No Bees, No Food
- by: Gloria Henry, Founder - Creative Sacred Living
- recipient: Environmental Protection Agency
Millions of bees are dying off, with alarming consequences for our environment and our food supply. We rely on bees to pollinate everything from almonds to strawberries to the hay used to feed dairy cows. What happens if the bees disappear? It’s simple: No bees, no food.
In recent years, beekeepers report they’re losing on average 30% of all honeybee colonies each winter — twice the loss considered economically tolerable.
We rely on bees to pollinate 71 of the 100 crops that provide 90% of most of the world’s food. Imagine no almonds, fewer apples and strawberries, less alfalfa to feed dairy cows, and the list goes on.
Image: Qypchak/ Wikimedia Creative Commons
We're up against big agrichemical companies
Given the consequences for our farms and our food, you’d think we’d be doing all we can to protect bees and other pollinators from threats like neonics.
Instead, big agrichemical companies like Dow Chemical, Bayer and Syngenta are fighting to prevent bans. And Syngenta has asked federal regulators for permission to use even larger quantities of these pesticides — as much as 400 times more than currently allowed.
Some governments aren’t letting the big chemical companies push them around. Alarmed by the role these chemicals are playing in bee colony collapse disorder, the European Union has banned several of them; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has committed to phasing them out on the public lands they manage; and Seattle,Minnesota and Oregon have all agreed to take some form of action against neonics.
Some companies are taking action as well. Home Depot and BJ’s Wholesale Club have taken steps to limit plants treated with neonics, label the plants or both. More than 100 businesses sent a letter to the White House urging the Obama administration to do more to protect bees and other pollinators against toxic pesticides. And we’ll continue to urge other retailers to phase out neonics and do more to warn gardeners and other customers.
In order to restore bee populations to health, however, we need the EPA to step up and lead.
Together, we can give bees a chance
Right now, we’re letting big agrichemical companies use more of the chemicals that are known to kill bees just as we’re in the midst of an unsustainable die-off in bee populations. That has to change. Now.
Join us in calling on the EPA to declare a nationwide moratorium on the use of bee-killing neonics.
Original Image: Flickr User: August Kelmn - Creative Commons
Protect our bees
We rely on bees to pollinate everything from almonds to strawberries to the hay used to feed dairy cows. But in recent years, beekeepers report they’re losing on average 30% of all honeybee colonies each winter. Scientists point to several causes, including a class of bee-killing insecticides known as neonics.
Big agrichemical companies like Dow Chemical, Bayer and Syngenta, are fighting to prevent bans. And Syngenta has asked federal regulators for permission to use even larger quantities of these pesticides.
Fifteen countries in Europe have imposed a two-year restriction on the use of several of these chemicals. The U.S. should do the same. I'm writing to request that you act quickly to reject the pesticide industry's request for increased limits and to instead put in place an immediate moratorium on neonicotinoid pesticides.
No bees means no food. We can't afford to wait.
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