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Protecting the pollinators: EU regulations and organic farming

by
31 May 2013

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From the Revd Professor Martin Henig
Sir, - Anthony Bush ( Letters, 17 May) misses the point in lauding his success in oilseed-rape production without the aid of honey bees. The debate over the use of pesticides and the culling of badgers is not, in fact, a dispute between "townies" and country folk.

Rather, it is about our own attitude, as Christians, to God's wonderful Creation. Having read Psalm 104 in our churches at Pentecost, is a time for us to reflect that badgers and bees are not commodities for us to dispose of as we think fit. You may get a good crop from some plants that rely on wind to pollinate flowers, but that is no comfort at all to fruit farmers and beekeepers, or, indeed, to anyone who values the general harmony of nature. And bovine TB has surely been disseminated more by greedy farming practices than by badgers, who are simply victims of human arrogance.

Psalm 104, Genesis 1, and very many other passages in scripture teach us that we must learn to live in harmony with creation rather than in our arrogance to try to master it. In a world where too often animals, our sisters and brothers in creation, are treated with such appalling indifference and cruelty, it is at least heartening to see that so many people, including many Christians, have rallied to the cause of protecting the natural world in the realisation that badgers and bees are also loved by our Father in heaven.

MARTIN HENIG
16 Alexandra Road
Oxford OX2 0DB

From the Revd John Greenway
Sir, - Anthony Bush implies that those who favour the ban on some neonicotinoid insecticides are "townies" ignorant of countryside values. As one of them, I say that it is the indifference to countryside values of industrial farming which is causing the problem.

The ban (partial and short-lived) is being implemented at the behest of the European Union despite opposition from the British and some other governments and (as would be expected) the agrochemical industry. I was one of many who signed petitions for it because I was convinced of its scientific validity. There is a worldwide decline of pollinating insects, which include honey bees, bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies, beetles, butterflies, and moths. If this decline is not checked, it will be disastrous for production of the estimated one third of food crops which require pollinator services.

The causes of pollinator decline are not fully understood. It is clear, however, that industrial farming methods are to blame, because they have transformed the landscape from modestly sized fields with hedgerows, long grass, and wildflowers, in which pollinators can nest and feed, to vast areas of chemically sodden monocrops that are hostile to them. The causes of decline include insecticide poisoning, but also losses of habitat and food sources.

Banning neonicotinoids cannot be a whole answer. The best remedy would be to go organic, because organic is more wildlife friendly, and so would preserve pollinators better. Failing that, there are mitigating programmes that could be used more extensively than they are. A programme, Integrated Pest Management, seeks to reduce chemical inputs on farms to what is really necessary - by encouraging natural predators to reduce pests, and by encouraging old-fashioned crop rotations to discourage diseases. Leaving uncultivated margins around fields can encourage predators while providing long grass for bumblebee nests and wildflowers for pollinator food.

Gardeners and local authorities can help by leaving areas of grass long and by planting wildflowers in suitable spaces. Churches can help by enabling areas of long grass and wildflowers in churchyards. There is an organisation, Living Church-yards, which promotes this, and which has claimed to have more than 6000 sites doing so.

JOHN GREENWAY
73 Northmore Road, Locks Heath
Southampton SO31 6ZW

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