![\"Sea](\"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/wide-beach-french-algae.jpg\")
<\/a>Sea lettuce, the common name for a genus of algae called Ulva<\/em>, blankets the Baie de Douarnenez in Brittany, France. Photo by ImageBroker\/Alamy Stock Photo<\/p><\/div>\n Since then, each spring and summer, unusually large masses of the seaweeds have festooned swaths of the shoreline. The carpet sometimes thickens to a meter, completely obscuring the sand. Once the Ulva<\/em> starts decaying, it stinks of rotten eggs and emits hydrogen sulfide, which is thought to be responsible for the mammalian deaths. When people or animals walk on the seaweed sludge, perhaps assuming it\u2019s safe because of the dried brown crust, they break through to the decaying organic matter below and release the noxious gas.<\/p>\n Ollivro blames one industry for the algal menace: intensive agriculture. Nitrogen from fertilizer and animal waste runs into the region\u2019s rivers and out to sea, creating an all-you-can-eat buffet for the algae, which grow in profusion with the extra nutrients. Between 2007 and 2018, green tides hit a total of 114 different sites along the coast, with the algal accumulations from that time covering an area equal to 601 soccer stadiums.<\/p>\n The green tides are a bane to the local tourism economy, a hazard to the environment, and now a public health problem. But even as some beaches are repeatedly hit each year, the green tides only affect about five percent of the coastline, making it an easy problem to ignore or downplay. In a region whose lifeblood is agriculture\u2014Brittany provides the rest of France with 56 percent of its pork products, 44 percent of its eggs, and 33 percent of its poultry\u2014an inability to muster the political will to overhaul agricultural practices has stalled any meaningful action.<\/p>\n The agitation has mostly come from individuals like Ollivro, coordinating with or leading environmental groups to bring lawsuits against the government for its inaction in solving the crisis and for some of the deaths. Ollivro, for instance, helped in a lawsuit brought forward by the family of truck driver Thierry Morfoisse who died suddenly during his work removing mounds of rotting algae from the beach. His death occurred immediately after he deposited the last load, presumably because he was overcome by the deadly fumes.<\/p>\n Andr\u00e9 Ollivro has been raising awareness about the dangers of algae blooms for years. Photo by Idealink Photography\/Alamy Stock Photo<\/p><\/div>\n After decades of apathy, the increasing pressure to do something about the issue is nearing a breaking point. Activists and journalists whose work has drawn public attention have been denounced by protestors, had their phones tapped, and even received death threats. Climate change is now turbocharging algal growth, and, as the number of deaths of people presumably intoxicated by the algae creeps up, the political winds seem to finally be changing. What\u2019s unclear is if it\u2019s already too late.<\/p>\n The connection between agriculture and green tides is what drew investigative journalist In\u00e8s L\u00e9raud to Brittany in 2015. At the time, she thought her investigation might last three months. But understanding the role of agriculture and its political power was a convoluted process and three months turned into three years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took me at least two years to create trusting relationships with farmers and for them to tell me about their working conditions, their relationships with food industry groups,\u201d L\u00e9raud says. \u201cIn the beginning, I ran into a lot of shut doors. I had to spend a lot of time in caf\u00e9s, drinking coffee with people, just talking.\u201d<\/p>\n The end result of her investigation is a 160-page graphic nonfiction expos\u00e9 called Algues vertes: l\u2019histoire interdite<\/em> (Green algae: the forbidden history), published in the summer of 2019. L\u00e9raud\u2019s story dives back to the Second World War, when France began recovering with help from the United States\u2019 Marshall Plan and revolutionized its agricultural sector. In Brittany, this meant the introduction of tractors, hybrid corn, pesticides, and fertilizers, all to maximize the food production process.<\/p>\n By the early 1970s, L\u00e9raud discovered, the earliest green tides caught the attention of municipal councilors who asked scientists to determine why the algae blooms were occurring. The phenomenon was still relatively small scale, but nobody wanted smelly beaches. A number of researchers\u2014some at government-funded institutes, others working through universities\u2014quickly singled out two culprits: phosphates from detergents and nitrogen from farming.