PARIS ? The European Commission will enact a two-year ban on a class of pesticides thought to be harming global bee populations, the European Union¹s health commissioner said Monday.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization notes that 71 of the 100 crops that provide 90 percent of human food are pollinated by bees. Estimates of the value to those crops run to as much as $200 billion annually.
Under the European measures, which take effect Dec. 1, there will be sharp restrictions on three neonicotinoid pesticides ? clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiametoxam ? for treating seeds, soil and leaves on flowering crops attractive to bees, like corn, sunflowers and rapeseed, the source of canola oil. The products may still be used on crops like winter wheat for which the danger to bees is deemed to be small. Use by home gardeners will be prohibited.