Anabel Kindersley, co-owner of British beauty and wellbeing brand Neal’s Yard Remedies, is leading a coalition of over 80 British brands and organisations to cut hazardous pesticides, such as bee-killing neonicotinoids.
With the support of businesses like Yeo Valley, Lush, The Body Shop and British Beauty Council, and CEW, alongside leading environmental organisations such as Friends of the Earth, The Wildlife Trust and RSPB, among others Anabel is calling on the government to devise a clear strategy for ending the excessive use of pesticides in the UK.
In her parliamentary petition, Anabel focuses on the government’s actions to set a national target for pesticide reduction to decrease the amount used and toxicity levels and support farmers to adopt nature-friendly approaches to pest management. Neal’s Yard Remedies aims to gather 100,000 signatures for the issue to be debated in parliament and to raise greater public awareness.
Despite being banned in 2018, the government has issued emergency authorisations of neonicotinoids over the past two years to allow the use of thiamethoxam on sugar beet crop, against the advice of the Expert Committee on Pesticides and the Health and Safety Executive.
Neonicotinoids are proven to have a deadly impact on bees. According to Professor Dave Goulson, just one teaspoon is potent enough to deliver a lethal dose to over 1.25 billion bees, the equivalent of four lorryloads of dead bees. These harmful pesticides persist in the soil for years and leach into rivers, harming aquatic life. With one in three mouthfuls of food being dependent on pollinators, they are vital for our food crops and maintaining biodiversity. This is essential for the natural and organic ingredients which go into Neal’s Yard Remedies products.
Over 80 businesses and environmental organisations have joined the coalition, including The Body Shop, Yeo Valley, CEW, the British Beauty Council, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, The Wildlife Trusts and RSPB, who have come together to support in calling on the government to implement a total ban on the use of neonicotinoids in the UK.
“I have been meeting with Ministers who have advised that bringing the business voice to the debate is critical. From a business perspective, it doesn’t make sense to me that we don’t have clear strategic goals in phasing out products or ingredients which are shown to impact nature negatively. We would not compromise our standards and quality for commercial benefit, and certainly not at the expense of nature.”
Anabel Kindersley
For over a decade, Neal’s Yard Remedies has been campaigning for bees facing dramatic decline. In 2012, it launched the family favourite Bee Lovely, and since then, it has donated 3% of sales from the collection to bee conservation charities. In 2013, the company delivered its Bee Lovely petition with 117,000 signatures to 10 Downing Street, lobbying the government to ban three toxic neonicotinoid pesticides within the EU. However, this has since been overturned and needs support.
Sign the petition: https://www.standbybees.co.uk/ #StandByBees @StandByBees
Further information: https://www.nealsyardremedies.com/celebrating-10-years-of-bee-lovely.list
Supporters Include:
