Neonicotinoids

[embee]

Just when you think it's about as bad as it can get, some s**t-for-brains f**kwit in Westminster thinks it'd be a good idea to wipe out the insects.
https://www.gov.uk/government/public...eat-sugar-beet
Thank heavens we've left the EU and can now wreak carnage in our own green and pleasant land by reintroducing banned poisons to kill off the remainder of the bee population. Oh joy.

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by embee

Just when you think it's about as bad as it can get, some s**t-for-brains f**kwit in Westminster thinks it'd be a good idea to wipe out the insects.
https://www.gov.uk/government/public...eat-sugar-beet
Thank heavens we've left the EU and can now wreak carnage in our own green and pleasant land by reintroducing banned poisons to kill off the remainder of the bee population. Oh joy.

I wrote to my MP (for what it's worth) a couple of weeks ago about this expressing my alarm - especially since BoZo had said we wouldn't use it - I know, I know - a Tory breaking his word, shocking.

Whilst I'm not defending the government, the EU have been a bit duplicitous about this too. They announced a ban a while back but didn't announce there were exceptions that could be applied:
https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/202...-ban-loophole/

[embee]

In that case, a plague on all their houses.

[Red Herring]

I listened to an interesting interview on the radio about this the other day. The basic facts presented were that a greenfly has decimated around 80% of the UK sugar production this year and this measure is necessary to halt this. Around 50% of the UK's sugar demand is home grown.

So the options were....

Reduce our sugar demand by around 40%.

Import more sugar to fill the gap.

Increase our sugar production five fold so we can carry an 80% loss of yield..........

Use the dreaded chemical......


I'm guessing you don't like the last option, so do you support one of the others or is there an alternative I've missed?

[Grant66]

I'm kind of liking the "use less sugar" option.


Sent from an S20 using Tapatalk with that kin cr4p blocked

[embee]

Originally Posted by Red Herring

I listened to an interesting interview on the radio about this the other day. The basic facts presented were that a greenfly has decimated around 80% of the UK sugar production this year and this measure is necessary to halt this. .....

Presumably that was as reported here?
https://www.ragus.co.uk/uk-sugar-beet-harvest-2020/

[DJ123]

Originally Posted by Grant66

I'm kind of liking the "use less sugar" option.


Sent from an S20 using Tapatalk with that kin cr4p blocked

My guess is the less natural sugar would = more chemicals/additives as replacements.

[Red Herring]

Originally Posted by embee

Presumably that was as reported here?
https://www.ragus.co.uk/uk-sugar-beet-harvest-2020/

Not seen that and it does seem to rather suggest there isn't a problem....

I'm not an expert on this, I simply heard an interview about it on the radio whilst I was working in the garage the other day and the person explaining the case for the use of the chemical made a far better job of it than the person complaining about it. Now it may have been that it was an unfair match but one would like to think they wouldn't get away with exaggerating the problem to the extent that that linked article suggests?

[Red Herring]

https://www.ragus.co.uk/emergency-ne...horisation-uk/


But this report, from the same source as the one in the previous post seems to explain the circumstances and justifications.

[Craig380]

We obviously need more ladybirds, but not those foreign chlamydia-infected ones