Published on
Équiterre would like to set a challenge. Help us reach our goal of 35,000 signatures for the call for action It’s time to ban bee-killing pesticides! by the end of June! The signatures—24,000 so far—will then be sent to the Quebec Department of Sustainable Development, the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change.
Did you know that bees pollinate two thirds of food crops? That almost all foods rich in vitamins and minerals that keep us alive depend on these little insects? It’s high time to act, just like Europe and Ontario.
Impact of neonicotinoid pesticides
Neonics, in use for just under a decade, are the most widely used class of insecticides in the world, accounting for 40% of the market. In Quebec, almost all corn seed and 30% of soybean seed are treated with neonics. That’s more than half a million hectares of farmland each year. They’re also found in certain lawn pesticides.
Bees may not be the only victims. The European Food Safety Authority has concluded that neonics may affect the development of the human nervous system. Yet these pesticides end up in rivers and wells sampled by Quebec’s Environment Department.
Ontario is currently proposing a regulation to reduce the amount of land planted with corn and soybean seeds treated with neonics by 80% by 2017. Quebec should do the same.
This is a major concern! So please act to ban the use of these harmful pesticides.
Act now and sign the call for action It’s time to ban bee-killing pesticides!
For more information on the essential role of bees, watch and share the video Where would we be without bees?
