Dr. Weeks’ Comment: Bee Involved? Bee Proactive! Bee happy!
Just the Beeginning
They showed up in bee costumes. Carrying Valentine’s Day cards and cookies. Singing give bees a chance. To add a little theater to the mix, some of them staged bee die-ins.
Activists in Boston, Chicago, Eugene, Ore., Minneapolis, Washington D.C. and San Francisco converged on their local Home Depot and Lowe’s stores this week with this message: Show bees some love. Stop selling garden plants coated in bee-killing pesticides.
The demonstrations were part of a national Bee Week of Action”¨which included deliveries of valentines to managers of Home Depot and Lowe’s stores, coast to coast.
The actions, organized by Friends of the Earth, the Organic Consumers Association and 10 other groups, included collecting more than a half million signatures on petitions to Home Depot and Lowe’s, and sending letters to the CEOs of both companies.
Home Depot responded this week, to say the company is working on a policy to address neonics. We’re hopeful Lowe’s will reach out soon.
This week was just the beginning of what will be a sustained campaign to educate consumers and press retailers to replace bee-killing plants with organic, pesticide-free alternatives. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here are some highlights from actions in Chicago and Minneapolis.
Washington D.C. videos here and hereӬ ӬRead the press release