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French farmers 'ordered to destroy milk polluted by World War One ordnance'

The affected farms are near the north-east town of Verdun, scene of heavy battles during WW1, where many unexploded munitions lie in the soil.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

Farmers in northern France have been ordered to destroy this year's produce because of pollution caused by WW1 armaments left in the soil according to local media, reports BBC News.

Hundreds of tonnes of old ordnance are destroyed in France every year, much of it found in fields in the north-east.

Regional newspaper L'Est Republicain says that metals and toxic compounds were found in soil.

Produce from seven farms has been destroyed, the newspaper reports.

Restrictions put in place by the French regions allow the ban of food produce if it comes from land contaminated by heavy metals.

The restrictions were put in place near Verdun in the Meuse region, the scene of some of the heaviest battles during WW1.

"Everything we produced went into the rubbish bin," one farmer told L'Est Republican. "The State has woken up, a hundred years later."

The mayor of a town close to one of the farms told Le Figaro that the decision to destroy the produce was made after a tonne of old artillery was discovered earlier this year. He told the newspaper he was nevertheless "surprised" by the decision to scrap the goods.

Some 150,000 euros-worth ($170,000, £110,000) of milk has been destroyed, farmers say.

No-one from the Meuse regional government has yet commented.

More than a billion shells were fired during WW1, and an estimated 30% of them did not explode.

Read more of this report from BBC News.

See also: The Great War time bombs scattered around France