Half a Billion Bees Dead in
Brazil Due to Pesticide Use.
Beekeepers in four of Brazil's southern
states have reported the deaths of over
500 million bees in the span of three months. .
According to the United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO), this
could seriously affect food security, .
as 75 percent of the crops
in the world depend on pollination
by bees for yield and quality. .
Research conducted on the dead bees has revealed
that Brazil's use of pesticides are to blame, with
most of the bees showing traces of Fipronil. .
Pesticide sales in Brazil increased by 770 percent
between 1990 and 2016, with an additional
27 percent increase occurring so far in 2019. .
40 percent of these pesticides are
considered "highly toxic" and 32 percent
are illegal to use in the European Union.