<\/p>\n Decomposing green algae smell like rotten eggs and can emit toxic hydrogen sulfide. Photo by Loic Venance\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n The suggestion that nitrogen might be a leading factor in the green tide phenomenon was vehemently countered by the agriculture industry, the federal minister of agriculture, and a group whose name translates to the Scientific and Technical Institute for the Environment and Health (ISTE). The ISTE, led by a scientist whose work cast doubt on the role of nitrogen and intensive agriculture as causes for the green tides, began publishing books and conducting lectures to sway public opinion. The group is funded by numerous food corporations, including SunBird, P\u00e8re Dodu, and others. Although ISTE\u2019s work has been heavily criticized by other scientists, L\u00e9raud says it raised enough doubt that politicians dragged their feet in implementing new regulations of the agricultural industry.<\/p>\n As L\u00e9raud dug deeper into the connections between the food industry and political lobbies\u2014\u201cassembling a 100,000-piece puzzle,\u201d as she describes it\u2014her work began drawing ire. In 2016, the news organization where L\u00e9raud is a reporter aired a segment on Alain M\u00e9nesguen, a scientist who had been studying green algae for decades and repeatedly ran into trouble for publishing his research. After the segment ran, M\u00e9nesguen told L\u00e9raud he\u2019d been chastised by his department for speaking out about the impact of intensive agriculture and its link to green tides. He told her he wouldn\u2019t appear in the media anymore.<\/p>\n And then, at a journalism festival, L\u00e9raud met a former French spy who shared some of his intelligence know-how. From him, L\u00e9raud learned that one of the huge food conglomerates had tapped her phone and computer.<\/p>\n \u201cIt definitely makes you a little paranoid,\u201d L\u00e9raud says. \u201cBut it can be stimulating because we know that we\u2019re upsetting people in the right places.\u201d<\/p>\n L\u00e9raud felt safe as a journalist. She could use her platform to publicize any threats and felt her public profile would work as a shield to ensure her safety. It wasn\u2019t the same case for Ollivro.<\/p>\n Two incidents in 2009\u2014the death of Morfoisse and the death of a horse and the sickness of its rider\u2014spurred Ollivro\u2019s efforts to enact change. Clearly the situation was more dangerous than anyone had believed. \u201cBecause I have a big mouth and talked a lot about it, the regional tourism committee asked to meet me,\u201d Ollivro says. Members of the group told him that his message about the dangers of the algae was making the region look bad and would have a negative impact on tourism. Despite Morfoisse\u2019s death being the second human death linked to green tide, the problem still wasn\u2019t seen as a public health crisis.<\/p>\n Seaweed has to be regularly removed from the beach in Saint-Michel-en-Gr\u00e8ve, France, where a horse collapsed and died in 2009. Photo by Cyril Folliot\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n But worse than the confrontation with the antagonistic committee was receiving written death threats, finding a pile of manure outside his driveway, and then discovering a dead fox with its head burned off by acid near his garden wall. Ollivro worked with a lawyer to file charges against persons unknown (he had no clue as to the identity of the harassers), but no action ever came from the district attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Ollivro\u2019s work and that of other activists undoubtedly pushed the issue, but government action still fell short of resolving the problem. In February 2010, politicians announced the \u20ac120-million Green Algae Plan, which largely focused on collecting and removing algae from the beaches rather than setting new regulations on farming practices. Two of the main goals\u2014to convert 10 percent of farmland to organic practices and reduce the nitrate level in the region\u2019s rivers and bays from 50\u00a0mg\/L to 10\u00a0mg\/L\u2014failed spectacularly, partially due to being voluntary.<\/p>\n In 2017, the government announced an updated plan to lower nitrate levels at eight watersheds around the region. Among the measures to be attempted: planting grass along with crops like corn to prevent fertilizer runoff, raising cattle in pastures rather than in feedlots, and raising pigs on straw. Once again, these measures were voluntary for farmers. The government didn\u2019t pass any new regulations to overhaul the agricultural system.<\/p>\n<\/a>
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