Public Eye Awards 2014
Bees thank you for the massive support!
The Public Eye Awards call on people all over the world to choose the worst case of offences against the environment and human rights
Once again this year, the Berne Declaration (BD) and Greenpeace presented the awards. Just behind the winner Gazprom, Syngenta, Bayer and BASF, companies producing among others systemic pesticides entering the flowers and poisoning bees, ranked 2d thanks to the votes of thousands of citizens!
These bee killers companies have been nominated by 'Bee Life European Beekeeping Coordination' with the support of the ‘Alliance to Save the Bees and Agriculture’ which brings together over 50 organisations, including the Greens/EFA Group.
Syngenta, Bayer and BASF have been nominated for their role in the mass-killing of bees and other essential insect pollinators through their bee-harming pesticide business and for their highly biased approach to scientific research, whereby they select only the scientific evidence that matches their objectives. As a result of this, political and public debate is twisted in order to protect their profits at the cost of the natural world.
The support of the public in this struggle against the use of harmful pesticides is essential. It encourages beekeepers to continue taking actions against systemic pesticides, to protect bees, the environment and at the end, human health. Facing the current economic model dominated by finance, policy measures must be taken; citizens and companies must act as well to put in place an agricultural and economic model, which work with the Nature. A first measure to be taken is the full ban of systemic pesticides toxic for bees, and the development and the implementation of non-chemical alternatives for farmers.
In the future our society will have to evolve towards an agricultural model, on a human scale, aiming to maintain the harmony of ecosystem and enabling bees to live and continue contributing to the biodiversity of our planet, as they have been doing since millions of years.
As Francesco Panella, President of Bee Life commented on this shameful ranking of the bee killing companies saying that it 'symbolically demonstrates the concern of a large number of people on pesticides and on the quality of the food they eat. It also demonstrates the wish for a change in order to build a food system that leaves room for bees'.<xml></xml>
