Photo credit: Abejazo Nacional – SADA

Promoted by the Argentine Society of Beekeepers (SADA), Argentine beekeepers pleaded for the life of bees, healthy and safe food, and against inter-provincial bee transportation fees.

On 28 September between 11:00 and 13:00, hundreds of beekeepers from all over the country, dressed with their suits and lit smokers, mobilized themselves to demand healthy and safe food and protest against bee deaths and inter-provincial fees.

In Bahía Blanca, a large number of beekeepers arrived from different cities of the southern part of the province of Buenos Aires. They concentrated at this northern point of the Patagonian region in order to express their discomfort and concern about the death of bees due to massive use of pesticides and also against the fee that the province of Rio Negro now intends to charge to beekeepers when entering the province with their bees to provide pollination services to fruit plantations (some 70,000 beehives enter each year Río Negro from other provinces, mostly from Buenos Aires and La Pampa). The same event took place on Route 22, on the Cipoletti-Neuquén highway bridges.

In the City of Buenos Aires, beekeepers gathered in Plaza Constitución at 11:00 am with trucks and cars, and submitted petitions to the Ministry of Agriculture and to the National Sanitary Authority, SENASA. The House of Rio Negro Province was closed, so the petition could not be delivered. Beekeepers finally converged in the legislative Palace.

At each of these points, a jar of honey was given to citizens and an explanation about the importance of bees for biodiversity and food production, and the serious situation these amazing insects are experiencing due to the intensive use of pesticides and monoculture.