Aldi becomes first supermarket to ban the pesticides that are killing off all the bees
(Adapted from Metro, 31/1/2016)
Supermarket Aldi Süd – the chain’s German branch – has just made it a ____________________ (1 REQUIRE) for its suppliers to phase out the toxins that are most ____________________ (2 HARM) to bees, including neonicotinoids.
‘Aldi Süd shows that the toxic dependency on pesticides can be broken and in this sense becomes a pioneer in the retail sector,’ Christiane Huxdorff, ____________________ (3 ECOLOGY) farming campaigner at Greenpeace Germany, said.
‘Other European supermarkets are now called upon to follow this first step.’ We rely quite ____________________ (4 HEAVY) on bees.
The EU has some of the most stringent rules on bee toxins in the world, but they only have a __________________ (5 PART) ban in place – limiting the use of three types of neonicotinoids and fipronil. Many other pesticides that are ____________________ (6 POISON) to bees are still used in food ____________________ (7 PRODUCT).
Why are bees such a big deal?
If bees were to die out, humanity would ____________________ (8 BASIC) be doomed – and that’s not an ____________________ (9 EXAGGERATE).
The neonicotinoids we use in ____________________ (10 AGRICULTURE) production are a neuro-toxin that poisons bees and leaves them disoriented, ____________________ (11 ABLE) to pollinate plants effectively, and close to death.
Unfortunately, they are used in many stages of international food production – and bees are fast dying out.
When bees are infected they transfer that ____________________ (12 ILL) back to their whole hive, which __________________ (13 QUICK) leads to an epidemic.
Many beekeepers have reported said that around 90 per cent of their bees have died.
Without bees, there would be no way of producing around 70 per cent of the food humans currently eat.
