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Thread: The Dreadful Politics of Neonics at Home and Abroad

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    Banned Stromnessbees's Avatar
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    Exclamation The Dreadful Politics of Neonics at Home and Abroad

    A very interesting article appeared in the Guardian today, just a couple of days before the all important vote to ban the neonics:


    Owen Paterson set to scupper EU plans to ban pesticides linked to bee harm


    Environment secretary not expected to support proposal despite poll showing almost three-quarters of the UK public wants ban



    The UK environment secretary, Owen Paterson, appears set to defy public and political pressure by scuppering a proposed Europe-wide suspension of three pesticides linked to serious harm in bees.


    Almost three-quarters of the UK public backs the ban, according to a poll released on Wednesday, but the UK is not currently expected to support the measure when the European commission (EC) votes on it on Friday, leaving it little chance of being passed.


    "Owen Paterson is about to put the short-term interests of farmers and the pesticide industry ahead of Britain's food supply," said Ian Bassin, of the campaign group Avaaz, which has amassed 2.5m signatures supporting a ban on neonicotinoids, the world's most widely used insecticides. The YouGov poll, conducted for Avaaz, found that 71% of Britons said the UK should vote in favour of the EU moratorium.


    The proposed suspension has prompted fierce lobbying on both sides. The Guardian understands that at present the opposition of the UK, Germany and Spain outweighs the support of France, the Netherlands and Poland, although campaigners hope to change the minds of ministers in the final days before the vote. The chemical manufacturers claim that a suspension would reduce food production, while conservationists say these claims are unsubstantiated and even greater harm results from the loss of bees and the vital pollination service they provide.


    About three-quarters of global food crops rely on bees and other insects to fertilise their flowers, with the result that the decline of honeybee colonies due to disease, habitat loss and pesticide harm has prompted serious concern. A series of high-profile scientific studies in the last year has increasingly linked neonicotinoids to harmful effects in bees, including huge losses in the number of queens produced, and big increases in "disappeared" bees – those that fail to return from food foraging trips.


    As well as public campaigns, Paterson also faces political pressure, including from one of his Conservative predecessors. Lord Deben, who as John Gummer was environment secretary, said:


    "If ever there were an issue where the precautionary principle ought to guide our actions, it is in the use of neonicotinoids.
    Bees are too important to our crops to continue to take this risk."
    Joan Walley, chair of the Commons environmental audit select committee, which is investigating the issue of pesticides and pollinators, said:
    "Ministers have repeatedly told us that the precautionary principle and evidence-based policymaking inform its position on pesticides. If their policy in this area is as transparent and open as they claim, I believe that they would back up those words by voting for the European moratorium."
    A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), said:

    "We have carried out extensive research into the impact of neonicotinoids on bees and are waiting for the results of work including field studies.
    If it is concluded that restrictions on the use of neonicotinoids are necessary, they will be brought in."

    Paterson said in February: "I have asked the EC to wait for the results of our field trials, rather than rushing to a decision." However, the results will not be available before Friday's vote because the field trials have been seriously compromised by contamination from neonicotinoids, which are very widely used. Prof Ian Boyd, Defra's chief scientist, told Walley's committee: "At the control site, there were residues of neonicotinoids in pollen and nectar."


    Green MEPs across Europe have written to every nation's environment minister, including Paterson.

    "By spreading uncertainty via apparently 'science-based' arguments, the agro-chemical companies are acting as 'merchants of doubt' and are therefore blocking effective action by European policy makers," said the letter.

    But Julian Little, a spokesman for Bayer, which manufactures one of the neonicotinioids, told the Guardian:

    "We believe that the proposals remain ill thought-out, disproportionate and ignore all the good work carried out in the member states, in terms of stewardship and risk migration, to ensure that farmers continue to have access to these products to help them produce safe, high quality, affordable food."

    He said the EC, at the very least, should carrying out a full impact assessment of any restrictions and said the "real issue" surrounding honeybee health was the main bee parasite, the varroa mite.


