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Big news in the fight to protect bees: The Environmental Protection Agency just released a stunning new report admitting that popular neonicotinoid pesticides are partially to blame for the massive bee colony collapse.1
This new development is remarkable because the federal government is now finally admitting, after over 20 years in use, that “neonics” are killing bees. Yet, farmers are still spraying dangerous bee-killing neonics on tens of millions of acres of farmland across the United States while bees continue to die off in droves.2
The EPA has been notoriously slow at responding to this crisis, and its previous efforts to restrict neonics use have not gone far enough. We must ramp up pressure on the EPA to ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides once and for all.
Tell the EPA: Ban dangerous bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides. Click here to sign the petition.
Bees and other pollinators play a vital role in our food production system by enabling the production of many of the nuts, fruits and vegetables in our diets. In total, pollinators make possible an astounding 35% of global food production and contribute more than $24 billion annually to the U.S. economy. But the number of managed honeybee colonies in the United States has declined from 6 million in the 1940s to just 2.5 million today – jeopardizing our food supply and domestic agriculture industry.3
And the outlook for bee colonies is getting worse. A recent survey, funded in part by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, revealed that U.S. beekeepers lost over 42% of their colonies between April 2014 and April 2015, a significant upswing of losses from the previous year.4
Now that the federal government has admitted the definitive proof that neonics are contributing significantly to the collapse of bee colonies, it’s time for the EPA to take action to ban these dangerous pesticides nationwide before any further harm is done to bee populations.
Tell the EPA: Ban dangerous bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides. Click the link below to sign the petition:
http://act.credoaction.com/
Thanks for all you do to save bees.
Josh Nelson, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets
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References
- EPA Releases the First of Four Preliminary Risk Assessments for Insecticides Potentially Harmful to Bees, United States Environmental Protection Agency, January 6, 2016
- Tom Philpott, The EPA Finally Admitted That the World’s Most Popular Pesticide Kills Bees—20 Years Too Late, Mother Jones, January 7, 2016
- “Fact Sheet: The Economic Challenge Posed by Declining Pollinator Populations,” The White House, June 20, 2014
- “Colony Loss 2014-2015: Preliminary Results,” Bee Informed Partnership, May 13, 2015