The Soil Association has criticised the latest strategy by the UK government to halt the decline of bees and other pollinators, suggesting that it doesn't go far enough.
Consultation closed last week on the government's National Pollinator Strategy, which merely advocated more integrated pest management (IPM) rather than proposing any real change to farming systems.
Peter Melchett, the Soil Association's policy director, demanded that the government clarify its definition of IPM and drop its claim that scientific evidence exists of IPM's benefits to bees.
'If most current UK farming is correctly classified as IPM, as the National Farmers' Union and most supermarkets say, then the evidence shows that it is definitely not beneficial for pollinators, as these have either continued to decline, or at least not recovered, after many years of IPM farming in the UK,' he said.
The Soil Association pointed to new research from Oxford University which found around 50 per cent more pollinator species on organic farms as opposed to conventional farms.
Meanwhile, a global review of 39 different studies discovered that there were, on average, 74 per cent more wild bees on organic farms than on conventional farms.
According to the Soil Association, new studies suggest that crops like field beans, apples and strawberries are already suffering from insufficient pollination in the UK. Strawberries and field beans have both been shown to have higher pollination success on organic farms.
'It is clear that the temporary suspension by the European Union of three neonicotinoid insecticides will not be enough to halt, still less reverse, the massive decline in wild pollinators, nor remove the risk to honey bees,' the Association stated.
Melchett concluded: “This research shows there is a clear solution for pollinators with a known outcome – support organic farming and we can have 50 per cent more species of pollinators in our countryside.”
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