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The BBC’s environmental reporter, Matt McGrath, has reported that some British MPs want to ban pesticides linked to the death of honey bees.
Bees are critical in pollinating crops, and their disappearance poses a threat to food production in many countries.
Members of the British parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee want a “moratorium on the use of sprays containing neonicotinoids”, according to McGrath’s article on the BBC website.
He noted that the Conservative government has resisted supporting a European Union ban on neonicotinoids.
But the committee chair, Labour MP Joan Walley, has argued that peer-reviewed research makes it clear that there’s a serious problem.
McGrath quoted Walley’s claim that the government has been “extraordinarily complacent”.
Earlier this year, SFU bee expert Mark Winston, director of the Centre for Dialogue, told the Straight that he's writing a book that will highlight research into the various factors behind the demise of honey bee populations.
"The problem with bees is culturally and scientifically considerably more fascinating than most of us realize," Winston said in January. "It's a problem that speaks volumes about how agriculture is done. It speaks volumes about some of the hidden costs we have because of the large number of small challenges we have in our environment.”
He revealed at the time that there is a "whole array" of factors underlying the problem, including the rise of monoculture in agriculture, diseases, some beekeeping practices, and the large number of pesticides.
"It's not going to go away until we change the way we keep bees—and to change the way we keep bees, we have to also be simultaneously changing the way we do agriculture,” Winston declared.
