A Bee in my Bonnet

How valuable are our Bee’s? In the UK, if we have to hand pollinate our crops its estimated according to new research that around £1.8bn a year will be added to food production costs and guess who will have to foot the bill; WE WILL, at the moment our Bee’s do it for free

I can hear the groans now – but consider the following 2 point’s highlighted in a recent report.

1-  Half the UK’s managed honey bee hives have gone and the extinction of our wild honey bee is a real threat and over 50% of  the designated areas studying solitary bees report a significant decline in numbers

2 – Countries such as China now have to hand pollinate their pear orchards and in the USA countless Bees are transported thousands of miles a year because there are not enough wild Bees to do the job

These figures were produced by scientists at the Reading University and the report was released by Friends of the Earth to support their new campaign.  If like me you are concerned not just for our bees but our children’s future please go to www.foe.co.uk/bees and sign the Friends of The Earth’ petition, because so far our government refuses to accept the data produced and is siding with the pesticide and neonicotinoids producers; I WONDER WHY! it appears the bench mark for acceptable levels of of neonicotinoids is ‘if it doesn’t kill the bee’s on contact it’s ok! Paul de Zylva, Friend of the Earth nature campaigner, said: “Unless we halt the decline in British bees our farmers will have to rely on hand-pollination, sending food prices rocketing.”