“We’re facing the extinction of a species.” That’s what one Midwest-based large-scale commercial beekeeper told me last week at the annual gathering of the American Honey Producers Association (AHPA). And he meant it.Bee losses have been dramatic, especially in recent years. And beekeepers are feeling...
Across the pond, the buzz is all about the impacts of pesticides on bees. Both the U.S. EPA, and its British counterpart, Defra, have been slow to act on the growing body of scientific evidence that would protect bees. But a series of important hearings...
Standing outside EPA headquarters in Washington DC yesterday, beekeepers — flanked by Center for Food Safety, PAN and Beyond Pesticides — called for immediate action to protect bees from hazardous pesticides.It’s not the first time EPA has been asked to take action. Far from it....
This month marks the 50th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, the book that galvanized an extraordinary cross-section of the American public into what we now call the environmental movement. Fifty years later, her courage, skill and sacrifice still inspire, and her legacy remains the...
Between now and September 25th we have an opportunity to respond to EPA’s recent decision that pollinator declines don’t present an imminent hazard.Join us in telling EPA that bee die-offs are an emergency requiring immediate action – and 2018 is much too late!Keeping a bee-toxic...
This summer, I did a project for my Girl Scout Gold award focused on the importance of bees and bats and what we can do to help them. I chose these two creatures because they are both facing serious threats to their survival, are very...
All too often, the rules of pesticide regulation are cumbersome and make for slow change. But EPA had an opportunity to take swift, decisive action to protect bees — and they let it pass. Today, the agency announced it is denying the request by beekeepers to...
In March, PAN and Beyond Pesticides joined partners and beekeepers from around the country in filing a legal petition with EPA, calling on the agency to make use of its emergency powers to protect bees from Bayer's pesticide clothianidin. Sources tell us that in the...
This week PAN released Honey Bees and Pesticides: State of the Science, a 22-page report on the factors behind colony collapse disorder (CCD) with a sustained focus on the particular role of pesticides. By collecting and presenting the findings of dozens of peer-reviewed scientific studies — including...
No farmer in his or her right mind wants to poison pollinators. When I spoke with one Iowa corn farmer in January and told him about the upcoming release of a Purdue study confirming corn as a major neonicotinoid exposure route for bees, his face...