The scientific world has raised an alarm: in recent years we have lost almost 50% of the pollinating insects , first of all bees . And 3/4 of the main food crops depend on them. Apples, pears, kiwis, blueberries, chocolate, coffee, almonds, without the pollinating insects, without the bees, would no longer arrive on our tables. The future of our diet is at stake.
Without more bees, butterflies and pollinators, on which 90% of wild plants and 75% of our food production depends, two dishes out of three that we put on the table could disappear .
Among the main culprits for the drop in the number of insects are some types of pesticides used in agriculture , which are now banned in Europe. But bees and pollinators still pay the consequences of their massive use in the past. And new agricultural products placed on the market could have risks for insect health.
In an attempt to save these small animals so important for the functioning of ecosystems, beekeepers everywhere have to move from one territory to another to save bees. To repopulate the colonies, in France, breeders moved hundreds of hives from the south of France. A journey of 920 kilometers on trucks. To get to Brittany, in Finisterre, in the north-western tip of the country, where the earth disperses into the Atlantic ocean.
Patrick, a French beekeeper interviewed by Lisa Iotti, tells PresaDiretta how “until the end of the 90s 4/5 percent of the colonies were lost, then when the neonicotinoid insecticides arrived the collapse was seen and if from the beginning of the 2000s if the beekeepers had not taken care of them, today we would no longer have domestic bees ”.
At PresaDiretta the testimonies of the most authoritative European scientific institutes engaged in the study of the problem and the positions of the Community institutions and the world of agro-industry.