Today in an ad running in the New York Times and six other major news outlets, NRDC is joining with a coalition of partners to call on the EPA to impose a moratorium on harmful pesticides that are contributing to the severe decline of bees in our country. This week the European Union is adopting such a ban, based on the overwhelming evidence that several neonicitinoid pesticides are either directly or indirectly harming bees. The EPA has said that it will review these pesticides as part of its regular review process – a process that will take up to 5 years or more – but we know that these pesticides are affecting bees now.
The EU ban follows our Thanksgiving weekend. We should have been giving thanks to bees for the bounty on our tables--a third of our food supply depends on bees. It’s time for the US to realize that the bees can’t wait, and if we want to keep being thankful for our food, neither can we.
