BeeSAFE is a group of individuals started by Huguette Allen, Jane Emlyn and Carla Vierke to protect rural areas from the health risks and environmental degradation of chemical agriculture. The name BeeSAFE reflects our aim for “Securing A Food Economy” that is safe for the bees and for us.

In 2013, after a long campaign to educate the public and elected officials about the damages that result from chemical agriculture, Bee SAFE held a vote in rural Lumby and in Cherryville asking whether people wanted to see GM their community be GM crop free. The overwhelming response (97% of Cherryville and 93.5% in rural Lumby) showed how strong the communities wishes were to keep them free of an agriculture that profited while polluting the air, water and soil.

In June 2013, after presenting the vote results to the Regional District, a resolution to amend the Official Community Plan was made. Yet today, both our communities are faced with Intensive chemical farming as well as Intensive Cattle Operations (ICOs) that are polluting everything including the headwaters of the Shuswap River.

While people drank from its water and from streams feeding it as recently as a few years ago, the pollution that is now reaching it makes people fear contamination from swimming in it. BC’s regulatory system continues to let polluters profit from environmental devastation. Therefore it falls upon us, the concerned citizens, to demand accountability and action.

Urgent action is a moral imperative. Join us by demanding immediate protection of water at source and a complete overhaul of BC policies that prioritize profit over the preservation of nature and the protection of our health. Together, we can, we must, compel the authorities to uphold their duty to safeguard water at source and prevent further degradation.

Email:
DM.ENV@gov.bc.ca, premier@gov.bc.ca, harwinder.sandhu.MLA@leg.bc.ca, ENV.Minister@gov.bc.ca