Bad news, friend.

Today is National Honey Bee Day, and we should be celebrating these tiny pollinators that are so critical to our food system. But instead, we’re fighting to stop massive bee die-offs – part of what scientists are calling “an insect apocalypse.”

Last year was one of the deadliest on record for honeybees in the United States. In total, 39% of our honey bee colonies were DECIMATED, and beekeepers had to work frantically to keep their struggling populations alive! We know the pesticide industry is largely to blame, and we MUST take urgent action to protect our bees before it’s too late!

Despite staggering bee losses year after year, greedy chemical corporations are STILL flooding our farming system with MILLIONS of pounds of bee-toxic pesticides called neonics. Even in the tiniest doses, neonics damage bees’ nervous systems and disrupt their ability to communicate, reproduce, or forage for food. Exposure to neonics can even kill bees outright!

The problem is that pesticide companies have our farming system totally hooked on these chemicals. Big Ag has used so many neonics in the last three decades that our environment is now 48 TIMES MORE TOXIC to our precious bees! Neonics pollute the soil and water and spread easily through the whole ecosystem, POISONING our farm fields and surrounding lands that bees need for foraging! 

It gets worse: Even the seeds of major crops like soy and corn are treated with neonics. The impact is so damaging that just one coated corn seed has enough of these chemicals to KILL up to 80,000 bees! Neonics absorb into every part of the crop, so the plants themselves become toxic to the pollinators we rely on. Our poor bees don’t stand a chance against such systematic contamination! That’s why Friends of the Earth is fighting back. 

We set a goal to raise $107,000 before National Honey Bee Day ends – and right now, a generous group of donors will MATCH all gifts up to this goal, but only until midnight tonight! Please: Will you make a membership gift of $27 or more now and have it DOUBLED to help Friends of the Earth protect pollinators and our fragile planet?

Study after study shows almost NO BENEFITS to neonic seed coatings. But chemical companies are raking in profits while bees are DYING at alarming rates. And we're paying the price, too: Declining pollinator populations have already caused a global decrease in fruits, vegetables and nuts. Research shows that this could mean up to 500,000 excess deaths per year from a lack of access to healthy foods!  

We can’t afford to stand aside and let the pesticide industry wreak havoc on our food system with disastrous consequences for pollinators, people and our planet. That’s why Friends of the Earth is fighting to hold the pesticide industry accountable and transform our farming system so we can protect bees, other precious pollinators, and our planet before it’s too late to make a difference. But we need YOUR help to make the most of our rare MATCH opportunity and hit our crucial $107,000 goal.

National Honey Bee Day is just once a year, but our fight is more urgent than ever. So please, before our match expires at midnight TONIGHT: Will you make a membership gift of $27 or more now – while $27 becomes $54! – in honor of National Honey Bee Day to help Friends of the Earth protect precious pollinators and our planet?

Thank you for your urgent support,

Kendra Klein
Deputy Director of Science 
Friends of the Earth