Toxic Free NC is proud to announce its support for the Keep the Hive Alive Tour, scheduled to start June 2016! This beekeeper-led tour, spanning six cities across the US (including Raleigh, NC), will expose the issues facing beekeepers in the US today, how regulatory agencies could do more, and how industry has to own up to these bee toxic pesticides.
The Tour will occur right before and during 2016 National Pollinator Week. We aim to give pesticide companies, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the general public an accurate portrayal of the impact bee-toxic chemicals have had on the livelihoods of American beekeepers. The Tour will travel across the United States, holding rallies and events to raise awareness about pollinator decline, and end up at the EPA to rally our supporters, and urge action on bee-toxic pesticides to safe guard our food supply.
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We want beekeepers, consumers, food advocates, environmental advocates, and anyone who cares about the future of our food supply, and our planet, to attend events and rallies at tour stops across the country (especially in NC!).
As a visual representation of the large number of bees that die every year, we ask that beekeepers bring their preserved dead bees or emptied out bee boxes to the rallies. The bees and representative boxes will then continue the tour, where we will drop them off at the Bayer Bee Care Center here in Raleigh, and host a memorial to all the bees that have died. We will also use them for a similar visual display at EPA’s headquarters a few days later to kick off National Pollinator Week.
Pesticide companies profit in billions of dollars each year manufacturing the most commonly used bee-toxic pesticides. As research linking toxic-pesticides to pollinator decline grows, pesticide manufacturers like Bayer and Syngenta, have launched misinformation campaigns trying to convince people the company’s care about bees. While many of the large ag-chem companies have poured money into PR campaigns, in attempts to spin the science, Bayer took it a step further, building a “bee-care” facility in North Carolina and conducting a “bee care” tour across the country— to promote itself as a bee-friendly corporation, while doing everything in its power to delay regulatory action on the pesticides it manufactures to protect its profits.
The goal of the tour is to expose the truth about pesticide manufacturers like Bayer; educate the public of the dangers of bee-toxic pesticides; share the stories of beekeepers whose livelihoods have been jeopardized (and some lost) by the continued use of these products; and urge our EPA to take action to protect the health of pollinators and protect them from bee toxic pesticides.
The tour consists of a collaborative group of beekeepers, consumers, and environmental and food advocacy non-governmental organizations (NGOs), demanding strong action be taken to regulate and restrict the use of bee-toxic pesticides that harm pollinators and the environment. We believe the pesticide manufacturers need to take responsibility for their role in the massive honey bee die-offs. Let’s work together to Keep the Hives Alive!