Bees’ plight takes flight

It is said to be 70,000 times more toxic than DDT to bees, with a coating on each seed to kill 200,000. Europe correspondent Ann Cahill reports on the EU ban on neonicotinoid pesticide

FAMINES have been caused by locusts, drought, blight, and a range of other problems down through the ages. But now about one third of our food is threatened by knocking out just one little link in the food chain: Bees.

While most take their usefulness for granted, if they know about it at all, in industrial farming regions their role is well understood. In the US, for instance, whole firms specialise in rearing and maintaining bee colonies and transporting them to farms, renting out their services for days or weeks at a time.