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Bee keepers abuzz over pesticides cash
BEE keepers are gathering for what promises to be a stormy conference this weekend, including a showdown over whether they should take money from pesticides manufacturers.
A strong anti-chemicals wing wants nothing to do with a business it blames for startling losses of honey bees.
But the pragmatists, led by the national executive of the British Beekeepers' Association, (BBKA) say they have to work with farming as it is, the case against chemicals is unproven and some beekeepers use a few themselves.
The row mirrors the argument between environment and farming lobbies over proposed new EU rules on pesticides which threaten to outlaw some farmers' favourites.
Various compromises have been proposed and the European Parliament is scheduled to debate them on Monday and vote on Tuesday.
For many of 200-odd BBKA delegates gathering in Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, today for their annual meeting, the most important motion of the day is one which calls on their executive to stop taking money for giving a stamp of approval to products which appear to be bee friendly. The income concerned has been estimated at 20,000 a year but the BBKA leadership says it is less.
Phil Chandler, who runs a website for the "natural" lobby with 700 subscribers, was outraged when he heard about the deal and has been running a scathing campaign against it.
He is part of the broader "green" coalition which says the EC proposals should not be watered down in Strasbourg next week because any curtailment of pesticide use is a good thing.
Tom Robinson, the delegate for most of Yorkshire, said yesterday: "I am mandated to listen to the arguments and make my own mind up."
He and his family run 100 colonies in the York area and lost a third of them in 2008. But he thinks that was down to a variety of problems, including the weather, and government scientists would have sounded the alarm if they were finding chemicals in the dead bees they get sent all the time.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
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Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
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