Bee Craft beekeeping news update

(DEFRA) £4.3 MILLION BEE HEALTH FUNDING INCREASE ANNOUNCED

Research funding
£4.3 million to safeguard and undertake more research into the health of bees was announced by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn on Jan 21st 2009. Mr Benn said that nearly £2.3 million over the next two years would support the work of the National Bee Unit in its efforts to help England's beekeepers deal with the problems facing their bee colonies. This will include identifying all those who keep bees and providing expert advice to them on tackling pests and diseases and applying good husbandry. In addition, Defra will put an extra £400,000 towards bee health research every year for the next five years. This extra funding - a total of £2 million - forms part of a comprehensive bee health strategy, which is under development.

Losses
Over the last two years Britain's bee colonies have suffered significant losses due to a combination of potential issues including the weather, the varroa mite, and other factors requiring further investigation by researchers.

Mr Benn said:
Speaking at the Royal Society of Chemistry,

"Bees are vulnerable to a number of threats. Pests and diseases, when combined with poor summers can leave colonies unable to survive the winter. "We must get to grips with this, to see just how serious a problem it is, what the impacts on pollination are, and what we can do in response. So today I am announcing an additional £4.3 million of funding, targeted at bee disease surveillance, education and research."

Mr Benn also highlighted the important role science will have to play in producing enough food to feed nine billion people by 2050, while simultaneously protecting the environment.

"We must ensure that in meeting demand today we don't destroy our ability to feed ourselves tomorrow. We're trying to find ways of producing more food, for more people, using less energy, less fertiliser and less pesticide, while producing fewer greenhouse gases - and we've got to do all that with limited land and limited water.

"I believe that we have the knowledge and the technology to do this, but the perfect storm of climate change, environmental degradation and water and oil scarcity, threatens our ability to succeed. It is science that will help steer us through that storm."

And the CO-OP is chipping in too

THE CO-OPERATIVE PROHIBITS EIGHT PESTICIDES AS PART OF RADICAL NEW ‘PLAN BEE’

and announces largest ever private donation to honeybee health research

The Co-operative Group has become the first UK retailer to prohibit the use of a group of eight pesticides as part of a radical new ten-point plan designed to help reverse the worrying decline in the British honeybee population with its launching of Plan Bee.

The Co-operative announced that it would expand its market-leading pesticide policy and temporarily prohibit the use of all eight of the neonicotinoid family of chemicals on own-brand fresh produce. These chemicals have been implicated in honeybee colony collapse and restricted elsewhere in Europe (although not as yet in the UK), and as a precautionary measure The Co-operative Food will engage with suppliers to eliminate their usage where possible, and until such a time as they are shown to be safe. 

In addition, as part of its ten-point plan, The Co-operative will make available £150,000 for research into the decline of the honeybee. This is the UK’s largest ever private donation for bee research, and will pay particular attention to UK farming practices, the impact of pesticides and the restricted gene pool bees are derived from. In the spring of 2009, The Co-operative Farms will commence a three-year research project that will seek to identify the optimal mix of wildflowers that can be sown (in field margins and on set-aside) to attract and support honeybees.

Another crucial part of Plan Bee will be awareness raising and education. The Co-operative will support the distribution of a dramatic new film that highlights the global decline in bee populations and the possible reasons behind the collapse. Over January and February, previews of the film will be shown to Co-operative members at forty locations around the UK. It will be released in cinemas across the country later in 2009.

At many of the film showings, Co-operative customers and members will receive advice on bee-friendly gardening from the RSPB, and at all they will receive free packets of specially mixed wildflower seeds and access to subsidised bee boxes and other equipment.

Paul Monaghan, Head of Social Goals at The Co-operative said:

“We can all do our bit to turn things around. We can plant and garden in ways that help the honeybee thrive.”

Simon Press, Senior Technical Manager at The Co-operative Group said: “The Co-operative Group has been working with its suppliers since 2001 to reduce pesticide use. We believe that the recent losses in bee populations need definitive action and as a result are temporarily prohibiting the eight neonicotinoids pesticides until we have evidence that refutes their involvement in the decline.”

29th Jan 2009

AWARD WINNING BEE CRAFT

Bee Craft won four gold medals at Apimondia in Australia.
Bee Craft won Gold medals for:

• the Bee Craft website; the Bee Craft magazine;
• Celia Davis' set of books - see the bee craft shop for details
• our handy Bee Craft Apiary Guides - see the bee craft shop for details.

Congratulations to the Bee Craft team.

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