Bayer

Details: Published on Saturday, 09 November 2019 07:02; Written by editor

Bee defenders are in a crucial court battle against the pesticide lobby -- but they’re running out of money in the final stages of this fight.

If we lose, it’ll be game over for the bees.

Can you please chip in to help the bee defenders win this case?

If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:

Donate CA$92 now Donate CA$138 now Donate CA$184 now Donate another amount

A small, brave coalition of beekeepers is taking on pesticide giant Bayer in court to save the bees.

They’re rapidly running out of money at this crucial time and they need your help to win this case.

If we lose, it could mean a world where Bayer and its friends get free rein to sell bee-killing pesticides again that decimate bee populations.

That would be game over for the bees.

Lawyers are telling us that right now it could go either way. Earlier this year, SumOfUs members like you chipped in so beekeepers could hire the best lawyers to win this case. But lawyers don’t come cheap and now beekeepers are facing a stack of unpaid bills. They need your donation for the final stages of the court battle.

If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:

Donate CA$92 now Donate CA$138 now Donate CA$184 now Donate another amount

We need to protect the bees and other pollinators: over a billion jobs depend on them, and you have a bee to thank for every one in three bites of food you eat.

But the threat of large-scale bee-deaths is looming large thanks to bee-harming pesticides called neonics.

In 2018, SumOfUs members across Europe celebrated a huge win when the EU listened to us and decided to protect the bees and ban three neonic pesticides. But Bayer’s court case threatens that win.

Bayer is challenging a previous, partial ban on bee-killing neonics from 2013 -- before we got our big win last year. If Bayer is successful, it’ll undermine the main arguments that led to last year’s complete ban, leaving that wide open to be challenged in court too.

The beekeepers of the Bee Defender Alliance are our main hope to defeat the pesticide lobby. They are the voice of beekeepers and independent scientists.

But they’re up against Bayer in court -- a powerful and wealthy corporation that can strong-arm the European Commission to get what it wants.

A donation from you would go a long way towards protecting the bees -- paying for top-notch lawyers and other resources that the beekeepers need to win.

If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:

Donate CA$92 now Donate CA$138 now Donate CA$184 now Donate another amount

We may never have as much money as the big corporations, but SumOfUs members like you have shown that when we stand together we punch above our weight.

Hundreds of thousands of you pushed France to become the first country to ban the chemicals responsible for the global bee die-off.

Together, we’ve sent beekeepers to confront Bayer’s corporate executives at its annual shareholder meeting. And we’ve forced big hardware chains across the world to stop selling neonics.

We then worked around the clock to get Canada to join France in banning neonics, achieved a European ban on first three then four toxic neonics, AND we stopped U.S. grocery store giants like Kroger from selling bee-killing products.

If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:

Donate CA$92 now Donate CA$138 now Donate CA$184 now Donate another amount

Thanks for all that you do,
Rebecca, Tricia and the team at SumOfUs

More information:

EU to ban pesticide that is deemed harmful to humans and the environment, Environmental Journal, 28 October 2019
EU court upholds insecticide ban to protect bees, Reuters, May 17 2018 (the ruling that Bayer is now appealing against)
'Far-reaching consequences': Bayer to appeal against EU verdict neonics, Farming UK, 30 July 2018
Agri giant under pressure to drop appeal on neonicotinoids ban, Euractiv, 9 August 2018

SumOfUs is a worldwide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.

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