| Home | Bookmark | Tell | Active petitions in over 75 countries | Follow GoPetition |
Petition Tag - bees
1. Legalize Beekeeping in Torrance 
Domestic honey bees pollinate our fruit trees and vegetables and are an important and permanent part of our local ecosystem. They also produce local honey that contains the pollen of local flowers and is sought out by local residents and restaurants.
Recognizing the existence of bees and the necessity of trained beekeepers to provide safe homes for bees, cities around the United States have legalized beekeeping, including Long Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills Estates, Atlanta, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, the city of Orange and most recently New York City and Santa Monica.
Finally, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have publicly affirmed the importance of bees to home gardens by placing two bee hives conspicuously in the middle of their garden in South Lawn of the White House.
2. Support Pure Honey in New York State!
Question:Do you want honey cut with corn syrup or do you want pure honey?
Answer: Say "yes" to pure honey!
Legislation is in the NYS legislature to define pure honey (S3321). Due to adulterated Chinese honey entering the US food stream, a more definitive description of pure honey is needed. This Bill is needed to protect the image of pure honey and to protect the consumer from adulterated honey or honey pretenders.
New York beekeepers also need a level playing field to compete with cheap adulterated imports by having an established reasonable standard for all products labeled "honey".
This legislation should not affect the majority of honey producers in New York, but may weed out and discourage those seeking to sell substandard honey in New York.
This legislation has the support of major beekeeping organizations in New York and is almost identical to the California standard of identity for honey, which has been in place since 2009.
For more information see: RochesterHoney.com
3. Protect Wildlife from Pesticide Impacts
A new European Directive called the Sustainable Use Directive has been established in Europe. The Directive is currently being implemented in the UK and should promote best practice for the storage, use and disposal of pesticides.
The UK government consulted on its implementation of the Directive just over a year ago and the government’s response to this consultation was published in early 2011. This response was very weak suggesting no, or very small changes to existing pesticide mitigation measures in the UK despite the number of opportunities provided by the Directive to further reduce pesticide impacts. The government is required to implement the Directive by 25th November 2011.
We believe that the government is failing to deliver adequately to protect wildlife from pesticides impacts and that they need to strengthen implementation of the Directive.
Environmental organisations believe that the following needs to be implemented.
Phased reduction of most toxic substance (relates to Article 4)
• Process to allow the identification or flagging of most harmful pesticides to biodiversity
• Phase out/suspension plans for pesticides
• A focus on developing alternatives to those pesticides that will be phased out by the new EU Regulation and those deemed toxic to bees and other pollinators
Awareness raising (relates to Article 7)
• Leaflets which are offered prior to product sale
• Posters near the products and
• Labelling on the product
Water protection (relates to Article 11)
• Targeted voluntary safeguard zones in pesticide vulnerable areas for WFD, EU Habitats directive catchments and other biodiverse areas, backed by the possibility of regulation should a voluntary approach prove unsuccessful
• Voluntary safeguard zones should be well supported by advice, training and assessments
• A ban on blanket spraying on hard surfaces
Integrated pest management (IPM) (relates to Article 14)
• Develop a clear definition of IPM that puts the onus on non-chemical methods and builds on the principles set out in Annex III to deliver real reductions in pesticide use in practice
• Development of crop and sector specific IPM protocols
• Development of extension and outreach services to assist farmers in implementing IPM
• The addition of a new IPM implementation group as a sub-group of the Pesticides Forum
• Mandatory training in IPM for all sectors
• Funding for research into IPM
The NGOs conducting this campaign are: Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust, Bumblebee Conservation Trust, CHEM Trust, PAN UK and RSPB.
4. Support Beekeeping in Boise
Boise Zoning enforcement has declared that beekeeping on vacant lots in Boise is not an allowed use.
5. It's Time Supermarkets used Solar Panels & Green Roofs
Globally, we need to reduce carbon emissions. Globally, we have reached 'Peak Oil', and are now eating into our resources.
In the UK and some other countries, one can't help but notice that Supermarket have their glaring lights on, and their fridges and feezers running, often late into the night. Yet how often do we see a solar panel or a green roof (to help wildlife) on a Supermarket?
It's time the Supermarket Giants started being more responsible. These are, after all, very wealthy organisations, and they can afford it.
6. Saskatchewan "Day of the Honey Bee"
Honey Bee populations all over the world are mysteriously dying and scientists do not understand why. There are many theories ranging from microbes, pesticides, genetically modified crops, to cell phones, to mites, to radiation not to mention water and air pollution. Why are so few concerned by this??
Bees are responsible for the production of a large majority of our food crops. WE EAT VEGGIES BECAUSE OF BEES!!!
Albert Einstein predicted that if something eliminated bees from our planet, mankind would soon perish.
We need to raise awareness of this problem - WHY ARE THE BEES DYING? The Honey Bee feeds the entire world and The Honey Bee is in trouble. All over the world they are dying from unknown causes (Colony Collapse Disorder). There are many theories but we just don't know. Some sources suggest that up to 70 percent of the food crops are pollinated by Honey Bees!!
If the honey bee Dies, There will be BILLIONS more starving people!
I propose that the City of Saskatoon and the people therein recognize May 29, 2010 as the first annual day of the Honey Bee to help raise awareness of CCD.
7. Legalize Beekeeping in NYC!
CAMPAIGN UPDATE (MARCH 16, 2010)
Success!!! The Board of Health voted today in favor of lifting the ban on honeybee-keeping in NYC!! Thanks and congrats to all who supported the campaign! ~ Nadia
ARCHIVED BACKGROUND
Question: What do cities like Atlanta, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, and Vancouver have that NYC does not?
Answer: Legalized beekeeping.
Bee keeping is currently illegal in New York City. The New York City Health Code under Section 161.01 prohibits the possession, keeping, harboring and selling of “wild animals.” This ban, in it’s listing of “all venomous insects” includes bees and in doing so outlaws beekeeping.
Honeybees are garden heroes! Honeybees help gardens grow more fruit and vegetables and produce sweet honey. They are nature’s best pollinators and contribute to productive harvests in community gardens, public parks and nature centers.
In order to improve the health and well-being of our urban environment and populace, Just Food proposes that honeybees be removed or exempted from Health Code 161.01.
To find out more about the benefits of legalized beekeeping, read our honeybee fact sheet at: http://justfood.org/issues/
8. Save the Bees and the Human race
By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross
Published: 15 April 2007
It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.
They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.
The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.
The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.
CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.
Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."
The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".
No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks.
German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines.
Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.
Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: "I am convinced the possibility is real."
