Help is coming for bees. On November 25, 2014, the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change announced it would be working towards a goal of 80 per cent reduction in the number of acres planted with neonicotinoid-treated corn and soybean seed by 2017.
Neonicotinoids (neonics for short) have been linked to bee deaths from corn and soybean seeds planted and treated with neonics, and the Ontario Environmental Commissioner has called for immediate action. Municipalities have started to take action on their own to reduce the use of these pesticides, as we reported earlier. Bee keepers have started a class action law suit against Bayer AG and Syngenta AG, for over $400 million dollars in losses allegedly caused by neonicotinoid pesticides. Beekeepers had hoped for regulatory control of neonicotinoids by the spring of 2015.
We applaud the provincial government for promising to take action on this issue, and aiming to improve the health of bees and other pollinators. But is there no action that can be taken before 2017?
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