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| Pro Bee MP |
Following up behind Hedge End Town Council's practical measures which I proposed last March, Huhne, along with local Tory Caroline Noakes and Labour's Alan Whitehead formed a cross party consensus calling on the Government to help stem the “alarming decline” in bee numbers.
Friends of the Earth is calling for a National Bee Action Plan to save the threatened bee species. Bees are vital to the environment, agriculture and the economy. Alongside habitat loss and changes to our weather and climate, bees are being killed off by widely used neonicotinoid pesticides.
FoE have worked out that if bees disappeared it would cost British farmers at least £1.8 billion a year to pollinate their crops by hand - which would cause food prices to rocket.
Labour MP Dr Whitehead made this commitment: “I am extremely concerned about the rapid decline in British Bees. They’re not only an iconic part of our countryside, they play a vital role in pollinating our crops and flowers too. It’s great news that Friends of the Earth is creating a buzz about these crucially important insects – I’ll be doing all I can to help protect our bees in 2013.”
Strangely Chris Huhne's own web site is not featuring this photo opportunity, preferring to show him pulling a pint of Australian lager.
See also: Hedge End's Pro-Pollinator Policies
and Lib Dems 1 Countryside 0
Photo credit: Friends of the Earth
I met a lot of bee keepers last "summer" and they were in no doubt that there are huge problems. Some have reported a 90% drop in honey production. If that is happening to domestic bees it's probably worse for wild bees. UK apple growers have reported the poorest harvest for 15 years because there weren't the bees around to pollinate the trees. If it all comes down to more imported honey and imported apples in the shops, that to me is a bad thing.
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