chemical pesticides

  France — Interview

  

  France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research, INSERM, has published a report on its studies into the use of pesticides and the increasing evidence of their causal effect on grave pathologies, including cancers, among farmers and also among children. Amélie Poinssot interviews toxicologist Xavier Coumoul, a co-author of the report.  

  8 July 2021

  by Amélie Poinssot

  Free access

• French organic farmers 'forgotten' by the CAP

  France — Report

  

  Gwénaël Floch runs a small but productive organic farm in Brittany, north-west France. He pays himself, like his employees, the minimum legal wage, while he also has bank loans to repay on initial investment in the business. He receives little more than 300 euros per year from the EU’s annual 58-billion-euro Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies, supposedly promoting organic agriculture, and which will be even less after the introduction of the new CAP in 2023. That is when organic small farms in France will lose the aid, however small, they are currently entitled to, and which prompted farmers to protest in Paris earlier this month. Amélie Poinssot reports from Brittany.

  12 June 2021

  by Amélie Poinssot

  Free access

• The MEPs shaping the Common Agricultural Policy and receiving its handouts

  International — Investigation

  

  Among the Members of the European Parliament are a group of farmers and others with agricultural interests who benefit directly from the subsidies provided for in the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The fact that many of them are at the forefront of negotiations to map out the reform of the CAP, to be put to a vote during this week, raises a clear question of conflicts of interest. Amélie Poinssot reports.

  20 October 2020

  by Amélie Poinssot

  Free access

• The ill-informed debate behind France’s lifting of neonicotinoids ban

  France — Analysis

  

  The French parliament earlier this week approved a three-year exemption for sugar beet growers from a ban on the use of a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. The sugar beet sector has argued that its future was at stake because it was otherwise unarmed to counter the loss of crops caused by an aphid-borne virus disease. But the move outraged environmentalists who point to the inevitable effects of soil and water contamination by neonicotinoids, which are notably harmful for bees, and the dangers for human health. Amélie Poinssot highlights the ill-informed arguments presented in parliament in favour of a return of the controversial pesticides.

  8 October 2020

  by Amélie Poinssot

  Free access

• Recurring droughts prompt calls for change in French farming methods

  France

  

  As France sizzles this weekend under an extreme heatwave, data shows that July this year saw the lowest rainfall in the country since that of 1959, and the scorched land is witnessing a severe drought that is now threatening the future of many farmers. In face of what has become a recurrent problem over recent years, some agronomists are calling for urgent and radical changes to conventional agricultural practices. Amélie Poinssot reports.

  7 August 2020

  by Amélie Poinssot

  Free access

• French mayors defy government with local bans on pesticides and herbicides

  France

  

  A growing number of French mayors have issued by-laws this year banning the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides in their communes. But these have been regularly overturned by local administrative tribunals which have ruled the measures to be illegal as only central government has the power to issue such prohibitions. Earlier this month, however, a tribunal upheld the by-laws issued by the mayors of two Paris suburbs, ruling that the government had failed in its responsibilities to protect public health. With nationwide municipal elections due next spring, the issue is fast developing into a political hot potato for President Emmanuel Macron who has insisted that the rebel mayors must abide by the law.

  15 November 2019

  by Amélie Poinssot

  Free access

• German intelligence document reports Iraq approved funding of Mitterrand campaign

  International — Investigation

  

  In 1974, the Ba’ath party regime in power in Iraq approved a payment of 1 million dollars to fund the presidential election campaign that year of the late French socialist leader François Mitterrand, according to a document from the intelligence services of the former West Germany, the BND, obtained by Mediapart and German weekly Der Spiegel. The document refers to an intercepted message sent by Baghdad to its embassy in Paris. While it is not known whether Mitterrand’s campaign ever benefited from the reportedly earmarked funds, the BND document raises further questions about the extent of Iraq’s established close and secret relations with French political parties of Left and Right over several decades. Amélie Poinssot reports.

  15 April 2018

  by Amélie Poinssot

  Free access

• France's socialist militants ponder party's future

  France — Report

  

  Last Thursday the seven candidates in the Socialist Party's primary to choose a presidential candidate took part in the first of three televised debates. Mediapart joined a group of party members watching the first debate at Roubaix near Lille in northern France, which is historically one of the staunchest of socialist strongholds in France. As Amélie Poinssot discovered, many grassroots activists are still hopeful the party can be rebuilt despite the massive disappointment of François Hollande's presidency.

  15 January 2017

  by Amélie Poinssot

  Free access

• Afraid, the young people of Paris refuse to bow to terror

  France — Report

  

  The shootings and bombings in Paris on the evening of Friday November 13th targeted people – mainly young people – who had simply gone out to enjoy themselves. Two days after the killings Mediapart talked to pupils and students from the Paris region as they went back to school or university. Many spoke of their fear of being “in the wrong place at the wrong time” and are still struggling to make sense of the carnage. But they insist they are determined to carry on living their lives to the full. Mathilde Goanec, Dan Israel, Amélie Poinssot and Ellen Salvi report.

  17 November 2015

  by Mathilde Goanec, Dan Israel, Amélie Poinssot and Ellen Salvi

  Free access

• The argument over Germany's 'colossal' WW2 debt to Greece

  International

  Greece has been summoned by its international creditors to present a package of spending reforms by Monday evening that must be approved before a final decision is taken on whether to give Athens a crucial four-month extension of debt bailout loans. Despite the new Greek government’s earlier concessions towards austerity measures which it initially rejected, the country’s lenders, and above all Germany, appear intent on squeezing more political blood from the radical-left administration. But beyond the struggle to obtain the immediate financial lifeline, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is in for a long haul of future negotiations. Key to these is his demand that Germany recognise its massive debt to Greece in reparations of its wartime occupation of the country, and the repayment of a loan the Nazis imposed on Greece. The potential sums of these are staggering, and have been estimated, at the least, as represnting more than 160 billion euros - before interest. The issue is not only a financial one, but also embarrasses Berlin and Brussels by raking over the generous debt-forgiveness deal offered to Germany in 1953 in the name of European reconstruction. Mediapart Brussels correspondent Ludovic Lamant and former Athens correspondent Amélie Poinssot examine the legal arguments, and the evidence, behind the Greek claim.     

  22 February 2015

  by Ludovic Lamant and Amélie Poinssot

  Free access