To: Brian J. Driscoll, President and CEO, Diamond Foods

Tell Pop Secret to Stop Killing Bees!

Victory! The creator of this petition declared the campaign a success. You can still sign the petition to show support.

I am very concerned about the use of neonicotinoid insecticides as a coating on seeds used to grow your company’s popcorn products. As you may know, bees and other pollinators are suffering alarming population losses, and scientists consistently identify pesticides, specifically a group of insecticides called neonicotinoids, as a primary factor in poor pollinator health.

As one of the largest popcorn brands in the U.S., I urge you to commit to phasing out the use of neonicotinoid-coated corn seeds in your popcorn products. Your company can make a big difference by using your considerable purchasing power to work with seed distributors and growers to drastically reduce the harmful use of neonicotinoid seed coatings that endanger bees.

Why is this important?

Thanks to your pressure, Pop Weaver has agreed to phase out its use of neonics! [1]. Sign the petition to urge Pop Secret to follow their lead and drop bee-killing pesticides!

It’s no secret we love popcorn. In fact, Americans consume more than 16 billion quarts of popcorn each year. But we’re getting more than we bargained for in all those bowls of popcorn: bee-toxic pesticides.

Bees are dying at alarming rates, and scientists have identified a group of insecticides called neonicotinoids (“neonics”) as a prime culprit in these drastic population losses. The largest single use of neonicotinoids is as a seed coating for field crops. In fact, researchers estimate that 95-99% of all field corn grown in the U.S. comes from seed coated with bee-toxic neonic chemicals.

Unfortunately, the popcorn industry uses bee-killing chemicals on their seeds, too. That’s why we’re calling on Pop Secret, one of the biggest brands in the industry, to urge them to source their popcorn from seeds that are NOT coated in these harmful chemicals.

Neonics are the most widely used insecticides in the world, and are a class of systemic chemicals, meaning they are dispersed throughout the treated plant, rendering the whole plant toxic. Just as alarming, neonics can last in the environment for years and they can harm species that the chemical was not designed to kill -- like bees, butterflies, birds, and entire food chains.

As one of the largest popcorn brands in the U.S., Pop Secret can make a big difference for bees by joining Pop Weaver in phasing out their use of neonic-coated seeds.

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References:

1. http://www.popweaver.com/news/2015-10-21Neonics%20Statement.pdf#zoom=66.7