Roger has joined The Bee Cause campaign to save the British bumblebee as numbers in Britain have fallen dramatically in recent years. Three bumblebee species are already extinct. Roger has also signed the petition asking Prime Minister, David Cameron, to adopt a National Bee Action Plan to ensure that the way we farm our food and plan our towns and cities gets bees back on track and will be writing to the Minister of Agriculture. The Government must also have the right experts in place to protect our most threatened species.
“Many factors are causing bees' decline - from habitat loss, to disease, to climate change. There is also growing evidence that some pesticides harm bees” said Roger.
“Bees are essential to our food supply as they pollinate 75% of our most vital crops and favourite foods without bees it would cost UK farmers £1.8 billion a year to pollinate our crops. They are essential to our gardens, parks and countryside.”
Roger wrote to Minister , Owen Paterson MP at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs emphasising that: “Taking care of our bee colonies is a hugely important priority and it would be reassuring to know that the government is going to heed the advice of agencies such as the European Food Safety Authority which has described neonicotinoid pesticides as an ‘unacceptable’ danger to bees.

This article appeared in the March edition of Roger's newsletter 'Postcard from Parliament'