Plan to ban pesticides harmful to bees

BRITAIN: Farmers in Britain will be banned from using their most effective pesticides under plans from the environment secretary that reverse the government’s previous position.

Michael Gove signalled that the UK would support a total ban on neo-nicotinoid pesticides across the EU because of growing evidence they harm bees and other pollinators.

The EU banned the pesticides on flowering crops in 2013 in a move opposed by the UK. Now Gove wants the EU to go further and ban them on non-flowering crops that do not attract bees, including wheat and sugar beet.

The National Farmers’ Union said a total ban would lead to declining yields because alternative pesticides were much less effective, partly because aphids had developed resistance to them. Neo-nicotinoids are used on about 1 million hectares of UK farms.

Gove is expected to support a European Commission proposal banning them on all crops except those grown in greenhouses. He said that recent scientific evidence showed the risk to pollinators was ‘‘greater than previously understood. I believe this justifies further restrictions. We cannot afford to put our pollinator populations at risk.’’

The wider ban will remain in place after Brexit unless the scientific evidence changed, he added.

Gove justified the reversal of the government’s position by pointing to updated advice from the UK Expert Committee on Pesticides, an independent panel of scientists. They reviewed recent studies and said the evidence showed that neo-nicotinoids had ‘‘an unacceptable effect on honeybee health’’ and were ‘‘relatively persistent in the environment’’. They were found in various plants visited by bees, not just the crops they were intended to protect.

The committee cited research published last month which found that three-quarters of the honey produced worldwide had neonicotinoid residues. It said there was some evidence of risk to pollinators from use of neonicotinoids on non-flowering crops but there was a ‘‘paucity of published, peer-reviewed studies’’. It concluded that greater restrictions on neo-nicotinoids ‘‘could be justified’’ though more research was needed.

John Sauven, director of Greenpeace UK, said: ‘‘Michael Gove is absolutely right to listen to the science and back a total ban on neonicotinoids. Study after study has shown these pesticides can harm bee colonies and contaminate our environment for years.’’

Guy Smith, NFU vice president, said the evidence did not support Gove’s ‘‘abrupt change of policy’’. He said it would harm domestic food production and disadvantage British farmers.

‘‘If you reduce our ability to grow crops you simply suck in replacements from other parts of the world where they continue to be used.’’ Gove should apply the same restrictions to imported produce, he said.

The NFU said banning neonicotinoids on wheat would reduce the harvest by a million tonnes a year, the equivalent of 4.5 million loaves of bread a day. –