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To: Michael Sly, the chairman of the NFU sugar board

Stop the use of bee killing pesticides

Please do not go ahead with using the pesticide that contains thiamethoxam which kills our bees.

Why is this important?

The pesticides that contain thiamethoxam, a neonicotinoid, were banned throughout the EU two years ago and backed by the UK government at the time. The current government explicitly pledged to keep the restrictions in place once we had left the EU.

Michael Gove has previously stated that “The weight of evidence now shows the risks neonicotinoids pose to our environment, particularly to the bees and other pollinators which play such a key part in our £100bn food industry, is greater than previously understood … We cannot afford to put our pollinator populations at risk.” He also wrote in the Guardian: “Unless the evidence base changes again, the government will keep these restrictions in place after we have left the EU.”

Government pesticide advisers said it would “cause unacceptable effects to bees in flowering crops and flowering plants in field margins” and added that it would harm “birds and mammals eating seedlings from treated seed and birds consuming pelleted seed” and risked “adversely impacting populations of aquatic insects”. And Defra have stated that “Protecting pollinators is a priority for this government.”

Given all this, we must fight to save our bees and other wildlife as well as our environment. Please will you sign to give your support.

United Kingdom

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Updates

2021-01-11 23:04:59 +0000

50 signatures reached

2021-01-09 23:43:43 +0000

25 signatures reached

2021-01-09 18:50:50 +0000

10 signatures reached