Honey, I shrunk the bee population
HONEY, I SHRUNK THE BEE POPULATION
Freeth Cartwright, the leading Midlands legal firm, is assisting Tony Spacey, whose Littleover Apiaries in Derbyshire is the largest commercial honey producer in the UK, to air his concerns regarding the catastrophic decline in wild bee numbers and the poor health of the farmed bee population.
After consultation with the firm’s food sector group, Mike Copestake, partner at Freeth Cartwright, said: “Honey is advertised as a health product and is seen as such. It seems that yet again we are facing the situation of too much bureaucracy, particularly from the EU. We want to help give Mr Spacey the opportunity to give an airing to a particular issue that has had little public debate.”
Mr Copestake continued: “Recent Government pronouncements and press reports on this issue have highlighted the need to regulate the husbandry methods used by the UK’s 44,000 British beekeepers. Mr Spacey’s forthright views have brought him into conflict with organisations representing amateur beekeepers but he is adamant that future Government policy must address the need to raise standards of hygiene and veterinary care in this vital sector of British agriculture.”
Representatives of British beekeepers including the British Beekeepers Association are calling for Government action to fund scientific research into effective treatment as part of their response to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ recent consultation on its strategy for improving the health of bees in the UK.
However Mr Spacey believes that the spread of verroa in the UK was ‘predictable’ and its impact could have been reduced had the methods of husbandry followed by commercial beekeepers been followed by amateur beekeepers.
Mr Spacey said: “I am the largest honey producer in the UK and have not lost a bee colony in four years because I do not use chemical treatments and antibiotics in my hives. I believe that the unregulated and indiscriminate use of such treatments by thousands of amateur, largely untrained, beekeepers has reduced the natural immunity of their bees to verroa and to other diseases of the bee population like nozemia resulting in minor bee ailments becoming killers against which the bees have no natural defences.”
Mr Spacey has been particularly critical of the widespread and unprescribed use of the carcinogenic chemicals naphthalene and paradie chlorobenzene which leave traces in the honey produced. Consequently exports of British honey have been affected because much of the production does not meet EU health standards.
Mr Spacey is calling for the registration of all beekeepers, the quantity of colonies they keep and the chemical treatments they use. He said: “The government wants to spend £10 million on research, but I have 2 questions for them. Firstly, how do they know £10 million is the right amount when they don’t know the size of the problem? They say there are 44,000 beekeepers in the UK, but only 10,750 are actually registered with an organization. Secondly, why should the British tax payer subsidise the hobbies of amateur beekeepers when they don’t for others such as trout fishing?
“I am extremely concerned that amateur food producers with no training in the use of antibiotics and other chemicals are being allowed to place their products in the food chain.”
Mr Spacey’s controversial views on the role of poor bee husbandry on bee numbers and quality of honey, has found little support amongst fellow beekeepers including the British Beekeepers Association. However he believes that there is a measure of agreement amongst DEFRA officials and Government representatives that better regulation is required.
There are real concerns amongst leading experts that honey bees could become extinct within the next 10 years costing the economy up to £165 million through their pollination of fruit trees and other flowering field crops. British beekeepers are still struggling to overcome the effects of the varroa mite. First discovered in 1994, within 3 years it had spread across the UK. Two treatments, appistan and bavrol were both designed to be efficacious for 20 years, but by 2004 the mite became immune because of massive over-dosing and abuse. There are also fears that Colony Collapse Disease which has wiped out 80% of bees in parts of the US will be transferred to the UK.
ends - 1 June 2009
For further information please contact:
Mike Copestake, Freeth Cartwright LLP
Tel: 0845 634 9791
Email: mike.copestake@freethcartwright.co.uk