Day 6 - Our Pollinators Need Us!
Recent studies have revealed major declines in global pollinator populations, with pesticides named as a key driver. Close to 75% of the world’s crops depend on pollinators for sustained production, yield and quality. The cost of pollinating crops artificially would cost an additional £1.8 billion per year in the UK alone.
Given that much of this damage is being done in the name of food production, UK supermarkets have a key role to play in reversing this worrying trend. At the very least, they must take measures to ensure that their global supply chains ‘do no harm’ to our already-struggling pollinators.
Much of the debate around the impact of pesticides on bees and other pollinators has focused on a class of chemicals known as ‘neonicotinoids’ (1 gram is enough to kill 125 million honeybees).
What are neonicotinoids?
Neonicotinoids (neonics) are the most widely used insecticides globally. They are used on more than 140 crop varieties to control a variety of pests especially sap-feeding insects, such as aphids and root-feeding grubs. They are a relatively new type of insecticide. The first, imidacloprid, was launched by Bayer Cropscience in 1991. Since then a further six compounds have been put on the global market. By 2008, neonicotinoids had taken a 24% share of the total insecticide market of €6.330 billion.
Neonics are systemic pesticides. Unlike contact pesticides, which remain on the surface of the treated foliage, systemic pesticides are taken up by the plant and transported to all its tissues (leaves, flowers, roots and stems, as well as pollen and nectar). Products containing neonics can be applied at the root (as seed coating or soil drench) or sprayed onto crop foliage. The insecticide toxin remains active in the plant for many weeks, protecting the crop from pests all season.
After years of campaigning, the use of four neonicotinoids was recently banned in the EU and the UK and farmers here are no longer permitted to use these chemicals when growing crops (although they can still use other bee-harming pesticides). But neonicotinoids and other highly toxic insecticides are still used elsewhere in the world. This means that many products on UK supermarket shelves will have been grown in a way which is extremely harmful to bees. In other words, we are exporting our environmental footprint to countries with weaker standards.
UK supermarkets have huge global footprints and the power to make change. They urgently need to ban bee-toxic pesticides and support growers around the world to adopt more sustainable, non-chemical alternatives.
Join us in asking Asda, Aldi, Co-op, Iceland, Lidl, M&S, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose to ban bee-toxic pesticides from their UK and global supply chains.
