Hoping to Save Bees, Europe to Vote on Pesticide Ban

In a case closely watched on both sides of the Atlantic, European officials plan to vote Friday on a proposal to sharply restrict the use of pesticides that had been implicated in the decline of global bee populations.

The vote in Brussels, by officials from all 27 European Union member states, follows a January report from the European Food Safety Authority recommending that none of the chemicals of a class known as neonicotinoids should be used on crops that are attractive to honeybees, because of the risk the insects would be poisoned.

Although even some bee scientists say the evidence is inconclusive, the European Commission, the Union’s administrative arm, has embraced the food safety authority’s findings. The proposal calls for a two-year prohibition of neonicotinoid use on the flowering crops that lure bees, as well as the seeds of such crops.

That would mean, for example, that farmers could no longer use the products on the colorful fields of rapeseed, or canola, that stretch across huge areas of Europe agricultural heartlands.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/15/business/global/hoping-to-save-bees-europe-to-vote-on-pesticide-ban.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

OSIRIS

and....

Unfortunately I have only just received this but we only have tommorow to act. 38degrees (pressure group) are asking everyone to contact their MP to stop Owen Paterson from voting against a Europe wide ban on the pesticides linked to the devastating loss of bees. The vote is tommorrow so we only have the morning.

If you get onto their web site there is the start of a letter ready for you.

http://secure.38degrees.org.uk/bees-emergency

Please pass this on to anyone you think will act

thanks

Milly