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Give Bees a Chance!
A battle won, but the bees are not saved from the terrible triple P
This week is the second European Bee Health Week, dubbed BeeODiversity, and it involves a conference Wednesday 5th June in the European Parliament (EP) and a fancy exhibition outside parliament all week long. The Greens/EFA group welcome every public event, debate or policy that aims to help protect bees and biodiversity, but find it quite odd that amongst the sponsors behind the organisation of Bees Biodiversity Network are pesticide company BASF and several French grain cooperatives that belong to one of the most intensive users of pesticides in the European farming sector. The Bees Biodiversity Network diverts the discussions towards less controversial risk factors such as pathogens or the lack of nutritional sources. These are certainly important factors in bee health. However, we have observed that this Network's intentions are to completely neglect any consideration of the impact of agro-chemicals and the current industrial model of farming on bees health.
Furthermore, the Bees Biodiversity Network represents no-one and nothing within the European or French beekeeping sectors or civil society. A bee health week sponsored by a company that sells products that are co-responsible for bee decline? That's way beyond green washing! The Greens/EFA group have therefore, with the support of some MEP's from other political groups, sent a letter, co-written by the European Beekeeping Coordination, PAN-Europe and Apis BruocSella, to the whole EP.