Take Action! Tell the EPA We Do NOt Want Another Bee-Harming Pesticide

We recently received the following email from the Pesticide Action Network North America (www.panna.org) and felt it was important enough to share. Please read the email and if you agree, like we do, that the EPA should NOT approve another bee-harming pesticide. Please sign the petition at the link below before February 12th!  As always, we welcome your feedback. Dear Greenwise, While policymakers in Europe are making moves to restrict bee-harming pesticides, EPA is poised to approve the widespread use of yet another one. Bees need protection from known harms, not exposure to new threats. Join us in making it clear to EPA that approval of this new systemic pesticide is a very bad idea. We have until February 12 to make some noise! No more bee-toxic pesticides» The science is clear. While nutrition and disease also contribute to declining bee populations, studies clearly show that systemic pesticides play a key role. Urge EPA to follow the science and keep this new bee-toxic pesticide off the market. The European Food Safety Association concluded earlier this month that neonicotinoid pesticides (“neonics”) pose an unacceptably high risk to bees and that the industry-sponsored science upon which claims of safety have relied is fatally flawed. Meanwhile, here in the U.S., EPA has failed to take swift action to protect bees. And now instead of curbing the use of known bee-toxic neonics like Bayer’s clothianidin, the Agency is set to allow a new systemic pesticide, sulfoxaflor, on the market. Intended for use on a variety of crops including soy and cotton, sulfoxaflor is a cousin of clothianidin and impacts the same bee brain synapses (nicotinic acetylcholine receptors) as neonics. In short, it poses the same threat to bee health. EPA, are you listening?» About a third of bees continue to die off each year, with some beekeepers expecting this year to be the worst yet. It’s time to protect these vital pollinators from known harms, not expose them to new threats. Thank you for helping to ensure that EPA gets this message loud and clear.