Please support the EU's ban on Bayer's bee-killing pesticide

Readers,

In just 3 weeks, Bayer could succeed in defeating the bees' best chance of survival -- by overturning Europe's landmark ban on the pesticides that are killing them.

Increasing scientific evidence, including that behind the European ban, shows that Bayer's neonics are behind the global bee die-off. But despite the evidence and huge public pressure, Bayer is refusing to drop its lawsuit against the European ban -- telling SumOfUs in a letter that the decision was "rushed" and that it that undermines Bayer's "legal certainty".

The European ban is due to go into force on December 1 -- but not if Bayer gets its way. If they succeed in forcing the EU to drop its ban, it won’t just be a setback for bees in Europe. It could mean the end of attempts to save the bees all over the world from these deadly pesticides.

That's why we need to step up now with our plan to save the bees. In the next 3 weeks,we need to show massive public support for the ban to push the EU to stand strong and show Bayer's investors that there's a cost to ignoring science. If we don't, then the bees' best hope could die with them in 3 weeks' time.

Can you stand with the bees now and chip in $4 to fund this plan?

We all know the bees as a key part of the food chain. Bees are responsible for pollinating over 30% of world’s food supply, and they help generate over $20 billion in economic activity in the US alone. It’s not an exaggeration to say we owe our prosperity and even our survival to millions of bees.

That's why we need to act now. We need to keep a lot of our plan under wraps -- we don’t want to let our corporate foes know what we’re planning to do. If we reveal our plans in advance, Bayer, Syngenta, and their cronies are going to work hard to thwart them -- and we've already been threatened with corporate lawsuits for campaigning to save the bees. But we'll plan on rolling out things like prominent, public-facing stunts or ads outside Bayer or European Commission HQs, bringing on legal superstars to get the public into the courtroom, and keeping up the pressure on the retailers who sell Bayer's poisons.

Bayer's plan is clear: they'll fight tooth and nail to overturn this landmark ban, knowing that even if they fail, they'll terrify European officials and make sure they don't renew the ban in two years' time, and scare the rest of the world into inaction. That's why it's so crucial we stand up now: if we don't keep showing the depth of public support for saving the bees, companies and governments around the world will conclude that there's no public pressure for action.

If we all come together now, we can save the bees' last hope. Can you chip in just $4 now to stand up to Bayer's bullying?

We’ve been right at the front of the global campaign to save our bees. Over 260,000 of us have already demanded that Bayer and Syngenta drop the lawsuit. We also came together to fight them at a huge independent garden store show in Chicago, where Bayer and other pesticide firms were out in force. Hundreds of thousands of us also took action to demand that big stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot stop selling the bee killing chemicals. Now we need to step up and defend the European ban and our plan will help us do that.

Thanks for all you do,
Paul, Martin, Angus, Rob, and the team at SumOfUs.org