Require clover seed in grass seed mixtures sold for lawns and amenity use — 8 signatures. Status: open.
Amend the Seed Marketing Regulations 2011 so that grass seed mixtures marketed for domestic lawns and general amenity use must contain at least 5% white clover seed by weight, with an exemption for fine and sports turf, and publish the evidence assessment underpinning that threshold.
England’s species abundance is about 67% of its 1970 level (Defra, EIP 2025), and the Environment Act 2021 requires Ministers to halt that decline by 2030. Four species now provide around half of Britain’s nectar (Baude et al., Nature, 2016). White clover is native, and its short flower tube feeds honeybees, short-tongued bumblebees and solitary bees. It also fixes nitrogen, cutting fertiliser use and run-off. It was standard in lawn seed until herbicides recast it as a weed.
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