The European Union (EU) is split about neonicotinoids, and it’s still split after this week’s vote. But the European Commission has decided to go with the ‘ban’ view! There’ll be no neonics on our land after the end of 2013, for two years. Britain can’t opt out of the ban.
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About argylesock
I wrote a PhD about veterinary parasitology so that's the starting point for this blog. But I'm now branching out into other areas of biology and into popular science writing. I'll write here about science that happens in landscapes, particularly farmland, and about science involving interspecific interactions. Datasets and statistics get my attention. Exactly where this blog will lead? That's a journey that I'm on and I hope you'll come with me.
Reblogged this on Ann Novek–With the Sky as the Ceiling and the Heart Outdoors.
Thank you. Good news eh?
Great result! Thanks for publicising it.
You publicised the anti-neonic campaign, iirc. As well as the one about fisheries discards.
I got in quickly with today’s news about neonics because my beloved is a newshound. I’ve been marking students’ work all day but she came upstairs to my study, telling me what she’d just heard about neonics on the telly news headlines.
Jolly good!
Incidentally, I saw a piece on neonics on Countryfile recently, and they were rather disingenuous about it – they showed neonic treated seed (rather pretty actually, shiny and blue :)) and while they didn’t outright *say* that this was the only way neonics were used, the piece seemed to suggest that it was – certainly that particular farmer claimed to be using the seed as a more targeted way of using pesticides than spraying and at no point did they mention that neonics *are* also used in sprays.
Biased reporting, methinks 😦
I’d like to say that I’m disappointed by that reporting, but in fact I’ve been forming a low opinion of Countryfile. They raise interesting topics then skate over them, changing topic just when they’ve got my attention, and ignoring many of the controversial points. When I see their neonic piece, I’ll add it to the pile of weak reporting, along with their piece on tidal and wave power which ignored the costs (financial, ecological, social) of the huge colourful machines they showed. Boys’ toys in the worst meaning of that phrase.
I hadn’t seen Countryfile for a while (I was at my Mum’s house and she watches it) so I hadn’t realised it was heading that way. I suppose we can’t expect in-depth coverage from that type of magazine programme, but not being actually misleading would be good….
Well, quite! I started watching it because I’d like my blog here to appeal to the intelligent general reader, as Countryfile appeals to the intelligent general viewer. But I think that sometimes, that programme insults its viewers’ intelligence. Otoh it’s very popular so it must be doing something right.
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