Government breaks promise to maintain ban on bee-harming pesticide :
A pesticide believed to kill bees has been authorised for use in England despite an EU-wide ban two years ago and an explicit government pledge to keep the restrictions.
Following lobbying from the National Farmers' Union (NFU) and British Sugar, a product containing the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam was sanctioned for emergency use on sugar beet seeds this year because of the threat posed by a virus.
Conservationists have described the decision as regressive and called for safeguards to prevent the pollution of rivers with rainwater containing the chemical at a time when British insects are in serious decline.
[...] A Defra spokesperson said: "Emergency authorisations for pesticides are only granted in exceptional circumstances where diseases or pests cannot be controlled by any other reasonable means. Emergency authorisations are used by countries across Europe.
"Pesticides can only be used where we judge there to be no harm to human health and animal health, and no unacceptable risks to the environment. The temporary use of this product is strictly limited to a non-flowering crop and will be tightly controlled to minimise any potential risk to pollinators."
In the final line of its background statement, Defra added: "Protecting pollinators is a priority for this government."
(Score: 2, Interesting) by driverless on Monday January 11 2021, @09:47AM (6 children)
You're really stuck with neonics and systemics, there are some classes of insects that can't be controlled any other way, but the problem is that the same insecticides are deadly to bees. In particular many sucking and chewing insects can only be dealt with by systemics, but almost all of them have been banned for general use. With neonics it's something slightly different, they're a lot safer than alternatives like organophosphates but particularly deadly to bees.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @03:48PM (3 children)
Your "stuck with" is shorthand for "Stop thinking about alternatives while we make money destroying our biosphere"
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday January 11 2021, @04:08PM (2 children)
If it's so easy to come up with a replacement for neonics and other systemics then why haven't you done it and made billions from it?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @05:55PM (1 child)
Oh, I don't know, perhaps because he's not an organic biochemist? Does that satisfy your question, dipshit?
Now STFU unless you have something constructive to add. Your "if it's so easy why don't you do X" bullshit has no place in an intelligent discussion. (Then again, neither do you, so just GTFO.)
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday January 12 2021, @08:56AM
And neither does your childish response - I can see why you would want to post as an AC.
He asked a reasonable (and constructive) question - if the solution is so easy there are a multitude of companies that could have made a fortune by introducing it. But they haven't done it and the logical deduction is that the solution is NOT that easy. And if the solution is as easy as was being suggested then it wouldn't need an organic biochemist to solve it now, would it?
(Score: 2) by RedIsNotGreen on Monday January 11 2021, @04:02PM
I have to side with sibling AC here, "stuck with" is bullshit.
The other bullshit/red herring argument here is the bees. It makes it not sound like such a big deal.
But the bees are just the tip of the iceberg, thousands of insect species are affected, and not just in the fields but all around, and the result is the biosphere (which we are part of and rely on to live) being wiped out even faster.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 11 2021, @06:10PM
Neonics really do a great job of controlling bee populations. You're right, we probably can't control the bees any other way. /sarcasm
(Score: 3, Touché) by FatPhil on Monday January 11 2021, @10:16AM
That's not much of a pesticide, then.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @11:44AM (7 children)
Ok, so the article says 'A pesticide believed to kill bees has been authorised for use in England....
Now, yes, from the article, apparently this is about English sugar beet crops, but in practice it's about British (Scotland, Wales, England) crops, we can't say it'll be UK (in it's usual shorthand meaning) wide, as that staunchly Unionist part of the UK, Northern Ireland, has amusingly been annexed by the EU at the behest of the Irish Republic...('No Surrender!' eh?)
I'd assumed that the Scottish parish council masquerading as a government would have been against this, being pro-EU, but apparently they'd been actively campaigning to delay the initial ban...doffing their caps to the lairds and the landed gentry with the vested interests...
(ISTR the animal welfare laws applicable in whatever parts of Britain do not apply to invertebrates, so they can't be used to challenge this.)
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Monday January 11 2021, @12:34PM (6 children)
On Scotland - this emergency auth is for sugar beet, are you sure they even grow sugar beet in Scotland, I'm not ?
(It's not that they can't, there is clearly land in Scotland suitable for growing root veg, but it's probably all in use for "neeps" which are turnips, or swede, or swedes that are called turnips or visa versa, best to just stick to "neeps").
(Score: 1) by Wakaranai on Monday January 11 2021, @02:00PM (2 children)
Most of the sugar beet in the UK is grown in the east of England, close to British Sugar's 4 remaining processing plants (in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Nottinghamshire).
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Monday January 11 2021, @02:20PM (1 child)
I know, I grew up within olfactory range of one of those processing plants :-)
(Score: 1) by Wakaranai on Wednesday January 13 2021, @01:56PM
Sounds whiffy!
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday January 11 2021, @04:10PM (2 children)
They only grow haggises in Scotland, and since insects run away from those there's no problems needing insecticides.
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Monday January 11 2021, @08:36PM (1 child)
Erm, what? For a start it's "nae problem", not "no problem", and "ye'll not be needing insecticide" is what they tell the tourists (along with "the wee beasties'll nae bother ye"). Then when the tourists actually get there in summer and meet the wee beasties they have to buy the Scottish insecticide at tourist prices, thus contributing handily to the balance of payments...
Always, always take insecticide to Scotland, and lots of it, the midges there are a whole 'nother species and not a pleasant one. Whether the Scottish midges evolved to deal with the Scots or visa versa is a matter of debate...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @10:41AM
Ah yes, the old 'no true Scotsman is bothered by the midgies...', after several millennia of being bitten by the wee bampots they've developed antibodies which alter the 'taste' of the blood
One wonders if there are midgies who, when they get together, swap stories
Midgie1: 'oh, I had some rather nice Taysider the other night, 21 years old, very smooth...'
Midgie2: 'couldn't compare to the 35 year old Islay I had....'
Midgie3: (looking very peely wally) whatever you do, avoid weegies, any vintage....'
The Scots love tourists, as, the midgies, given the choice between local or foreign exotic food sources, foreign exotic wins every time, less 'problematic' antibodies in the blood maybe...
...oh, and beware suspiciously cheap holiday accommodation anywhere near lochs, no matter how spectacular the views are...
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday January 11 2021, @01:19PM (2 children)
How is an insecticide meant to help against a virus? I even RTFA and it is never mentioned. Is virus yellows disease spread by bugs?
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @01:28PM
Many are, so I would second your guess.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by choose another one on Monday January 11 2021, @02:27PM
Spread by aphids. One expert quote: “unprecedented levels of aphids” in spring 2020.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 11 2021, @08:42PM
grow them in a green house and filter the intake air for bugs. what gives these companies the right to kill *our* aphids? maybe i love aphids.