DUPLomb law: the great Catholic silence

“Your recent column on the Dupumb law despises farmers and their work. The use of pesticides is not a problem. When the earth is sick, it needs medication to be treated, that’s all. The recent telephone exchange with an angry reader had the merit of putting words on the increasingly perceptible discomfort in the rural world and in French society in its entirety.

However, the title of this so -called Dupumb law, named after the deputy who defended him, and which aims to “lift the constraints in the exercise of the profession of farmer” apparently does not seem problematic. If it is only among these “constraints” to lift there are a certain number of advances in the defense of natural environments.

Critics of the A Rocha Association against the DUPLomb law

“We consider, thus denounces the Protestant Association has Rocha, that contrary to what its title indicates, this text is not able to respond to the demands of the agricultural world, which wish above all to be able to live with dignity of its work and which is worried about the renewal of generations, a real challenge for the coming decade. »»

Published in the evening of July 10, this reaction from a Christian collective is rare. It must be said that in Rocha, who is carrying out naturalist protection work on several sites in France while participating in the awareness of Christians on environmental challenges in the name of their faith, is well placed to decrypt the mysteries of this somewhat catch-all law.

The reuturing of insecticides of the neonicotinoid type in article 2, but also the authorization of mega-bassines or the raising of the breeding thresholds are part of the criticized developments which all go in the direction of an intensive agrifood model.

A confiscated parliamentary debate and mobilizing petitions

But it was also the political process itself which led to this vote which questions, it which was prepared by a mixed commission in camera with seven deputies and seven senators. “The adoption of a motion of prior rejection by the supporters of the text in the National Assembly has indeed deprived citizens of a parliamentary debate however essential on agricultural subjects and linked to food”, underlines the press release from A Rocha.

It should therefore not be surprised that this democratic expectation is now expressed by other biases. Since July 21, 2025, nearly forty petitions have been recorded on the site of the National Assembly. One of them, launched by a 23 -year -old young woman, was an unexpected success, already exceeding more than 1.8 million signatures at this time.

Among half of petitions that seek to defend the bill, that of a polyculture farmer, launched more recently, is approaching for the time being of the 2,000 signatures.

A global vision of food, health and agriculture

Around the “Social Security of Food” (SSA) project, a collective of secular associations also expressed itself around the ethical, societal and political challenges of such a bill.

A collective in which Secours Catholique also participates. Its president, Didier Duriez, also recalled the recent publication of a report entitled “The unfair food price” which underlines, in support, that the “current productivist model which leaves so little income to farmers makes it possible to produce relatively inexpensive food but whose health effects are already very heavy. (…) By continuing to persevere in a short-term vision, we know that we will increase our health expenses, against cancers and others. Expenses that we will then try to reduce. A real prevention requires the overall consideration of the source of our problems. Here we go ? »»

Silence of the bishops in front of the DUPLomb law

The arrest is all the more interesting since the other actors of the Catholic pastoral care of the rural world have not expressed themselves for the time being on this question, however complex and painful which deserves some welcome ethical lights.

While in recent years, French bishops have shown renewed interest in the rural world and the issues of the agricultural world, by sending, for example, a delegation to the agricultural fair in Paris, few have publicly expressed themselves on the challenges of the Duplomb law or on its dispute by many doctors, scientists, militants and Christians in the field.

No doubt because, in the agricultural field, many actors, publicly claiming Christian values and engaged in major majority unions, are also fierce promoters of this law and the model of productivist agriculture that it defends.

Festi’rural: towards sustainable agriculture without debate on pesticides?

In a few weeks, from August 22 to 24, 2025, the Christian movement in the rural world is found in Cantal for a festi’rural, a rally committed “which celebrates the vitality of rural areas and the involvement of those who make them live”.

We will also talk about sustainable agriculture, respect for water resources, pay attention to the mental health of rural families sometimes isolated. For the time being, no round table is provided on the moral and societal issues of the use of pesticides in French agriculture.