There are a few seeds that are routinely dressed. It will state that on the packet. Most agricultural seeds are dressed, but you are unlikely to be buying 25kg of seeds at a time!
If you are trying to get people to boycott Bayer products it will be important to find out where outlet stores [like supermarkets, Wilkos, B & Q] source their "own brand" products as they will be obtaining these from a manufacturer.
Major problem with this is the bulk of these products go to major agri and horti businesses rather than domestic users like us reducing our power of direct influence. Perhaps a campaign targetting local MPs might be useful.
Yep. Everything you say is right. Thanks for the nudge about my MP. Thats never a bad thing to do is it? But nothing is straightforward is it...even as I pick up the pen .....see what Bee-Witched said here...
"The current ban in most of the EU (some areas of the UK are exempt) means that farmers are now using older chemicals and spraying their crops .... also bad news for the bees".
Makes me realize how powerless we are in the face of everything that has gone before (pharmaceutically speaking) - but I'm also reminded that practically every telly gardener and a lot of gardening writers are always pushing the bee/insect encouraging activities in the garden - so its like gardeners are already the ones fighting the battle in every way they can on the ground (to coin a phrase).
Telly gardeners have a lot of influence tho - could they perhaps be a bit ruder more frequently about the bad parts of the chemical industry (I'm quite sure Bayer and the other big producers do a lot of good as well as bad..so its not simply a matter of libellously naming names - its a question of encouraging good practices, and condemning the bad ones in the context of insects. (Yeah - I know I'm over-simplifying again !) ..and again, compared to agricultural users, gardeners are such small fry.
Gardeners as a collective are not small fry though...
There's plenty you can do that's largely been alluded to with regard to refusing to use chemicals on your garden, planting bee-friendly flowers (Crocuses are good as they are often in flower when the earliest bees wake up) and buying local honey/produce. If even every other garden was like this that's still quite a lot of land.
You can also buy as much organic food as you can afford, if there's demand for such things it at least guarantees there is a percentage of farm land that is organic. Jordan's who make cereals, require all their growers to dedicate about 10% of their land to natural habitat buying products like this instead of cheap Lidl imitations can make a difference.
There's plenty you can do and being aware is a good start!
You only have to watch TV adverts in the Summer to see how much the gardening chemical companies spend. TV companies are never going to bite the hand that feeds them.
Posts
Thanks thats helpful.
Annyfran
If you are trying to get people to boycott Bayer products it will be important to find out where outlet stores [like supermarkets, Wilkos, B & Q] source their "own brand" products as they will be obtaining these from a manufacturer.
Major problem with this is the bulk of these products go to major agri and horti businesses rather than domestic users like us reducing our power of direct influence. Perhaps a campaign targetting local MPs might be useful.
Thanks Invicta2 and all..
Yep. Everything you say is right. Thanks for the nudge about my MP. Thats never a bad thing to do is it? But nothing is straightforward is it...even as I pick up the pen .....see what Bee-Witched said here...
"The current ban in most of the EU (some areas of the UK are exempt) means that farmers are now using older chemicals and spraying their crops .... also bad news for the bees".
Makes me realize how powerless we are in the face of everything that has gone before (pharmaceutically speaking) - but I'm also reminded that practically every telly gardener and a lot of gardening writers are always pushing the bee/insect encouraging activities in the garden - so its like gardeners are already the ones fighting the battle in every way they can on the ground (to coin a phrase).
Telly gardeners have a lot of influence tho - could they perhaps be a bit ruder more frequently about the bad parts of the chemical industry (I'm quite sure Bayer and the other big producers do a lot of good as well as bad..so its not simply a matter of libellously naming names - its a question of encouraging good practices, and condemning the bad ones in the context of insects. (Yeah - I know I'm over-simplifying again !) ..and again, compared to agricultural users, gardeners are such small fry.
Gardeners as a collective are not small fry though...
There's plenty you can do that's largely been alluded to with regard to refusing to use chemicals on your garden, planting bee-friendly flowers (Crocuses are good as they are often in flower when the earliest bees wake up) and buying local honey/produce. If even every other garden was like this that's still quite a lot of land.
You can also buy as much organic food as you can afford, if there's demand for such things it at least guarantees there is a percentage of farm land that is organic. Jordan's who make cereals, require all their growers to dedicate about 10% of their land to natural habitat buying products like this instead of cheap Lidl imitations can make a difference.
There's plenty you can do and being aware is a good start!