The hives in the Po Valley are flourishing again - so what's really holding up the banning of neonicotinoids?

In 2009, Italy's neonicotinoid-free corn sowing resulted in no cases of widespread bee mortality in apiaries around the crops. This had not happened since 1999. Francesco Panella, President of the Italian Association of Beekeepers, says: "On behalf of beegrowers working in a countryside dominated by maize crops, I wrote to the Minister of Agriculture to confirm the great news, for once: thanks to the suspension of the bee-killing seed coating, the hives in the Po Valley are flourishing again." Not true in Southern Italy, where bee mortality was high in citrus groves, which were sprayed with neonicotinoids, also used in vineyards and other crops. So what's really holding up the banning of neonicotinoids? As a beekeeper says, "A fifth grader can figure this out."

Source: www.treehugger.com , 15 May 2010
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/nicotine-bees-population-restore...

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