You may have missed it this morning, but Health Canada has announced a proposal to phase out the use of 2 Neonicotinoid pesticides in outdoor crops. This is Big News™️. canada.ca/en/health-cana…
BUT, I have some potentially unpopular opinions about how this Big News™️ is being reported on and spun, namely how everything is already being centred around bees & pollinators despite the policy being *explicitly not about pollinators*
Health Canada's proposed phase out of neonics is based on evidence that they are negatively impacting *aquatic invertebrates*, and does not consider or comment on any potential impacts they may be having on other organisms, including bees/pollinators.
Yet if you read the (surprisingly few) news reports, they are being entirely centred on bees, pollinators, and beekeepers. Frankly, this policy isn't about bees & pollinators, no matter how the broader narrative has been manipulated over the last few years.
Reporters should be talking to & quoting aquatic entomologists & ecotoxicologists, not beekeepers & pollination conservationists. This story is about the former, and the latter should be stepping back to allow a proper dialogue that is relevant to the policy, not the narrative.
Perhaps this policy will turn out to be an Eliot Ness-like means to an ends for pollinator conservation, but right now I really want to hear about the health & status of our aquatic invertebrates, and a lot less about bees.
