A Buzzing in the Park

The sun shone and the afternoon buzzed with the sound of bees…. wait a minute…that was the sound of human bees! Well humans dressed as bees!

It was Friends of the Earths annual summer picnic and get together to celebrate our year of work and what better way to celebrate than to celebrate the life of bees and how we need to protect them. So, we decided to have a picnic in Humberstone Park – dressing-up as bees was optional.

We have spent the last year working again on our pesticide project – trying to get Leicester City Council to stop spraying parks and green spaces with glyphosate.

The Global Glyphosate Study that concluded this year was a multi-national study on the effects of glyphosate and the results were even worse than feared: there is no safe level of exposure to glyphosate when it comes to human health, with the risk of multiple types of cancer and DNA damage.  Also, the GM crops that have been developed to resist glyphosate have also been shown to have an impact on human health.  Our latest approach is to highlight the impact on pet health while we wait for the public consultation on the renewing of the glyphosate licence in December 2026. 

The family friendly picnic was well supported. Families brought food to share, children and adults dressed in bee costumes and made paper flowers to take home with them. We also had a huge Rainforest picture for people to colour in to think about the current national campaign, “Planet over Profit”, where we are asking the government to bring in a law to make companies avoid harm to people and planet in their supply chains.

It was a lovely day – a celebration of everyone’s hard work, then everyone can have a well-earned rest ready for the next round of work persuading Leicester City Council to stop spraying the same as Lewes, Cowes, Trafford, Cambridge and many others and keep its environmental status as an environmental city that cares about nature and wants to help save our pollinators.

Time to listen Leicester City Council?

Planet Over Profit campaign stalls

Over the summer, we are getting involved in the big national campaign, Planet Over Profit. This is calling for a new law that would hold companies accountable for harm caused by their supply chains. From the food on our plates to the clothes we wear, global supply chains controlled by corporations are often plagued with harmful environmental impacts and human rights abuses. These can include land grabbing from local communities and Indigenous peoples, when forests are cleared for palm oil plantations or soy crops, for use in processed foods and animal feed. And forced labour and poor working conditions are rife in garment factories churning out fast fashion. Companies should be responsible for ensuring that their profits don’t come at the expense of people and planet. But existing laws aren’t holding them to account. Read more about the campaign and the need for a new law here. 

We are collecting public support in Leicester. We had two stalls at the Green Film Festival at the Phoenix last month and we spent this morning in Knighton Park, talking to passersby. We are asking people to sign a postcard to their MP supporting this new law. People can also colour in their postcard, or we have some that are already coloured in by children who have been helping us! We are also colouring in a large banner, which we will take with us when we go to visit Leicester's MPs in the autumn. Our next stall will be before the Bee Picnic in Humberstone Park on 30th August. If you can't come to a stall to sign a postcard, you can still show your support for this campaign by signing our local online petition. 

As well as collecting support from individuals, we are also collecting letters of support for a new law from local businesses and organisations. If you own a business or are part of an organisation that might want to support this campaign, please get in touch with us: leicesterfoe@gmail.com