Bees and Cod

Today and other programmes are abuzz, as it were, with discussion of the danger posed to bees by a certain type of pesticide. It is clear that the bee population is suffering, though how much of that is down to the several years of wet weather we have (not) enjoyed is unclear. But on the precautionary principal alone I cannot see how we are willing to take the risk that these chemicals can continue to be used.

Except I can - it is the power of lobbying by a narrow interest group with a lot to lose, in this case the chemical suppliers. Years ago governments in North America took no notice of the obvious decline of the cod population on the Grand Banks. Fishery companies stated that it was a natural fluctuation; a blip; small measures would be enough to address the situation. Eventually when even pork-barrel politicians could not ignore the numbers a full ban on fishing there was imposed, but too late as the stocks have never returned to anything like their former glories. 

If we do that with bees, we lose a major pollinator and so we will lose commercial production of many fruits and vegetables - a few enthusiasts may pollinate by hand, but economically it is hard to imagine that working on farms here. I have read of parts of China where the bee population has been destroyed by pesticides, and the farmers told to hand-pollinate their trees. The lesson surely is not that there is an alternative way of pollinating, but rather  not to wipe out the bees in the first place. But today in London and Brussels MPs, MEPs and ministers will be wined and dined by lobbyists repeating their mantras - the scientific evidence is not yet, as it probably never can be, 100 per cent conclusive.