The city council of Spokane, WA, voted Monday to discontinue government use of neonicotinoids, a controversial class of insecticides that have taken the brunt of the blame for colony collapse disorder, the phenomenon causing significant declines in honeybee populations. The vote comes on the heels of last week’s Presidential Memorandum
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White House Launches Task Force to Help Pollinators Recover
The Obama administration released a presidential memorandum last week establishing a federal strategy for reversing the declining populations of pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Over the past decade, populations of bees and other pollinators have drastically fallen, threatening the stability of a large proportion of crops worldwide which rely
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Differing Reactions to Colony Collapse in U.S. and Europe
Europe and America appear to be taking decidedly different approaches to honeybee colony collapse. The European Union just adopted continent-wide restrictions against the neonicotinoid class of insecticides called out by the European Food Safety Authority as especially damaging to bees. In the U.S., however, a newly released comprehensive scientific report
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Top European Food Safety Agency Names Suspects for Bee Colony Collapse
Europe’s top food safety agency may be closer to nailing three old suspects for a mystery that goes back almost a decade: what’s been killing off honeybees? But there is still work to do. For now, the European Food Safety Authority (EFDA) has concluded that three neonicotinoid class insecticides pose
Continue Reading Top European Food Safety Agency Names Suspects for Bee Colony Collapse