We need your help. Our bees need your help.
Most people are not aware that 84% of European crops are partly or entirely dependent on insect pollination. Managed honeybees pollinate certain crops - but wild bees (along with other pollinators like flies and wasps) cover a very broad spectrum of plants, and so are considered the most important guardians of our food supply and our natural biodiversity.
We must take action now to protect our bees and we need everyone to help us pile pressure on the UK Government.
As well as Friends of the Earth's Bee Cause campaign, which we are very proud to support, you may already know about Neal's Yard Remedies award winning Bee Lovely campaign. This began in 2011 and was one of the first to raise the issue of the damage caused to our precious pollinators by a particularly deadly type of pesticide called neonicotinoids - or neonics.
Chemical companies like Syngenta say that neonics are safe for bees. But the evidence is piling up that they are, in fact, extremely harmful and that proper testing has never been done, especially on the effects on wild pollinators.
Neonics are 7,000 times more toxic than DDT, a chemical pesticide the UK Government banned in 1984. Realistically, how likely is it that they have no effect on bees and other pollinators?
We've had a fantastic response to the Bee Lovely campaign in the UK and internationally. Now we're taking things a step further by calling on the UK Government to ban neonics as a matter of urgency.
Please sign our petition to get the British government to join France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia in banning these powerful pesticides, and help protect our precious bees.
But be(e) quick - the petition closes in 2 days.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead
Neal's Yard Remedies are supporting Friends of the Earth's Bee Cause campaign with a donation from sales of its Bee Lovely range .
Peter Kindersley is the chairman and owner of Neal's Yard Remedies.
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