At this moment the Defra secretary has a key decision waiting on his desk and what he does will be an indication of whether these grand statements have any substance. The multimillion-pound company British Sugar is asking for emergency authorisation to apply a banned bee-killing pesticide to this year’s sugar beet crop. Thiamethoxam, that chemical, is a neonicotinoid, a substance once touted by its manufacturers as a safe pesticide but found by researchers more than a decade ago to be so toxic that a teaspoon could kill one billion bees.
George Monbiot insists that neonicotinoids must be banned. Matt Ridley says that’s nonsense. Well, there we have it then, the proposed ban is bollocks, QED.
Note the “multimillion pound company” epithet, used as evidence of evil intent.
Has the bee population surged since the neonicotinoids were banned? I’m assuming not, given that the ecomentalists aren’t shouting about their victory.
Will nobody think of the poor wee beet?
https://risk-monger.com/2017/01/15/beegate-revisited-iucns-anti-neonic-pesticide-taskforce-an-expose-into-activist-science/
If we don’t use fertilisers and insecticides, we can look forward to famines:
Last updated: 09 Sept. 2024
New analysis [1] of government data suggests that England is heading for one of its worst harvests on record, following record breaking rain last winter that has reduced yields, disrupted farmers’ ability to grow crops and reduced the crucial wheat harvest by almost a fifth.
The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) used provisional data [2] on English crop areas for wheat, winter and spring barley, oats and oilseed rape combined with yield forecasts [3] from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) to estimate this year’s harvest for these key crops, which is set to be one of the worst three since detailed records began in 1983, just behind 2020 and 2001,
Although the harvest is not quite as poor as feared in the spring immediately following this year’s wet winter, it is still historically bad, leaving the UK dependent on imports to meet demand for bread and other baked goods.
If all the scary stories about this pesticide are true, those bees that survived the first wave will have reproduced and bounced back to previous levels. Like AMR where you don’t follow the anti-biotic course to completion.
Except for Canadian bees
They’ve all been euthanised.
Every year every European country that grows beet crops gets a special licence for Neonicitinoid use.
All the EU ones included. Because its the only currently effective agent aginst those specific pests. But its also restricted regionally, by dates allowed to use and in useage on only certain crops. All of which is structured to keep it away from the bees. Use it while they are dormant and long before they wake, not on crops liable to attract bees and so on.
And yes, all the EU countries get their speical use licences too, and have done every single year since it was generally banned.
My memory is a bit hazy, but IIRC, the only reason beat is a viable crop is because of tariffs on sugar from cane. So, remove the tariffs, cheaper sugar, grow something else, happy bees.
@Paul
Is a multi-million pound company one that is worth that much or it has that much turnover? Many small businesses would qualify these days.
N.S. For some reason, my autocorrect suddenly started suggesting ‘Mohammed’ when I start typing my nom de plume.
wot Swanny sed. It’s an annual license, you *HAVE* to apply at the last minute, every year.
“multimillion-pound company” is just there to save time.
It indicates which tribe is on which side of this debate, and therefore quickly and efficiently tells members of the Guardian tribe what they should be thinking about it.
As I’ve said before, sugar beet is all grown in a relatively small area, close to the British Sugar plants in Lincs, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambs. Ergo if the ban on neonics actually did anything it would be easily seen from the fact that bees numbers in Cornwall or West Wales or Kent would be doing great while those in East Anglia and the East Midlands would be nosediving. A bee only travels a maximum of 3 miles from its hive, so if no farm within that radius is using neonics it will never come into contact with any. So where’s the research?
Greenies don’t need no steenkin’ research!
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