[ExI] US government sued over use of pesticides linked to bee harm

[BillK]

Beekeepers, conservation and food campaigners accuse Environmental
Protection Agency of failing to protect the insects
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/22/us-government-sued-pesticides-bee-harm>

The lawsuit accuses the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of
failing to protect the insects – which pollinate three-quarters of all
food crops – from nerve agents that it says should be suspended from
use. Neonicotinoids, the world's most widely used insecticides, are
also facing the prospect of suspension in the European Union, after
the health commissioner pledged to press on with the proposed ban
despite opposition from the UK and Germany.

"America's beekeepers cannot survive for long with the toxic
environment EPA has supported," said Steve Ellis, a Minnesota and
California beekeeper and one of the plaintiffs who filed the suit at
the federal district court. "Bee-toxic pesticides in dozens of widely
used products, on top of many other stresses our industry faces, are
killing our bees."
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BillK