Congress: Give bees a chance!

Friends of the Earth:  Congress: Give bees a chance!

Tell your representative to support the Save America's Pollinators Act and protect our bees. Around the world, bees are dying at alarming rates. In June, 50,000 bumble bees were killed in a Target parking lot after neonic pesticides were sprayed on nearby trees -- the largest bumble bee die-off ever recorded. Then, in July, 37 million honey bees died on a single farm in Ontario.  But a new bill just introduced in Congress could give bees a fighting chance.  Tell your representative to support the Save America's Pollinators Act and protect our bees! This crisis is escalating at an alarming rate. Last winter, beekeepers from Texas to California consistently reported bee die-offs between 50-70 percent of their bees -- the worst year since the global bee die off known as Colony Collapse Disorder was recognized. Without immediate action to save bees -- which pollinate two-thirds of our food crops -- everything from almonds to strawberries could disappear from supermarket shelves. New science is pointing to the world's most popular class of pesticides called neonicotinoids (or neonics), made by giant chemical companies Bayer and Syngenta, as the key factor in this global crisis. Thanks to Representatives John Conyers (D, Mich.) and Earl Blumenauer (D, Ore.), our bees might just have a fighting chance. They've just introduced the Save America's Pollinators Act, which would suspend the use of toxic, bee-killing pesticides until a full review of scientific evidence indicates they are safe and a field study demonstrates they do no harm to bees and other pollinators.  But they need support from your representative to get this bill passed, so this is a critical opportunity for you to take action to save bees. This past spring, the European Union placed a two year ban on most neonics -- but our own EPA is dragging its feet, ignoring mounting scientific evidence and delaying action until 2018. The bees can't wait, and neither can we. Tell Congress to stand up for our bees today and support the Save America's Pollinators Act! Standing with you, Lisa Archer, Food and Technology program director, Friends of the Earth Image credit: Flickr/Stilgherrian, Creative Commons Contact us Friends of the Earth U.S. Washington DC Berkeley CA 1-877-843-8687 Contact us » Learn more www.foe.org/news » www.foe.org/about-us »