THE Scottish Greens have urged the Scottish Government not to follow the UK Government’s lead in allowing sugar beet farmers to use a bee-killing pesticide.
Earlier this week, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) approved an emergency application for thiamethoxam, a neonicotinoid seed treatment.
It was one of three treatments whose use outdoors was banned across the EU over concerns of the impacts on bee populations.
Studies suggest neonicotinoids weakens bees’ immune systems, and can harm their development, leaving them unable to fly, gather food and breed.
Defra has said their U-turn on thiamethoxam was only granted because it was “exceptional circumstances where diseases or pests cannot be controlled by any other reasonable means”.