UK Lifts Ban on Pesticides that Harms Bees Despite Scientific Advices

After authorities approved an emergency exception, a pesticide prohibited owing to its danger to bees will be used on sugar beet in the United Kingdom this year. Campaigners termed the government's decision "scandalous" since it overruled its scientific advice.

Queen Bee Produces Own Sperm, So There's No Need for 'King Bee' — Worker bees surround a queen, who is marked with a yellow spot on her back, in the colony of beekeper Reiner Gabriel in the garden of his home near Berlin on April 25, 2013 in Blankenfelde, Germany. Local beekeepers claim their yearly loss rates within their bee populations has gone from an average of 10% per year to 30% per year over the last 10 years, though they are unsure whether the cause lies with a mite and a virus it might be spreading or with the increased use of certain pesticides by local farmers. According to a recent report prepared by Greenpeace seven pesticides currently in use in Europe present a real danger to bees. Bees are essential in nature in pollenating a wide variety of plants and trees. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Following a Series of Studies

After a series of studies indicated that the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam harmed bees, it was banned across Europe in 2018. However, British Sugar requested an emergency exception granted on Tuesday once the requirements were completed.

A nationwide projection of the percentage of the crop likely to be affected by viral yellows, an aphid-borne illness, predicted a level of 69 percent, significantly higher than the 19 percent threshold that had been set.

Exemption

In 2021, the exemption was also granted, but it was not applied because the virus yellow forecast turned out to be low. According to the government, the virus will reduce sugar beet yields by 2020.

The Wildlife Trusts' chief executive Craig Bennett said that the authorization to use this bee-killing pesticide is outrageous. The government has stated its goals for restoring nature and reversing the decrease of valuable animals.

However, it is also approving the use of a highly hazardous chemical that might harm pollinating insects and contaminate soils and waterways."

He believes that we must restore the natural environment and gradually wean ourselves off of chemicals in agriculture. "It's past time the government listened to their scientists who have stated they can't support the use of this herbicide because it's simply too harmful," the Wildlife Trusts said. According to the Wildlife Trusts, the virus yellows forecast has also been inaccurate in the past.

The poisoning of rivers and flowers in eastern England with fatal pesticides this summer, to the detriment of bees, mayflies, and many other species, is disturbing, according to Buglife's Matt Shardlow. Although expert advises, neonicotinoids are justifiably banned, and these approvals must come to a halt.

Decision

A representative for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs stated that the decision to issue an emergency permission was not made lightly and was based on strong scientific evaluation.

They carefully assess the dangers and only issue temporary emergency pesticide authorizations in exceptional cases where strict standards are satisfied, and there are no other options.

All sugar beet producers must comply to the strong stewardship policy that has been agreed upon by the Health and Safety Executive, according to the British Beet Research Organisation.

Plant Growth

According to the report, flowering crops that attract pollinators could not be produced in pesticide-treated areas for 32 months following treatment.

In January, when the exemption was approved in principle, George Eustice, the environment secretary, wrote: "The dosage level at which no harmful effects on bees occur is unknown."

As a result, even with a 32-month exclusion, it was not feasible to rule out a degree of risk to bees from flowering plants in or near the field in the years after neonicotinoid use.

Homegrown sugar beet accounts for almost two-thirds of the sugar consumed in the United Kingdom. Twelve EU nations have provided emergency approvals for neonicotinoid usage in the past three years, including France, Belgium, Denmark, and Spain.

The weight of data now reveals the hazards neonicotinoids bring to our ecosystem, notably to the bees and other pollinators who play such a critical role in the £100 billion food sector, Michael Gove, then the environment secretary, stated in 2017. They can't afford to jeopardize pollinator numbers.

Insect populations worldwide are dying "by a thousand cuts," in part owing to pesticides, according to the scientists behind a book of papers released in 2021, and many are dying at "frightening" rates that are "tearing apart the fabric of life."

According to a 2017 research, virtually all farms could considerably reduce pesticide use while still producing the same amount of food.