On October 29, 2014, demonstrators in Ottawa, Ontario and Windsor, Ontario swarmed Lowe’s stores to send the retailer a strong message: its time to remove plants and seeds treated with bee-harming pesticides from your shelves! Despite science showing that plants and seeds treated with neonicotinoid pesticides are contributing to a decline in bee populations, and other retailers across North America
Sometime in the next three days, you may find yourself face to face with a bumble bee, a witch, a skeleton or some other spooky Halloween creature that’s asking you and your employer to do your part to save the bees. In the lead-up to Halloween 2014, Friends of the Earth and millions of its
The proposed regulation for the aquaculture industry misses the mark by a mile (well, a kilometre) – and what is the mark you may well ask? The Minister of Fisheries and Oceans has a duty to protect wild fish, fish habitat and Canadian fisheries waters from the negative impact of aquaculture. Why is she abdicating
Are You Getting Ready to Put Your Garden to Bed for the Winter? Kimberley Fellows, Pollination Outreach Co-ordinator for Pollination Canada, a project of Seeds of Diversity, was kind enough to contribute the following guest blog post on preparing your garden for winter. Kimberley shares some tips to keep in mind to keep your soil and
In a move for transparency, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has made public her mandate letters to the ministers of her cabinet. In this blog post, we are cherry picking points from her letters related to pollinator health. Among her opening statements she says, “The people of Ontario have entrusted their government to be a force for good,” and
The race to Paris and a binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is off to a stellar start – last week 400,000 people joined the People’s Climate March in New York, and hundreds of thousands more in 156 countries took to the streets, joining the largest and most powerful climate demonstration in global history. Friends
Whether you find yourself relaxing on a dock, beach or hammock this summer, we suggest picking up one of these books to enjoy as you unwind. The first two books we have selected are on the topic of bees, to keep with Friends of the Earth’s major campaign focus this summer. A Sting in the Tale,
Friends of the Earth would not be able to accomplish what we have without our dedicated volunteers, working to help us stand on guard for Mother Nature. Take a look at the Sudbury Earthdancers, who have chosen Friends of the Earth Canada as a beneficiary to their annual performances for the past nineteen years!
Prince Edward County took a step that all communities can take. They passed a resolution asking the federal and provincial governments to declare a moratorium on the use of neonicotinoid pesticides as soon as possible pending further study. While they are very clear that agriculture is the foundation of their municipality, they also state the
The news for honey bees is grim. Again. The Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists (CAPA) delivered their national report on winter-kill of honey bees. Ontario’s loss at 58 %, a jaw-dropping number, is homogenized into the average for the country at 25% – still considered high when compared to the “acceptable” winter losses considered to
