Even while bees die in their millions, Malcolm Turnbull's government isn’t doing anything.

On December 1, the European Union imposed a two year ban on neonicotinoids, the pesticides manufactured by Bayer that scientists have tied to the massive global bee die-off. It’s a bold step and not a moment too soon. With up to a third of all honeybees vanishing each winter, beekeepers are saying that we are “on the brink” of losing our crops’ vital pollinators.

However, the Australian government agency in charge, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA), has been dragging its feet for years. And now under Malcolm Turnbull’s government, we can expect even more concessions to the chemicals industry. We need a pollinator-friendly policy now, to ensure a safe, sustainable environment for future generations.

Tell the Turnbull government and the APVMA to protect the bees, and enact sensible restrictions on bee-killing pesticides now.

It’s not an exaggeration to say we owe our prosperity and even our survival to millions of bees. Bees are responsible for pollinating over 30% of world’s food supply, and they help generate over hundreds of billions in the global economy. And bees are dying worldwide. This summer, a shocking 37 million bees were reported dead across a single farm in Canada. Bee die offs aren’t one off incidents -- in China, the situation has gotten so bad that farmers are forced to hand-pollinate their trees.

SumOfUs have been right at the front of the global campaign to save our bees. Over 360,000 of us have already demanded that Bayer drop the lawsuit to stop the two-year neonicotinoid ban in Europe. We also came together to fight Bayer at a huge independent garden store show in Chicago, where the German chemical maker was out in force. Tens of thousands from the Australian SumOfUs community also took action to demand that big stores like Bunnings Warehouse stop selling the bee killing chemicals. Now, we need to ask the APVMA to take action to save the bees.

The Turnbull government is well known for being friendly to corporations, and you can bet the pesticide manufacturers are shovelling cash at lobbyists in order to continue selling their poisonous products in Australia. But we're not here to protect corporate profits, we're here to protect our ecosystem to ensure our future. Join in today to protect Australia’s ecosystem.

Demand the Australian Pesticide Authority take action on protecting our bees.

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More Information:

Bee die-offs: New tests find bee-killing pesticides in bee-friendly plants from garden centers nationwide, Friends of the Earth, August 14 2013.

(Photo credit: Benny Kennedy)