Donate to save the bees from toxic greenwashing!

Do you have a right to know what’s sprayed on the garden plants you buy every spring? Apparently, you don’t!

All across Canada, more and more naturalized and pollinator gardens are springing up. Cities are amending bylaws and getting rid of outdated rules that restrict what you can plant.  There is a growing and very welcomed appetite for “pollinator friendly” plants.

Big box store retailers are cashing in by labeling plants as “pollinator-friendly”. But, are they? 

In spring 2024, Friends of the Earth Canada documented that major garden centres like Home Depot and Canadian Tire reported neonics were gone from their supply chains that grow flowering plants. This achievement took a decade of advocacy to achieve – flower testing in 2015, 2017 and 2018 with extensive petitioning and demonstrations. Thank you to all who helped with this critical work.

Now, these same garden centres are promoting “pollinator friendly plants” at their outlets. Are they really pollinator friendly we wondered.

We did an observational test of samples of nectar and pollen, leaves and soil from roots from plants promoted as pollinator friendly. You’ll know these plants – lavender, butterfly bush, purple cone flower, honeysuckle and blanket flower.

You can imagine our shock from test results that showed yes, the neonics from the past were gone BUT seven fungicides and seven insecticides showed up across 15 tested samples. Any one of these products can be dangerous to pollinators but no one has considered how lethal a combination from these residues may be.

Would you expect to buy a “pollinator friendly” butterfly bush with residues of a systemic insecticide called flonicamid?

Why exactly would a plant nursery have to use carbendazim, a systemic fungicide, on purple coneflower, a robust native plant?

Let’s be clear here – not only are these garden centres playing a shell game – allowing their suppliers to switch out neonics for newer systemic pesticides that can harm pollinators but they’re greenwashing you and me with their promotion of “pollinator friendly” plants.

We’re sharing these early testing results because we need help to mount our new “Gardeners’ right to know” campaign. We want to test flowering plants across Canada while mobilizing gardeners to demand their right to know what’s used to grow plants on offer 

We haven’t yet published the observational test results – that will happen early next year as we launch our new “Right to Know” gardeners’ campaign. Can you help? 

Will you donate to help Friends of the Earth test plants promoted as pollinator friendly this spring?

Each lab test costs $150 plus the cost of the plant and overnight shipping. Please donate whatever you can afford. Your gift will help Friends of the Earth with its three-point plan:

1. conduct flower testing across the country to expose pesticides used
2. mobilize gardeners to insist on their right to know what chemicals are used on plants offered as “pollinator friendly” and 
3. launch a legal challenge for greenwashing against companies we expose.

We’ll be grateful for whatever you can give to help save the bees.