STOP PRESS

I am a little late to the table with this due to a heavy workload this week, so sincere apologies.

However, better late than not at all because I think it is exceedingly important to mark this moment in our fight for the safekeeping of the honeybee, for all pollinators and for the natural order of insect and plant life in general.

Last week, an influential scientific body here in Europe stated that a group of pesticides believed to be dangerous to honeybees has, in fact, an even more devastating, far-reaching effect on our ecosystems than previously feared.

This scientific council is an independent body composed of experts, representatives, from national science academies all across the European states. They have stated that widespread use of these pesticides ‘has severe effects on a range of organisms that provide ecosystem services like POLLINATION and natural pest control”. (The upper caps are mine).

This acceptance, these conclusions, of what some of us have been fighting for, for over a decade, is a vital step in our battle to protect the honeybee as well as the other dangers these chemicals cause.

Neonicotinoid pesticides ARE, in my experience and humble opinion, extremely dangerous; they threaten the welfare of the honeybee and our ecosystems in a far broader sense. And I believe they must be banned.

The European Commission has already put a two-year ban on the use of these pesticides. However, this ban is up for review this year. In the meantime, Bayer and Sygenta, two major European chemical companies and two of the major producers of products containing neonicotinoids, have sued the European Commission saying that there is insufficient evidence to rule against their products and that if used according to the label, they are safe.

The case is pending.

We have reached a vey crucial stage in our fight for the honeybee and the future of our natural world. The EC needs to maintain its ban and Bayer and Sygenta need to be legally forced to withdraw these damaging products.

We need the United States to follow us, to stand by those of us who are fighting to protect the planet.

Ten years ago, many said that I was being naive or idealistic.

However, there cannot be many of us living today in the modern world who have not now been made aware of the importance of this issue.

Honeybees pollinate seventy-five per cent of our food sources. Pesticides in the broader sense are damaging many natural organisms that provide ecosystem services such as natural pest control, soil maintenance and, of course, pollination.

If you have been asked to sign a petition to protect the bees, PLEASE sign. If you have not, then please look at my BEE AWARENESS pages on this website. There are many opportunities there to sign various petitions and to read about this problem in more detail. If you have the opportunity to plant bee-friendly plants – even in window-boxes or reclaimed scrubland – please do so, but please plants flowers, vegetables and seeds that have been organically produced, not plants that have been cultivated using the neonicotinoid pesticides. These chemicals pervade the tissues of the entire plant and its roots and so seep into the earth and eventually cause bee and insect deaths.

Enjoy the spring – it is glorious here – and please remember every flower, every blossom, every “weed’, every bug has its job to do, its role to play and that they are keeping our universe alive and healthy.

Thanks,

 

Carol