- The Government, for the second year running, has allowed for a banned bee-harming pesticide to be used by sugar beet farmers in England, threatening our precious pollinators
- In making the decision ministers went against the explicit advice of their own scientific advisors not to allow the pesticide to be used.
- Environmental organisations the RSPB, Friends of the Earth, Buglife & The Wildlife Trusts say the decision goes against the government’s green promises, and will ultimately lead to the harm of wildlife.
- Farmland covers 75% of the UK making it vital in the fight to reverse nature’s decline.
- The Government has announced that it will permit the use of the banned pesticide thiamethoxam on sugar beet in England in 2022, because of the threat posed by a virus, transmitted by aphids.The successful application, which was made by British Sugar, has for the second year in a row been granted for use by farmers, despite the government’s own advisors recommending against mits approval. The September 2021 minutes from the Expert Committee on Pesticides meeting said “The Committee agreed with HSE’s evaluation that the requirements for emergency authorisation have not been met” and “on the basis of the evidence presented to ECP, the Committee agreed that it is unable to support an emergency authorisation under Article 53 of Regulation 1107/2009”. The advisers also concluded that pesticide water pollution caused by this decision will harm river life.Neonicotinoids (NNs) were banned for agricultural use in the UK and the EU in 2018 due to their devastating impact on bees. Even minute traces of these toxic chemicals in crop pollen or wildflowers play havoc with bees’ ability to forage and navigate, with catastrophic consequences for the survival of their colony. A recent study showed that even one exposure of a neonicotinoid insecticide had significant impacts on their ability to produce offspring in future years.
- Full text here
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