Europe's Bees Could Get a Reprieve From Pesticides

Honeybees pollinate $201 billion worth of crops annually, according to the United Nations. Without them, we wouldn’t have almonds, cherries, tomatoes, nor 68 other crops that provide 90 percent of the planet’s food. That’s why it’s disconcerting that almost seven years after a sudden, unexplained plunge in North American and European bee populations first made headlines, the bees are still dropping dead. Each year from 2006 to 2011, U.S. beekeepers reported losing one-third of their colonies. Much of Europe has witnessed similar declines, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

After poring through several years’ worth of scientific studies on the possible causes of what’s known as colony collapse disorder, the agency in January stopped short of naming a culprit. It did, however, declare that three neonictinoids—widely used chemicals found in garden shop sprays to ward off aphids and beetles and in the coating of pest-repellent seeds—pose an “acute risk” to honeybees. Based on the finding, the European Commission proposes banning the chemicals—two used in pesticides made by Bayer CropScience and one by Syngenta. “What we are saying is that bee colony collapse disorder is due to a combination of factors: climate change, dangerous new predators, and so on,” says Frederic Vincent, a spokesman for the European Commissioner for Health and Consumers. Among these factors, he adds, “pesticides is one of the few we can control.”