As one Defra agency appears to be finally learning the painful lessons of IT rollouts gone wrong, another seems to have walked into the same trap. Co-op bans pesticides to save bees
THE Co-operative supermarket will prohibit the use of eight pesticides on its fresh produce from today (Wednesday, January 28).
The measure is part of a ten-point strategy designed to help reverse the rapid decline in the British bee population.
The retailer will no longer use neonicotinoid-based pesticides on its own-brand fresh produce after their implication in bee colony reduction.
Head of social goals at the Co-operative Paul Monaghan said: “Nature’s number one pollinating machine appears to be breaking down and no one knows for sure why.
“Last week the Government finally accepted that there was a problem, however, we are still not seeing any real recognition that pesticides could be a contributory factor.
“The great thing, though, is that we can all do our bit to turn things around.”
Since the Co-operative’s pesticide policy began in 2001 suppliers have reduced pesticide use and 98 pesticides have been prohibited.
Source:
Arable News
Readers' comments (2)
Satyabroto Banerji | 28 January 2009 2:02 pm
Restrictions on systemic insecticides during flowering will help honeybees. However, there is no point in banning neonicotinoids as seed dressers. I urge Co-op to consider this matter. Further, more needs to be done to introduce genetic vigor in colonies with inbreeding.
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Nigel Allam | 29 January 2009 12:23 pm
There is a bit of science missing from this prohibition (it is NOT an outright ban as reported).Not all neo-nics affect bees, in fact one of the safest insecticides for bees is a neo-nicotinoid!
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