Sandra Bell
New Member
That sidesteps the issue. Would FOE be prepared to acknowledge and participate in an impact assessment i.e. what the alternatives are?
Yellowbelly has a valid point. The loss of osr to flea beetle means there is less osr grown now in favour of less open flowering crops. Who is the real loser in this? Some disorientated bees or all pollinating insects? I host 48 hives here for someone who has 650 hives in total. Osr is the difference between him being a professional beekeeper and an amateur one. Last year he made 29 tonnes of honey, 16 of which came from oilseed rape crops. He would rather see the same area of osr grown with neonic seed dressings and risk some bee losses instead of half the area grown without.
There is very clear evidence that neonics harm wild bees - and wild bees actually do more pollination than honey bees. On the benefits of OSR as a flowering crop its worth looking at this CEH study which concluded that:
"As a flowering crop, oilseed rape is beneficial for pollinating insects. This benefit however, appears to be more than nullified by the effect of neonicotinoid seed treatment on a range of wild bee species." Dr Ben Woodcock, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
http://www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-media...icides-linked-wild-bee-decline-across-england