The member nations of the EU voted for a near-total ban of neonicotinoid insecticides, over the objections of farmers and pesticide manufacturers. Known as neonics, the chemicals are the most widely used class of insecticides in the world and have been linked by scientific studies to the decline in honeybees and other pollinators, said BBC News.
Since 2013, the EU has restricted use of three major neonicotinoids, imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam, on crops that include corn, wheat, barley, oats and rapeseed. “The newly agreed [European] Commission regulation goes much further, meaning that almost all outdoor uses of the chemicals would be banned,” said the BBC. “Growers will only be free to use neonicotinoids in greenhouses across the EU, despite some environmental groups having reservations about the chemicals leaching into water supplies. Other neonicotinoids, including thiacloprid and sulfoxaflor, will continue to be exempt from the ban.”
Some environmental campaigners say the EU action will lead to an era in which environmental safeguards are more important that farm output, said the BBC. Farm groups, such as Britain’s National Farmers Union, said the EU partial ban did not help bee populations so the new restrictions are not justified.