PESTICIDES linked to a huge fall in the world’s bee population
are to be banned by the EU.
The Express
By John Ingham
The UK opposed the move, but fellow states voted yesterday for a two-year moratorium on three neonicotinoids insecticides.
Conservationists welcomed the vote and slammed the UK for opposing it. The Soil Association claimed that a ban in Italy halved the winter deaths of honey bees over three years.
But the British Beekeepers Association warned the ban could cause more problems by leading to other pesticides being used.
BBKA spokesman Tim Lovett said: “We are concerned that banning neonicotinoids could lead to them being replaced by more hazardous older products which are sprayed on to crops.”
Bees’ vital pollination services account for one in three mouthfuls of all the food we eat. But they are in decline, battered by parasites, disease, loss of habitat and pesticides.
