By Holly Royce
Did you know, that the bee is an extremely important aspect of our food production process? Those busy little guys are pollinating our food and helping our farms and gardens to thrive.
Each individual species of bee has a unique and irreplaceable role to help specific plants. For example: tomato plants need bumblebees and apple trees need mason bees.
But there is a problem and the bees are in trouble. Many species of bees have already been lost forever, with more everyday finding their way onto endangered species lists.
Two weeks ago the European Union announced a ban in the use of neonicotinoids insecticides. This massive step forward comes after an increasing number of studies linked the use of neonicotinoids insecticides with bee colony collapse disorder.
These findings have been given a real push forward by the Friends of the Earth its Bee Cause campaign, which is persuading major home and garden retailers to act on and remove neonicotinoid insecticides.
Bees cannot be replaced but as many government funded studies have proven, neonicotinoids can.
Australian beekeepers and enthusiasts are pushing for Bunnings Warehouse to remove all products containing neonicotinoids from their shelves.
An expert from the Sydney Morning Herald online explains Bunnings stance on the matter:
“Bunnings managing director John Gillam said he would wait until a review on pesticides and pollination was completed by the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicines Authority. He said the company was working ”closely” with the brand Yates, its major pesticide supplier.
‘Bunnings complies fully with all APVMA regulations and requirements and takes matters of product stewardship and safety very seriously,” he said.”
After seeing the success Friends of the Earth and others have had overseas, The Sydney Bee Club is driving a petition for the hardware giant to remove the products completely and it has already attracted more than 16,000 participants.
Now here is where you can help make a difference! Head on over and register your support for the Australian petition at: http://action.sumofus.org/a/bunnings-warehouse-bees-neonicotinoids/?akid=1691.1291973.E_CGAZ&rd=1&sub=fwd&t=1
Notes: information for this article was found through Friends of the Earth its Bee Cause campaign.
Join the movement at http://www.1millionwomen.com.au
1 Million Women 
We also need to put pressure on the government to follow the European move so that neonicotinoids based insecticides are banned here too. Otherwise, like many other chemicals banned in the US or Europe, we will end up selling the unwanted stock from the rest of the world and keep killing our wildlife!
Go for it. This has got to be a world wide campaign.
Yes as gardeners we don’t use neonicotinoids based insecticides such as confidor, We just reiterated this again today at our garden club meeting. I can’t wait to sign the petition, & to pass on this info to friends & fellow members of our garden club. We have planted more plants for bees. Yes this needs to be a world wide campaign. so we will still have bees to pollinate our food plants.
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