A shocking new report from our partners at Friends of the Earth shows that despite public demands, Kroger, along with 20 out of the top 25 grocery chains in the U.S., is still allowing food grown with bee-killing pesticides to be sold in stores. This is unacceptable and has to stop.

Bees and other pollinators are responsible for one in every three bites of food we eat. But they’re dying at alarming rates. If Kroger doesn’t take action on this urgent issue, we’re going to not only lose bees but birds, butterflies and aquatic insects that are all essential to our food production systems and our environment.

The bees are in dire distress. Of the 1,400 species studied in the US last year, over half of the populations are in decline, with 9% of species facing extinction. We know that toxic neonics are a big part of this die-off which is why it is more important than ever to ensure companies like Kroger do their part in preventing neonics being used to grow food. 

In June, thousands of you emailed your mutual and pension funds to vote for our resolution at Kroger's annual meeting. On the day of the meeting, we delivered over 400,000 signatures straight to Kroger’s CEO's hands demanding the corporation stop selling food grown with toxic bee-killing neonics. And yet Kroger executives are continuing to ignore what is right for our future.

We’ve already had many major victories for bees. Because of members like you, we convinced the two largest hardware stores, Lowes and Home Depot, to stop the sale of neonics in their stores. We know we have the power to change the actions of mega-corporations like Kroger and now is the time to put the pressure on.

Without substantial action from the EPA, moving corporations like Kroger to do the right thing for the bees is more important than ever. That’s why we need to keep the pressure on Kroger, one of the biggest holdouts, to take foods grown with neonics off the shelves and help give the bees some breathing room.

Our health and the environment can’t wait. We need to transition away from these harmful pesticides NOW in order to save the bees and protect our planet and our food.

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