Syngenta and Bayer's Comprehensive Action Plan to Unlock EU Stalemate

[prakel]

http://www.americanbeejournal.com/site/epage/81673_828.htm




Syngenta and Bayer CropScience today proposed an action plan to help unlock the EU stalemate on bee health. This follows the failure of the European Commission to reach agreement with Member States on an appropriate response to EFSA’s report on the theoretical risk to bee health from neonicotinoid pesticides.

[gavin]

They're talking the language that perhaps would have been better coming from government. Number 4 is certainly an industry activity perhaps 5 should be shared between industry and government. However, much of the rest should be coming from government. Maybe that is their intention - they do some and governments join in? Several countries have been doing number 2, and some do it well, but not in the UK. All sounds relevant and good to me though.

The key features of the action plan are:

1. Significantly scale up the creation of pollen rich, flowering field margins across the EU to provide essential habitat and nutrition for bees.

2. Support for the establishment of a comprehensive field monitoring program for bee health including the detection of neonicotinoid crop protection products – particularly in maize, oilseed rape, sunflower and cotton.

3. Mandatory implementation of strict measures to mitigate the exposure risk to bees; these are currently already recommended by the manufacturers and effectively applied by most farmers as good agricultural practice.

4. Investment in and implementation, at the earliest opportunity, of new technologies which further reduce dust emissions from the planting of seed treated with neonicotinoid crop protection products.

5. Further investment in the research and development of new solutions for the main factors impacting bee health, which include parasites and viruses, and establishment of area-wide long-term pilot studies which demonstrate their effectiveness.