Save the Bees — Ban Neonicotinoid Pesticides

Reader Contribution by Staff
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MOTHER EARTH NEWS’s sister magazine Utne Reader has just published an excellent report on new evidence that the systemic neonicotinoid pesticides widely used to grow corn are one of the reasons so many honeybees

and other pollinators are dying. One study has shown that the suspected residues of neonicotinoid pesticides in high fructose corn syrup (fed to bees by commercial beekeepers) can cause honeybee hives to die out.

We should all write to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and demand that they cancel all registrations for neonicotinoid pesticides immediately. Leaked EPA memos on one neonicotinoid called clothianidin show that even this government agency doubts the validity of studies showing the pesticide is safe.

Utne’s report doesn’t tackle the huge question raised by this discovery of pesticide residues in corn syrup — What about the effects on humans who eat huge amounts of food containing corn syrup and many other corn products? Persistent, systemic pesticides simply have no place in food production. The reasons to grow your own food just keep growing.

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