This week a group of environmental activists and beekeepers brought their Keep the Hives Alive tour to Washington DC. More specifically the front lawn of the Environmental Protection Agency. The Keep the Hives Alive tour was organized by an activist group called friends of the Earth. Their mission was to demand the EPA bring an immediate ban to bee killing pesticides. The bees in North America and around the world have been in decline for decades. European and American beekeepers have consistently reported losses of 30% or more annually in their bee populations. The primary cause for this global decline in populations is the widespread use of agricultural pesticides. Friends of the Earth delivered this week, 2.6 million dead bees to the steps of the EPA.
The Keep the Hives alive tour truck was driven by beekeeper James Cook. James got together with a number of beekeeping and cultural groups to plan his tour, which brought them through eight U.S. cities in nine days. His last stop was Washington DC. His goal was to bring awareness to the fact that companies like Monsanto and Bayer are destroying bee populations through agricultural use of their pesticides. This is yet another example of corporations putting profits before people and the environment. James arrived in Washington DC with 2.6 million dead bees in tow. Last year, James lost 50% of his five hives as a result of pesticides containing Neonicotinoids.
Neonicitinoids are a family of pesticides that were first banned by the French and then in 2013 by the EU. Bayer first released Neonicitinoids in France when they used Imidicoprid on French sunflowers. Bees, all across France, were dying until an independent scientific study showed that Imidicoprid was detected in the sunflowers. As a result, France banned the use of all Neonicitinoids in 2000.
The use of Neonicitinoids is still prevalent in the United States, where bees continue to die. Although pesticides have been proven to be wiping out bee populations globally, American corporations prefer money over protecting species’ necessary for our survival. One out of every three bites you take are pollinated by a bee. Bees are essential for our survival, but corporations don’t seem to care. The agricultural lobby with companies like Monsanto have too many politicians in their pockets.
James was joined on the lawn of the Environmental Protection Agency by a large group of protesters who demanded the EPA ban the use of Neonicitinoids and pesticides, which have displayed harmful effects on bee populations. According to Friends of the Earth representative Tiffany Finck-Haynes, “Pesticide companies are successfully pulling the wool over the eyes of our policy makers, which has resulted in a patchwork of initiatives by our state and federal government to that do little to curb or restrict pesticides.” She continues, adding that “our government is giving more weight to the pesticide industry than to protecting bees, beekeepers, our food supply and environment.”
Read further at “Buzz Kill – How the Pesticide Industry is clipping the wings of bee protection efforts across the US”
Further sources: Envrionment 360, Friends of the Earth, Fusion.
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