-
By Katherine Paul and Ronnie Cummins
Organic Consumers Association, February 14, 2014
When the honeybees, our most important food pollinators, started dropping like proverbial flies, scientists scrambled to identify their killer (or killers). Attention eventually turned to the increased use of a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. Scientists now believe at least some of these pesticides play a major role in Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the ongoing demise of honeybee colonies.
Who makes the neonicotinoids? Syngenta, Bayer CropSciences and Dow Agrosciences.
Who's using them, and for what purpose? Companies like Monsanto, Bayer, Dow Agrosciences . . . in the herbicides and pesticides and seeds they sell to farmers who grow genetically engineered crops. Crops that eventually end up in our food, or in the feed used to fatten up animals in factory farms-animals we slaughter for food.
We need bees in order to grow food, or at least some of it. Yet the food-GMO food, drenched in neonics-we are growing is killing the bees.
It's not just the bees that are dying. Butterfly and bird populations are in decline, too. And it's not just the neonicotinoids that are to blame. Other herbicides and pesticides, especially Monsanto's Roundup, used to grow GMO crops-and also used to contain (kill) weeds in cities and home gardens-are decimating pollinators, fish and wildlife, and some would argue, humans, too.
As consumers ask more and more questions about the impact of GMO foods and crops on our health and environment, we're making smarter choices about the foods we choose to eat. Does my child's cereal contain sugar from genetically engineered beets? Did that steak on my dinner plate come from an animal raised on a factory farm, and fed a diet of Roundup-ready GMO corn, canola, soy or cotton seed?
But we need to look at the bigger picture, too. That means calling for an end to the use of Monsanto's Roundup in urban areas, on our lawns, roadways, schoolyards and parks. It means paying close attention to the seeds and garden plants we buy for our home gardens.
It means asking ourselves what can we do to pressure Monsanto, Dow, Syngenta, and Dupont's customers, both rural and urban, into understanding that their widespread, reckless use of neonics and other toxins is destroying our food, soil, water, air and wildlife? And that organic, sustainable, non-chemical alternatives exist?
It means asking ourselves, how do we force food manufacturers to stop using these poison-drenched GMO crops in their processed food products? How do we get through to the politicians who protect the interests (profits) of pesticide and junk food makers, at the expense of all else? Before it's too late?
We do it by making intelligent and ethical buying decisions. By boycotting the corporations who refuse to hear us. But voting out the politicians who sell us out to the industry lobbyists who fund their political campaigns.
We do it by all of the above. Over and over again.
Bee Week of Action just the bee-ginning
February 16 marks the end of a national Bee Week of Action. This week, more than 27,000 activists, coast to coast, delivered valentine cards to managers of Home Depot and Lowe's stores, and handed out bee education leaflets to store customers.
The actions, organized by Friends of the Earth, the Organic Consumers Association and 10 other groups, focused on pressing Home Depot and Lowe's to stop selling garden plants pre-treated with neonicotinoids. OCA and our allies also collected more than 650,000 signatures on petitions to Home Depot and Lowe's, and sent letters to the CEOs of both companies. Home Depot responded this week, saying that it is "working on" a policy to address neonics. We're hopeful, that with enough pressure, Home Depot and Lowe's will take these killers off their shelves and promote organic alternatives.
Our goal this week was to draw attention to the plight of honeybees, the damage caused by neonics, and the fact that consumers-most of them unknowingly-contribute to the problem when they purchase plants that may attract bees, only to kill them.
It's a strong campaign. One that OCA is committed to supporting until Home Depot and Lowe's end the sales of bee-killing plants.
But the problem is bigger than bees. The use of neonics isn't limited to garden plants. Neonics aren't the only toxins killing bees. And bees aren't the only victims of agribusiness's chemical assault on the environment.
As the bees go, so goes our food CONTINUE AT SOURCE
