A matter of metres? buffer zones, agrochemicals politics, and the ever-renewed promise of containing pollution

This article examines why French agricultural buffer zones persist as a regulatory solution to diffuse agrochemical pollution, despite their limited effectiveness. Articulating a science and technology studies perspective, the sociology of policy instruments, and the theory of “organized anarchy”, it traces how these zones – grass strips set at standardized distances of five meters – have been successively linked to new problems, such as nitrate runoff, pesticide drift, and exposure of residential populations. Drawing on expert reports, archival documents, and interviews, this study shows that their persistence stems from functional ambiguity, administrative convenience, and epistemic asymmetry. Buffer zones reframe conflicts as technical debates over widths and exemptions, prioritizing short-range pollution – which is easier to manage – while marginalizing complex contamination pathways such as volatilisation. The article shows that this system places the burden not only on local residents, as demonstrated by previous work, but also on farmers, thereby perpetuating agriculture's dependence on synthetic inputs under the illusion of controllable containment.