- 41 people, including Greenpeace UK’s Campaigns Director, have been ARRESTED following a peaceful protest that shut down pesticide giant Syngenta’s Yorkshire HQ over production of pesticide deadly to millions of bees
Forty-one people including Greenpeace UK’s Campaigns Director have been arrested today following a peaceful blockade that shut down the UK headquarters of global pesticide company Syngenta in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire [1].
Greenpeace has accused Syngenta of driving wildlife decline and threatening UK food security by making and selling pesticides that poison British wildlife.
New Greenpeace analysis of official data [2], reveals today that just one teaspoon of the Syngenta-made pesticide, Hallmark, is enough to kill 13 million bees.
Its active ingredient, Lambda-cyhalothrin, also made and sold by Syngenta, is by far the most-used insecticide on arable land in the UK with 6.9 tonnes of it applied to over 1 million hectares in 2024 [3]. That’s an area more than six times the size of London.
Greenpeace UK Co-Executive Director, Will McCallum, said:
“Today’s arrests are a huge overreaction by police. The damage Syngenta is doing to wildlife and our countryside cannot be overstated, which is why we’re here to confront them. They’re making and selling pesticides that devastate our wildlife, make UK farmers dependent on their products, and put our whole food system at risk – yet they’re getting away scot free.“If only the Government channelled the same passion it shows for quashing peaceful protest into ending the silent crisis unfolding in our countryside. We need to drastically cut chemicals on our land and in our waterways, and farmers need funding to enable them to do it. This is crucial so that nature – the very foundations of our food system – can recover.”
As well as being deadly to bees, lambda cyhalothrin is classified as a Highly Hazardous Pesticide, very toxic to aquatic life, and a forever chemical (PFAS) which means it is highly persistent in the soil and can accumulate in the food chain. Insecticides like this also starve birds and mammals like hedgehogs by depriving them of their food source.
The action follows Greenpeace UK’s report Our poisoned land, published last week, which warned that intensive pesticide and fertiliser use is pushing UK wildlife and ecosystems to the brink. The report revealed that commonly eaten British fruit and veg are routinely sprayed with over 100 pesticides before reaching the plate.
ENDS
Contact: press.uk@greenpeace.org / 020 7865 8255
Notes to editors
Previous release from 6am: Activists blockade pesticide giant making bee-killing chemical used on UK fields – Greenpeace UK
The UK government’s international commitment is to halve pesticide risks and excess nutrients by 2030 and yet so far its own action plan only commits to a 10% reduction for pesticide use.
Greenpeace is calling for:
- a 50% reduction in pesticide and fertiliser use by 2030
- an 80% reduction by 2040
- funding and support for farmers to reduce reliance on chemical inputs
- tighter restrictions on pesticide use in public spaces and homes
[1] Activists transformed a roundabout outside the front entrance of Syngenta’s HQ into a giant hazard symbol carrying the message “Syngenta poisons nature” with an arrow pointing directly at the building.
Thirty activists locked onto fifteen blue pesticide barrels, blocking all three gates to the site, preventing cars and HGVs from entering or leaving. Eight of the barrels were topped with ultra-realistic sculptures of wildlife threatened by pesticides including a bee, butterfly, bird, fish, frog and hedgehog. The barrels were painted with Syngenta’s logo, subverted to show the skeleton of a leaf, rather than a healthy green one.
[2] Source: Pesticide Properties DataBase (PPDB), University of Hertfordshire.
[3] Source: FERA Report 320 – Arable Crops in the UK, 2024. Greenpeace analysis found Lambda-cyhalothrin was used during the growing process of common British produce including potatoes, peas, carrots, onions, leeks and strawberries.
Of the 41 products authorised for use in the UK containing lambda-cyhalothrin, 8 are marketed by Syngenta. They are the only one of the ‘Big Four’ agrochemical companies (Syngenta, Bayer, BASF, Corteva) authorised to sell it in the UK. Syngenta’s global profits were $4.4 billion last year.
Pesticide giants like Syngenta have locked farmers into a reliance on expensive chemical inputs including pesticides and fertilisers. This threatens our food security because as well as damaging soils and poisoning the pollinators that food production depends on, farmers and our food system are more vulnerable to rising costs caused by global instability – as we’ve seen recently with fertiliser price rises.