Beekeepers, farmers, farmworkers and scientists unite for pesticide regulation and sustainable agriculture
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Keep the Hives Alive Tour kicks off today to raise awareness about the plight of mass bee die-offs and other pollinators. The tour is organized by beekeepers, farmers, farmworkers, scientists and advocates and will stop in South Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina before and during National Pollinator Week, June 13-23.
James Cook, a Minnesota beekeeper, is…
Feeding the world is not about increasing how many bushels of grain we can grow, it’s about dirt, democracy, and our diets.
Bee losses heighten urgency for immediate action on pesticides
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today the Bee Informed Partnership, in collaboration with the Apiary Inspectors of America and the United States Department of Agriculture, released its annual report on honey bee losses in the United States. Beekeepers reported losing 44 percent of their total number of colonies managed over the last year -- close to the highest annual loss in the past six years. These losses are considered…
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Businesses and advocates are calling on the IRS to go one day without coffee -- which benefits from pollination -- to create urgency about a future without pollinators. The EPA’s April 14 deadline for comment for its risk assessment on the neonicotinoid imidacloprid -- a leading driver of bee and pollinator deaths -- coincides with the IRS’ busiest tax week of the year. The American Sustainable Business Council, Green America Business Network,…
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A coalition of food safety, consumer, and environmental groups will deliver 140,393* petition signatures urging the USDA to stop silencing its own scientists and censoring their research findings on bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides. Research about these pesticides, which are a key factor in global bee declines, has been demonstrably suppressed when the research isn’t aligned with the pesticide industry. Americans across the country are urging Catherine Woteki, Under Secretary for the…
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As scrutiny of censorship of federal scientists has grown -- including a feature in Sunday’s The Washington Post Magazine -- a coalition of more than 50 sustainable agriculture, environmental, beekeeper, and public interest organizations is once again pressing the agency for overdue reforms. The coalition sent a follow-up letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture today expressing growing concerns over the alleged suppression, harassment, and censorship of agency scientists, particularly…
BOSTON, MASS. – The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources’ release last Thursday of a proposed state Pollinator Protection Plan has outraged beekeeping leaders across the state who say the state plan promotes the interests of pesticide companies while ignoring recommendations put forward by beekeeping industry experts who are trying to reverse a decline in pollinators needed for food production.
MDAR is holding a meeting today, March 7 from 2-4 p.m. EST regarding the Massachusetts…
WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week Friends of the Earth and allies delivered letters and pledges by 33,013 Americans vowing to take their business elsewhere until Ace Hardware and True Value follow other industry leaders and make public commitments to stop selling bee-toxic neonicotinoid pesticides. Thousands of customers are signing petitions, making calls and showing up in person at these retailers urging the stores to stop selling bee-killing pesticides and plants treated with the pesticides.
Last…
Friends of the Earth calls for agency to suspend bee-toxic pesticides
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its preliminary pollinator risk assessment for the pesticide imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid pesticide used widely on 140 crops, which has been implicated as a key contributor to bee declines. The risk assessment, conducted with California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation, indicates that imidacloprid poses risks to honey bees.
This is the first of four preliminary pollinator risk…
Our new report and scorecard graded 20 of the largest food retailers in the United States on their policies and practices regarding pollinator protection, organic offerings and pesticide reduction.