Ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides before they devastate bee populations in the USA

To: Environmental Protection Agency

We urge the EPA to ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides from being used on crops and in household products to protect nature’s hardest workers, bees.  Europe just banned these pesticides for two years and there is still time to save bees in the USA if you take action now. 

Neonicotinoid,...

We urge the EPA to ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides from being used on crops and in household products to protect nature’s hardest workers, bees.  Europe just banned these pesticides for two years and there is still time to save bees in the USA if you take action now. 

Neonicotinoid, known as “neonics” for short, is a farm pesticide produced primarily by the German chemical giant Bayer, widely used in the U.S. to coat a massive 142 million acres of corn, wheat, soy and cotton seeds. They are also common ingredients in many home gardening products. However, three new studies link neonics to declining bee populations nationwide - fully a third of commercial beehives, over a million colonies, have disappeared over the past year. 

150,000

144,566 people signed the petition

Healthy bee populations are essential to the production of our food. Bees are attracted to floral nectars and help pollinate the plant, allowing it to reproduce. Therefore, without honey bees, our lives would be impoverished by a general lack of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and other bee-pollinated plant products like corn, apples, oranges, lemons, broccoli, onions, blueberries, cherries, avocados, and many more. Unfortunately, our widespread use of neonicotinoid pesticides is causing a dramatic decline in honey bee populations. 


The USDA projects that this year's corn crop will cover 94 million acres, all of which will be planted with seeds treated with neonicotinoid pesticides. In small doeses these pesticides damage the bees' immune systems and homing abilities; in large doses the pesticides are lethal.  The pesticide works as a nerve poison, infecting their insect victims and interfering with their homing ability, which in turn prevents them from making it back to their hives. 
Sign the petition to put pressure on the EPA to ban the use of these pesticides in order to protect the long-term health of our food system!

Click to find out more about or nation's bee populations and the imminent threat posed by neonicotinoid pesticides: 

Update on May 30, 2013

New Report Details Mounting Bee Losses (http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=10504) Beyond Pesticides, May 13, 2013 According to preliminary results of a survey (http://beeinformed.org/2013/05/winter-loss-survey-2012-2013/) by the Bee Informed

Update on May 02, 2013

We Came, We Swarmed . . . Will We Conquer? Bee-decked in black and yellow and armed with 130,000 petition signatures, a swarm of activists buzzed the Washington D.C. headquarters of the EPA on Earth Day to demand a ban on Bayer, Dow and Syngenta's bee-killing

Update on March 20, 2013

Join the Earth Day Swarm to Ban Bee-Killing Pesticides What better way to celebrate Earth Day than to act to save honeybees from toxic pesticides? Let's swarm the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with demands for a ban on the pesticides that are killing

Recent Signatures

  1. 144,566
    Maria Lancaster United Kingdom
    26 mins ago
  2. 144,565
    1 hr ago
  3. 144,564
    Almuth Tebbenhoff United Kingdom
    1 hr ago
  4. 144,563
    Drusi Megget Australia
    2 hrs ago
  5. 144,562
    Rachel Charlotte Ramshaw United Kingdom
    2 hrs ago
  6. 144,561
    Graham Barnett United Kingdom
    3 hrs ago

Discuss the petition

1,295 comments have been posted

Invite friends to sign the petition

Thank you for helping to save honey bees!

Spread the word by inviting friends

Please choose at least one friend.
You must give Causes permission to post on your behalf to share on your timeline.
You must give Causes permission to your friends' locations to find them.
Your message is too long.

Selected friends ()

Personal message

Share

0 of 1 batches sent

Check the "Don't ask again" box below and you won't have to confirm the next time you send invitations

Remind your friends to sign this petition