Nitrates from intensive agriculture have fueled growth of a toxic algae which now poisons beaches in Brittany.
(photo : l'Express)
Le Figaro, L’Express and The Times report that fumes overpowered a horse and rider on the beach of Saint-Michel-en-Grève.
The horse died immediately, the unconscious rider was pulled to safety and saved.
This recent incident follows several others, including a beach worker who fell into a coma ten years ago, and the suspicious deaths of a jogger and two dogs.
French pig and poultry farmers remain in denial, despite nitrate pollution so intense that the EU imposed fines for nitrate pollution.
Jean-François Piquot, a spokesman for the environmental group Eau et Rivières, said in The Times that toxic seaweed had been present on beaches in Brittany for decades and was spreading.
“There is no doubt that farming is to blame,” said Mr Piquot. “Britanny has 5 per cent of French agricultural land but 60 per cent of the pigs, 45 per cent of the poultry and 30 per cent of the dairy farms. As our rivers are not long, the pollution does not have time to clear before the water reaches the sea. If it enters a closed bay and there is sunlight, that produces the seaweed.”
The mayor of a neighboring town, Trédrez-Locquémeau, closed 200m of his beach. (Le Figaro) Alain Menesguen, director of research at the French Institute for Sea Research and Exploitation, said: “This is a very toxic gas, which smells like rotten eggs. It attacks the respiratory system and can kill a man or an animal in minutes." (The Times, article by Adam Sage)
For more, see The Times, Le Figaro, L’Express, the Grenelle discussion group, EndsEurope and, most intriguingly, an article by supermarket giant Michel Edouard Leclerc, who demands that the government apply the principle of “polluters- payers”.
That is, that farmers pay for the environmental damage they cause.
For information about the government's ambiguous position on nitrate pollution in Brittany, here is a selection of articles (in French):
http://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/Dossier-des-nitrates-en-Bretagne.html
http://www.altermonde-sans-frontiere.com/spip.php?article3101
ANOTHER DEATH JUST DISCOVERED SEPTEMBER 5. CLICK HERE
