A big truck loaded with a huge number of dead bees has traveled many miles before it reached its final destination – the headquarters of the EPA – the Environmental Protection Agency.
According to James Cook, a beekeeper from Minnesota and the driver of this truck, he has been working in the honey production industry for five years as a individual beekeeper and he has witnessed the deaths of hundreds of bees that get in touch with pesticides. He is concerned that if the authorities don’t take some radical measures right now, the situation will get worse and beekeepers won’t be able to maintain their hives.
This is one of the reasons why environmental activities and beekeepers have gathered more than four million signatures asking for a ban on pesticides that kill bees.
Official statistics have shown that we are living in an age of bee genocide. More than 40% of beehives are killed each year and evidence points to the use of neonicotinoids (a type of pesticides). So, the EPA started evaluating the risk of the four sub-types of neonicotinoids last year. In the beginning of 2016, this agency confirmed that imidcaloprid might cause harm to honey bees, but they are still evaluating the other three pesticides.
According to the director of the Environment America organization in DC, the fact that there is now clear evidence about the connection between these pesticides and bee deaths, it is time for the authorities to ban the use of these pesticides.
Beekeepers, farmers, environmentalists and food advocates organized a meeting with EPA representatives, officials from the Department of Agriculture and members of the Congress explaining their popular Keep the Hives Alive tour. In addition, they have provided letters from more than two hundred organizations and businesses that have supported the concept of sustainable agriculture without the use of neonicotinoid pesticides.
Delegate Anne Healey, the sponsor of the Pollinator Protection Act in Maryland, says that the science has now provided convincing and clear evidence. She urges all states to impose ban on these pesticides.
On the other hand, Scott Nash, head of Mom’s Organic Market, says that the situation with pollinators today is very similar to the situation with the bald eagle, osprey and other aquatic animals and birds affected by DDT use about five decades ago. In case this practice is continued we can expect rapid increase of food price and lack of food supplies.