They have done it again! For the third year in a row DEFRA has given emergency authorisation for sugar beet farmers or rather seed merchants to treat seed with Neonicotinoids[1] for the third year in a row . The Secretary of state for environment, formerly briefly in charge of the nation’s health, is now set to wreak havoc on the natural environment too. The bar for the emergency derogation is a mild winter with a consequent high risk of aphid infestation later in that year. BUT not this year: We have had two prolonged periods below freezing in East Anglia, where much of the sugar beet is grown, so the conditions for an emergency derogation have not been met. Two days later the government rolled out details of the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS), encouraging farmers to work towards the restoration of nature while simultaneously ensuring its destruction.
The Tories are making a determined effort to trash this country so any incoming government will have precious little left to work with. Having ruined the UK ‘s reputation as a reliable global partner, crashed the economy, demolished public services, they are now working to complete the job by making the natural environment uninhabitable.
