Serious loss of honeybees. Email from Friends of the Earth: Imagine blueberries as expensive as caviar, watermelon a treat most families can only afford once a year, and lemons a luxury only for special occasions. That’s the reality we’re facing in a world without bees. It’s a bleak fate, but together we can stop it. Please give $5 to help us save the bees. Some of our members are so concerned about this issue that they have pledged to match the first $15,000 raised - dollar for dollar. There’s no denying the crisis. Bees around the world are dying in droves – from 50,000 in a Target parking lot in Oregon, to 37 million on a single farm in Ontario, Canada. This last winter, beekeepers reported losses between 40-90 percent of their bees.1 Then, add that one out of every three bites of food you and I eat is pollinated by honeybees, and we’ve got a serious problem. But there is good news. Mounting scientific evidence points to a powerful class of pesticides called neonicotinoids, or neonics, as the key factor in the crisis.2 This means that a big part of the solution is simple and within our grasp – stop using neonic pesticides in our own backyards, and stop retailers like Home Depot and Lowes from selling these bee poisons. Friends of the Earth is going all in on this battle, but we need your help. Please join our fight for the future of food and make a donation today. The situation is so bad that many of us are poisoning bees without even realizing it. You see, many plants and seeds are pre-treated with neonics, which end up in pollen and nectar, and can persist in the soil for months or years. So the very flowers that we plant to help bees can end up harming or killing them. It’s ironic that, despite the severity of the crisis, and the simplicity of the solution, our own EPA has delayed action on neonics until 2018. That’s why we are going after retailers directly. If they know that their customers don’t want bee poisons--literally in their own back yards--we can force them to stop selling these toxins. Please give as generously as you can and take advantage of this opportunity to double the impact of your gift. The first $15,000 raised will be matched dollar-for-dollar. Standing with you, Lisa Archer, Food and Technology Program Director Friends of the Earth
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 17:12:27 +0000
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