Don't confuse the issue with facts

So the eco-warriors and the bee-huggers got together for a protest in Parliament Square last Friday. The aim of the stunt was 'to grab the weekend headlines and pile the pressure on' ahead of an EU vote on banning neonicotinoids pesticides. The demo was called 'The March of the Beekeepers' which sounds impressive, except for one small detail; the British Beekeepers Association with it's 23,000 members wasn't involved! Clearly the green lobby is prepared to play fast and loose with the facts in it's ongoing war with the agro-chemical industry.

So why do UK beekeepers appear unconcerned - after all pesticides are wiping out the bees, right?
Well, actually we don't know because the available data are 'unable to demonstrate deleterious effects of neonicotinoids on honey bees managed by beekeepers in the UK.' Moreover, beekeepers are worried that an outright ban might encourage the use of older pesticides that are known to harm honey bees.

Of greater concern are bee diseases and habit degradation. You might have guessed - it's the ag-industry again, but this time it's trashing the environment with endless acres of monoculture ...except you'd be wrong.

Most beekeepers in the UK keep their hives in urban and suburban environments and the bees do very well  thanks to gardens providing all-year-round forage. But with in-fill development we are rapidly destroying these habitats.

What to do - march on Parliament and ban builders? No, just grow better plants and trees for pollinators, don't trim the privet hedge when it's in bloom, and let the clover grow in your lawn rather than trying to kill it with herbicides; it will have far more benefit for bees than banning those pesticides.