http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/mar/15/bees-value-pollination-farming-neonicotinoids?CMP=twt_gu

9.21am GMT<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/mar/15/bees-value-pollination-farming-neonicotinoids?CMP=twt_gu#block-5142e6f495cb3037f5c827c7>
Welcome to the Eco Audit

Today, European officials are set to vote on a proposal that would see a
group of insecticides known as
neonicotinoids,<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonicotinoid> which
have been implicated in the decline of bees, largely outlawed across the
continent<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/31/eu-proposes-ban-insecticides-bee>
.

The move would be warmly welcomed by
environmentalists<http://www.avaaz.org/en/hours_to_save_the_bees/?slideshow>
who
have long argued that "neonics" should be banned. A recent poll found that
71% of Britons would support such a ban. However, Owen Paterson, the
environment secretary, has signalled he is opposed to a
ban<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/13/owen-paterson-ban-pesticides-bees>
and
appears to support the position of the insecticide manufacturers and
farming lobby who argue that banning such products would harm food
production.

The debate raises the wider question of how valuable bees, and other
pollinators, are to our agricultural economy. Can we really afford to allow
the decline of bees continue? Can you even put a financial value on the
"environmental service" provided by bees?

Please leave your own thoughts below. If you are quoting figures or
studies, please provide a link through to the original source. I will also
be inviting various interested parties to join the debate, too. And later
on today, I will return with my own verdict.


lots of opinions follow ...

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