Breaking: Agro-chemical lobbyists have vowed to keep fighting after their "emergency" bid to use bee-killing pesticides was rejected. If they get their way, it will be a disaster for British bees.
David Cameron’s government lifted the ban temporarily last year in a secret meeting held behind closed doors -- and we can’t let that happen again. One-third of our food supply depends on these pollinators.
If a new “emergency” application goes forward, it will mean Britain is moving in the opposite direction to virtually everyone else. France just moved towards an outright ban on neonicotinoids and the US has ruled that a key neonic pesticide should never have been approved in the first place.
We have to act now. Urge Farming Minister George Eustice and Environment Minister Liz Truss to keep the neonics ban and save the bees.
It’s impossible to overstate how devastating yet another summer of neonicotinoids would be to Britain’s ecosystems. Last year, one study discovered that neonics aren't just killing bees that ingest the toxins, they're killing birds too. And some butterfly populations in Britain declined by 60% in just one decade -- over the same period neonicotinoid use increased at its fastest-ever rate.
We need to send a message to our government to keep the ban in place right now. The big corporations behind these toxic chemicals are already lining up to apply for the ban to be lifted again -- and they’ll keep doing it until they get their way. What good is a ban that SumOfUs members fought hard to win if it’s lifted every summer anyway?
Let’s keep bee-killing pesticides off British fields. Let's tell the government to keep the ban on neonics.
More information
Farmers Weekly. 28 April 2016.
The Guardian. 20 August 2015.
The Guardian. 13 May 2016.