Why are beekeepers sounding the alarm about the return of neonicotinoids?

Agricultural lobbies and the Senate's right-wing constituency really don't give a damn about bees. A bill threatens to reopen the doors to neonicotinoids. These ultra-toxic pesticides have been banned since 2018 because they are accused of decimating millions of bee colonies. Led by Senators Laurent Duplomb (LR) and Franck Menonville (UC), the so-called "Duplomb" bill, adopted at first reading in the Senate in January 2025 , is being examined this week in the National Assembly. It claims, in a very Orwellian way, to " remove constraints on practicing farming." For these opponents, it primarily calls into question decades of environmental progress.

This Tuesday, May 6, on the sidelines of the examination of the text in the Sustainable Development Committee, the UNAF (National Union of French Beekeeping), representing approximately 22,000 beekeepers (out of 63,000), held a press conference to denounce the proposed law. According to the collective, it is designed with the sole aim of benefiting agro-industrial lobbies and agricultural unions , such as the FNSEA, accused of sacrificing biodiversity and public health under the pretext of agricultural competitiveness.

In the crosshairs: the desire to reauthorize several neonicotinoid molecules . The substances targeted – acetamiprid, sulfoxaflor, and flupyradifurone – are described as "bee killers." Acetamiprid, classified among the most dangerous for bees, but also for humans, is known to be persistent in the body, since it can last several months or even several decades in a natural environment. "We are in a way on a pollution debt, we will be affected for a very long time," explains Philippe Grandcolas, deputy scientific director of the CNRS Ecology and Environment Institute. This substance is suspected of effects on fertility, fetal development, and even the nervous system of children. The risks are documented.

Their use could worsen the already alarming decline of pollinating insects, essential for food security, while climate change and foreign competition are already weakening them, beekeepers fear a new blow. "There are many warnings and in our opinion there is a complete denial of democracy," laments Christian Pons, beekeeper and president of UNAF. "80% of citizens are against the return of neonicotinoids and it is swept aside, we do not take it into account, why?"

The Duplomb PPL would also have an economic impact on the beekeeping industry. The cause is a dramatic decline in hive yields, observed since the 1990s, linked to exposure to pesticides. "When these products arrived, we weren't aware of their toxicity ," says Yves Delaunay, vice-president of UNAF and a beekeeper affected by neonicotinoids in the 2000s. "In just a few years, we went from 80 kg of honey to 5 kg per hive with very weak hives. How can you expect a farm to survive with such significant losses? " Nearly 300,000 hives would even disappear with the restoration of these neonicotinoids.

Beyond the reintroduction of these molecules, the law also plans to modify the powers of ANSES, the independent health authority responsible for assessing the dangers of pesticides. If adopted, the Minister of Agriculture could block pesticide-related decisions in favor of political decisions that would lead to a weakening of ANSES's oversight. This shift was denounced by more than 1,000 researchers and healthcare professionals in an open letter published on May 5.

Christian Pons intends to challenge elected officials and ask them to "stop turning a blind eye" to the seriousness of the situation. For Marie Pochon, EELV MP and member of the Support Committee of Elected Officials for Bees and Beekeeping on the Duplomb PPL, parliament "is making room for a text that only supports the interests of certain agro-industrialists" , "we don't know how it truly removes the obstacles to the farming profession because it does nothing to address the issue of income, the issue of access to land, the issue of the fight against unfair competition, it only drags everything down" , she says. This law therefore deeply worries the beekeeping and scientific world. Faced with what they describe as a "step backward" to a toxic agricultural model, beekeepers and scientists still hope to make parliamentarians see reason. The text will be debated in a public session at the National Assembly at the end of May.