Bee populations are declining rapidly because of toxic pesticides and we've been working hard all year to get the biggest grocery chain in the country, Kroger, to take food grown with bee-killing pesticides off its shelves.

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 meeting, we were outside, showing Kroger shareholders, a display of what our food supply would look like without our bees. We then delivered over 400,000 signatures straight to Kroger’s CEO's hands demanding the corporation stop selling food grown with toxic bee-killing neonics. Your efforts paid off and our resolution got the second most votes at the meeting.

And in August, along with our partners Friends of the Earth, a few dozen of you committed to taking action at Kroger stores to call on the grocery chain to save the bees. SumOfUs has 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.

Please join over 100,000 SumOfUs members who have already called on Kroger to do the right thing to save the bees.

Together with our partners at Friends of the Earth, we chipped in to conduct a poll that found 65 percent of Americans have said they’re more likely to shop at a grocery store that has promised to eliminate bee-killing neonics. We have Kroger’s customers behind us and with our concerted effort, it’s only a matter of time before Kroger changes its ways -- its biggest competition, Costco and Walmart already committed to saving the bees. 

And moving corporations like Kroger to do the right thing for the bees is more important than ever. With Trump doing whatever he can to disband the EPA, the governing body for banning neonics, a nation-wide ban on the bee-killing pesticide won’t come soon.

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.

Already, 100,000 bee lovers have signed the petition calling on Kroger to save the bees. Will you join them?

The bees are in dire distress. Of the 1,400 species studied in the US this 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 on our food.

Trump’s administration has shown, time and again, that they don’t care about protecting the bees. Now, with a bill looming to disband the EPA, our voice is more important than ever before.

More information