Posts Tagged ‘Save the Bees Info & Petition’

Save the Bees, Please!

Sunday, June 23rd, 2013
My friend Honey sent this and the petition below. Please read & sign.
PROVIDENCE, R.I., June 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – One of every three bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honeybees and other pollinators. Yet, major declines in bee populations threaten the availability of many fresh ingredients consumers rely on for their dinner tables. (Top half of photo below is produce with bees and other pollinators; lower half, without the participation of bees and other pollinators. es)

To raise awareness of just how crucial pollinators are to our food system, the University Heights Whole Foods Market store temporarily removed all produce that comes from plants dependent on pollinators. They pulled from shelves 237 of 453 products – 52 percent of the department’s normal product mix.
Products removed included:





  • Apples
  • Onions
  • Avocados
  • Carrots
  • Mangoes
  • Lemons
  • Limes
  • Honeydew
  • Cantaloupe
  • Zucchini
  • Summer squash
  • Eggplant
  • Cucumbers
  • Celery
  • Green onions
  • Cauliflower
  • Leeks
  • Bok choy
  • Kale
  • Broccoli
  • Broccoli rabe
  • Mustard greens

    • To help support honeybee populations, for every pound of organic summer squash sold at Whole Foods Market stores from June 12-25 the company will donate 10 cents to The Xerces Society for pollinator preservation.





“Pollinators are a critical link in our food system. More than 85% of earth’s plant species – many of which compose some of the most nutritional parts of our diet – require pollinators to exist. Yet we continue to see alarming declines in bee numbers,” said Eric Mader, assistant pollinator conservation director at The Xerces Society. “Our organization works with farmers nationwide to help them create wildflower habitat and adopt less pesticide-intensive practices. These simple strategies can tip the balance back in favor of bees.”
Whole Foods Market offers four more ways to “bee part of the solution.” Details are online at www.wholefoodsmarket.com/sharethebuzz.  (I Checked out this link. Worth reading! es)

Petition for Saving the Bees

Ban Honeybee Killing Pesticides

Ban Honeybee Killing Pesticides

Here is the link to the petition: http://forcechange.com/67251/ban-honeybee-killing-pesticides/

By

Target: Environmental Protection Agency

Goal: Ban the use of honeybee killing pesticides

Honeybee populations were down a third in the Spring of 2013. This is no surprise due to the widespread use of deadly pesticides known as neonicotinoids, or nics. Nics are an indirect cause of colony collapse, a plague that is killing bee colonies throughout the country. When honeybees are exposed to nics they experience a crash to their senses, their ability to navigate, forge, and communicate are devastated, reproductive patterns are thrown off, and their immune systems are severely weakened. With their defenses down they are extremely susceptible to natural predators such as mites and fungi that rip through beehives.

In the past year there has been an overwhelming amount of research released linking massive honeybee die-offs to the use of nics. In April the European Union banned their use for two years despite the forewarned loss of crops and profits. Fortunately, France has had a ban on nics for years with no severe consequences. Here in the USA no such ban is taking place despite heavy concern from scientists and citizens alike.

The EPA has known of the danger nics pose to honey bees for years. In 2010 an EPA document was leaked revealing that the EPA had already studied the affects of nics on honeybee colonies. The conclusion: honey bee colonies died when exposed to nics. There is a long list of crops that depend on honeybees for pollination. Now that the EU has banned nics it is time for the US to do so as well. Let’s tell the EPA to ban nics, thus saving our bees and our food.

© Copyright 2013 — ForceChange. All Rights Reserved.


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