    The EC proposal is to ban the use of three neonicotinoids from use on corn, oil seed rape, sunflowers and other flowering crops across the continent for two years. Tonio Borg, commissioner for health and consumer policy, said it was time for "swift and decisive action" and that the proposals were "ambitious but proportionate". The proposals came within weeks of scientists at the European Food Safety Authority, together with experts from across Europe, concluding that the use of these pesticides on flowering crops posed an unacceptable risk to bees.
    The chemical companies that manufacture the neonicotinoids affected by the proposed EU suspension are Bayer, headquartered in Germany, and Syngenta, based in the UK. Syngenta declined to comment ahead of the vote.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/13/owen-paterson-ban-pesticides-bees

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    Banned Stromnessbees's Avatar
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    Default Important Decision about Neonics at SBA AGM on Saturday!

    .

    Yesterday's article in the Guardian was followed by an equally captivating one today:

    Bee conservation: the EU banning three neonic pesticides would be a start

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...ban?CMP=twt_gu


    And here in Scotland the SBA stands before a long overdue decision:

    The following proposal has been brought forward by Eric McArthur, Glasgow BKA

    "That the SBA petition the Scottish Government to invoke a moratorium on the use of the pesticides known as neonicotinoids until it is established that these substances do not have an unacceptably long half-life in the soil and that they do not damage pollinators or the soil dwelling organisms on which soil fertility depends."

    Isn't it indeed time that the SBA takes a clear stance against these pesticides that have in over 30 scientific studies proven to harm bees and pollinators?

    Many organizations have spoken out against them, but or own umbrella organization has remained silent on the topic so far.

    - with one exception:

    Apparently, our president Phil McAnespie gave a briefing to Lord Moynihan for his talk about the threats to bees and pollinators in the House of Lords:

    http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Pl...:17:40.3700000

    I hope that at the AGM Phil will be able to inform the association about the content of that briefing, especially as he gave it in representation of the SBA.
    Last edited by Stromnessbees; 14-03-2013 at 10:30 PM.

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    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    All those pulsating colours and the different font sizes.
    Who spiked my tea?

    It's heart warming that we have a guide to point the slavering fools who post on here (you know who you are) towards the most important parts of a post which they would otherwise have missed due to compromised visual acuity or perchance lack of educational opportunities.

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    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stromnessbees View Post
    .
    I hope that at the AGM Phil will be able to inform the association about the content of that briefing, especially as he gave it in representation of the SBA.
    And if he didn't fall into line with the neonic zealots, what then?

    That House of Lords debate was a breath of fresh air after the one-sided sessions at the EAC where not one beekeeper was called to give their perspective on bees and their interactions with crops.

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    Quote Originally Posted by gavin View Post

    And if he didn't fall into line with the neonic zealots, what then?
    If I remember right, then the BBKA faced a similar dilemma over that topic and didn't come out of it in great shape.

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    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stromnessbees View Post
    If I remember right, then the BBKA faced a similar dilemma over that topic and didn't come out of it in great shape.
    Record membership currently at about 25,000

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    Banned Stromnessbees's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    Record membership currently at about 25,000
    But despised by many for having accepted the pesticide corporations' shilling.

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    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    How many?
    Despised by a few such as yourself, considered unwise and inappropriate by the likes of myself, yet the pesticide issue has been blissfully ignored by the vast majority of members.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    How many?
    Despised by a few such as yourself, considered unwise and inappropriate by the likes of myself, yet the pesticide issue has been blissfully ignored by the vast majority of members.
    How fervently correct she is;how guardedly right you are; and how blissfully ignorant you describe your fellow members to be.

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    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    I am not a member of the bbka myself so they are not my fellow members but I do consider the executive shot itself in the foot with the pesticide sponsorship deal.
    I don't think it was done in bad faith or that it involved backhanders as some like to imply.
    It just did not sit easy with a lot of people - linking pesticide manufacturers with a hobby based around the welfare of a hive full of bees.
    Last edited by Jon; 15-03-2013 at 12:59 AM.

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