*SAMPLE TEXT TO YOUR STATE LAWMAKERS*
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Dear State Lawmaker,
Please ban neonicotinoid insecticides (neonics).
Neonics are what is causing honey bee colony loss. This problem, which started as soon as neonics were widely used in agriculture, continues at alarming rates.
In the 2022-2023 season, commercial beekeepers saw a mortality rate of 48.2 percent in their hives, almost as bad as the 2020-2021 season with the highest loss rate ever reported (50.8%).
That’s according to BeeInformed.org, which surveys U.S. beekeepers and maintains state-by-state data.
What began with the collapse of bee colonies has become a full-on insect apocalypse that scientists say is “tearing apart the tapestry of life”, devastating bird populations, harming deer and rabbits, impacting human health and threatening the future of foods that rely on pollinators.
The U.S. agricultural landscape is now 48 times more toxic to bees than it was 25 years ago and crop yields for apples, cherries and blueberries are already being reduced by a lack of pollinators.
Why? Because of Bayer’s business model: genetically modified seeds soaked in bee-killing neonic insecticides.
In the 1980s, Bayer invented synthetic neonicotinoid compounds that could be applied to the seed of a plant and remain effective for the plant’s entire lifespan.
By 2004, Bayer had agreements with the top genetically modified seed companies to coat their seeds with massive amounts of neonics.
By 2007, 80 percent of the corn seed sold by market-leader Pioneer (Monsanto’s rival-cum-partner) was treated with Bayer’s clothianidin-based Poncho.
By 2008, Colony Collapse Disorder was a worldwide problem.
Today, nearly all corn seeds and about half of soybean seeds are coated in neonics.
Bayer takes advantage of the fact that, in the US, seed treatments aren’t regulated as pesticides. Seed treatments used to be measured in overall neonic use, but the US Geological Survey started leaving them out in 2014.
That’s crazy, because just one corn seed can hold enough neonics to kill a quarter-million bees!
At the end of 2023, Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law New York’s Birds and Bees Protection Act to ban neonicotinoid seed treatments on corn, wheat and soy.
The Birds and Bees Protection Act should be the law in every state.
Please work with the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators to save the bees by supporting legislation to ban the neonicotinoid insecticides that are responsible for Colony Collapse Disorder.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Your Name