Farmers drive tractors to Paris to protest pesticide ban

PARIS (AP) — Hundreds of farmers have driven their tractors to Paris to amplify their demand to be allowed to use banned pesticides on sugar beets to help ensure “food sovereignty” for France. Entering the French capital through a southern gateway, the farmers’ convoy rolled on Wednesday to the gold-domed Invalides monument, site of Napoleon’s tomb. The farmers were protesting what the national farming union FNSEA claims will be the disappearance of French farmers facing multiple challenges. The French government decided last month to ban the use of neonicotinoids, which are chemicals used to killing infects that eat plants. The move followed a European Court of Justice ruling to end a dispensation granted for the class of insecticides.