The need to ban the pesticide-neonicotinoids is heating up and the government can no longer drag their heels on this one.
With the launch of the controversial film Vanishing of the Bees, The Soil Association is campaigning around the film and have collected over 14,000 signatures on their petition to get neonicotinoid pesticides banned - to add your voice, you can sign up on the front page of our website on the Soil Association – Save our Bees banner.
Emma Hockridge, Soil Association policy coordinator, said:
"The film is a shocking expose of the long term impacts pesticide use has on bees. We recognise there are complex issues contributing to the decline of bee populations such as other industrial farming practices. But the film and excellent recent review of the impacts neonicotinoid pesticides have on bees by Buglife (the invertebrate trust) highlights the negative impact this group of pesticides are having on our pollinators. I urge people to sign our petition to help us make a difference."
US beekeeper David Hackenberg, who first described CCD in the US and appears in the film Vanishing Of The Bees, warns CCD in the UK is likely to get worse and calls for more research into the cause.
"You have Colony Collapse Disorder [in the UK], because you are using the same pesticides – the neonicotinoids – and you are seeing the same results – bees that quit eating, lose their sense of direction and eventually disappear."
Organic farms around the country are also getting involved by hosting screenings of the film. Organic farms offer benefits to bees, for a number of reasons such as use of clover in rotations (which bees love), and not using insecticides.
Vanishing of the Bees
Released in UK Cinemas 9 October 2009
Produced & Directed by George Langworthy & Maryam Henein
Executive Producers James Erskine and Holly Mosher –
Don’t miss it.
