Co-op bans eight pesticides after worldwide beehive collapse

First UK supermarket chain – and Britain's biggest farmer – to prohibit chemicals implicated in the death of over one-third of British bees

    * Alison Benjamin
    * guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 January 2009 11.40 GMT
    * Article history

A bee collects nectar from a flower in a garden in Pontevedra. Photograph: Miguel Vidal/Reuters

The Co-op today became the first UK supermarket to ban the use of a group of pesticides implicated in billions of honeybee deaths worldwide.

It is prohibiting suppliers of its own-brand fresh produce from using eight pesticides that have been connected to honeybee colony collapse disorder and are already restricted in some parts of Europe.