On August 2nd, the U.S. Department of the Interior released a memo stating they have rescinded a 2014 ban on the use of pesticides proven to harm bees and allow the planting of genetically-modified crops in national wildlife refuges were farming is allowed.
A 2017 large scale study, among others, demonstrated that neonic pesticides are known to harm both wild bees and honeybees. Those findings helped convince the European Union to ban the use of neonics in April.
"Agricultural pesticides, especially bee-killing neonics, have no place on our national wildlife refuges," says senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity Hannah Connor. "This huge backward step will harm bees and other pollinators already in steep decline simply to appease pesticide-makers and promote mono-culture farming techniques that trigger increased pesticide use. It's senseless and shameful."
Get with the program America! Stop killing bees and endangering our ecosystems future, find a better way to farm! Reinstate the ban not only in wildlife refuges, but also in farming practice in general! If Europe is successful with the discontinued use of these practices, then we can be too!
