An open letter from Neal’s Yard Remedies calling for Boris Johnson to reverse the Government’s decision to lift its ban on harmful neonicotinoids has received wide support from over 50 businesses and organizations.
The letter requests an immediate reversal of the decision in January by Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice to remove the ban on the ‘bee-killing neonicotinoid, Cruiser SB (thiamethoxam)’ for emergency use in sugar beet seed to prevent beet yellows virus.
“This reintroduction of the toxic pesticide, which was prohibited under UK law in 2018 except for emergency circumstances, goes directly against the advice of Government experts who say it poses an unacceptable threat to bees and pollinators,” the letter reads.
It adds that as well as destroying pollinators and playing a direct role in the decline of bee species, neonics are also harmful to rivers, people and the environment, and urges the Government to entirely ban on the use of neonicotinoids in the UK.
This reintroduction of the toxic pesticide … goes directly against the advice of Government experts who say it poses an unacceptable threat to bees and pollinators
“We are incredibly concerned about the devastating effects of pesticide use on wildlife, people and the planet. In 2011, together with our partners Friends of the Earth and Plantlife UK, we delivered to No. 10 a petition signed by 117,000 that led to the ban of neonicotinoids in the UK … As a collective of environmentally conscious British businesses and organisations, we are doing our part. Now we are calling on the Government to implement a total ban on the use of neonicotinoids in the UK.”
The letter also states granting the use of neonics fails to meet the Government’s ‘own legal requirement to halt species loss by 2030, as set out in the Environment Act in 2021’.
Anabel Kindersley, co-owner of Neal’s Yard Remedies, says the letter received an ‘overwhelmingly positive response with signatures growing from eight to over 30 in just 48 hours’. Kindersley, along with, Jayn Sterland (Sustainable Beauty Coalition chair and Weleda UK MD), Millie Kendall OBE (British Beauty Council CEO), Rob Percival (Soil Association) and Lucy Siegle (environmental writer and broadcaster) hand delivered the letter to Downing Street on Friday 25 March.
The signatories are:
- Neal’s Yard Remedies
- Aromatherapy Associates
- Balance Me
- Bamford
- Beauty Bible
- Beauty Kitchen
- Beauty Kubes
- Blomma Beauty
- Bloomtown
- Botanicals
- Bramley
- British Beauty Council
- Bumblebee Conservation Trust
- By Sarah London
- BYBI
- Cultured
- Daylesford Organic
- Ecovia Intelligence
- Evolve Organic Beauty
- Forage Botanicals
- Friends of the Earth
- Formula Botanica
- Green People
- Greenpeace
- Into the Wylde
- Kind2
- Kinn Living
- Loopeco
- Lush
- Made For Life Organics
- Marie Claire
- NATRUE
- Natural Products News
- Nourish London
- Odylique
- Pai Skincare
- Pestle & Mortar
- Pukka
- Riverford
- Sheepdrove
- Skin Insight
- Skin & Tonic
- Sofia Latif
- Soil Association
- Sustainable Beauty Coalition
- The Body Shop
- The Organic Pharmacy
- The Wildlife Trusts
- Therapi
- UpCircle
- Viridian Nutrition
- Weleda
- Wilder Botanics
- Wildfarmed
- Yeo Valley
