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Dear John,
This week is National Pollinator Week -- a great time
to celebrate bees and pollinators essential for our food production and
healthy ecosystems, and to call attention to their rapid decline.
Also this week, the Obama administration issued a
memorandum establishing a new Pollinator Health Task Force. The Task
Force will conduct research on pollinator declines and create a public
education campaign to teach people how to protect pollinators. It also provides
funding to create new bee habitats in five states.
But it falls far short of what's needed.
It's encouraging that the Obama administration
recognizes the importance of pollinators for our food supply, farmers,
the economy and the planet. But this plan doesn't do enough to protect
these small but essential creatures.
It fails to take definitive action on a key factor
contributing to the bee die-offs and one they could do something about
now -- neonicotinoid pesticides.
A growing body of scientific evidence points to
neonicotinoids -- the world's most widely used insecticides that treat
140 crops -- as a key contributor to the bee declines. Recent studies
show they are also harming birds, butterflies and other beneficial
insects. Neonicotinoids can kill bees outright and make them more
susceptible to disease, pests and other stressors. Just one seed coated
in these pesticides is enough to kill a songbird.
Pollinators are in big trouble, and the administration
can't ignore the science telling us that pesticides are harming bees.
Clearly, the U.S. must follow the lead of the European Union, which has
placed a two-year moratorium on neonicotinoids.
Standing with you,
Tiffany Finck-Haynes and Lisa Archer
Food and technology program
Friends of the Earth
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