Following our protest against British Sugar last year, which garnered local media coverage, we held a talk this week on the topic of Neonicotinoids (neo-nics). We hosted the ecologist Dr Claire Wallace from the Butterfly Conservation Trust (speaking in a personal capacity) to talk us through the history, impacts of use, and current policy of this insecticide.
You can view the recording of this very informative talk here:
Neonicotinoids are banned in the UK and across Europe because of their proven harm to pollinators and other insects. Though in the UK companies including British Sugar have successfully lobbied government to allow so-called “emergency authorisation” to use Neonics every year for the past three years.
In addition to their damage to local ecology through Neonics use, British Sugar are also big carbon polluters causing climate change. The company is the 3rd largest CO2 emitter in Norfolk, following a gas plant and an incinerator. They are also the largest emitter in West Norfolk, from their Wissington plant which we targeted with our protest.
