Farmers Roll Hundreds of Tractors to Les Invalides in central Paris

French farmers drove hundreds of tractors into Paris on Wednesday to protest against pesticide restrictions and other environmental regulations they say are threatening farm production in the European Union's largest agricultural power.

The action follows an EU court ruling last month that overturned a French policy allowing sugar beet growers to use an insecticide banned by the EU, raising concern of a further decline in beet plantings and of sugar factory closures.

The sugar beet decision has sharpened discontent among farmers over what they see as excessive pesticide curbs that go against government calls to boost food security in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine.

"Our means of production keep being undermined by prohibitions without solutions," Jerome Despey, secretary general of the FNSEA, France's main farming union, told Reuter