Don't Bug the MosquitoesGilligan's Island - The Honeybees | N Gamble | February 6, 2014
Posted on 10/09/2022 6:59:15 AM PDT by Qiviut
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week denied a legal petition by Center for Food Safety, Pesticide Action Network of North America and others, demanding that the agency fix its failure to regulate pesticide-coated seeds, which are known to be widely harming bees and other pollinators.
Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denied a legal petition by Center for Food Safety (CFS), Pesticide Action Network of North America and others, demanding that the agency fix its failure to regulate pesticide-coated seeds, which are known to be widely harming bees and other pollinators.
These crop seeds are coated with systemic insecticides known as neonicotinoids, the most widely used insecticides, and have devastating environmental effects.
CFS filed the rulemaking petition in 2017 that would close the loophole, but was forced to take take the agency to court when EPA failed to answer the petition as of late 2021.
Last week’s response is issued pursuant to a court-set deadline.
“We gave EPA a golden chance and a blueprint to fix a problem that has caused significant harm to people, bees, birds, and the environment — and it stubbornly refused,” said Amy van Saun, senior attorney with the Center for Food Safety. “It’s extremely disappointing and we’ll be exploring all possible next steps to protect communities and the environment from the hazard of pesticide-coated seeds, including a lawsuit challenging this decision.”
Crops grown from pesticide-coated seeds, such as corn, soybean and sunflower seeds cover over 150 million acres of U.S. farmland each year.
Neonicotinoids are taken up into the plant’s circulatory system as the plant grows, permeating leaf, pollen, nectar and other plant tissues. Neonicotinoids affect the central nervous system of insects, causing paralysis and death.
Sublethal impacts include impaired navigation and learning. As a result, beneficial insects, valuable pollinators and birds — including threatened and endangered species protected under the Endangered Species Act — are killed or injured.
For songbirds, ingesting just one neonic-coated seed can cause serious harm or death.
Additionally, more than 80% of the pesticide coating can leave the seed, contaminating the air, soil and waterways of surrounding environments. Most notably, clouds of neonicotinoid-laced dust released during planting operations have caused mass die-offs of honeybees and wild native bees.
Earlier this year, EPA admitted grave harm to hundreds of endangered species from the pesticide-active ingredients that coat these treated seeds.
On June 16, EPA released its final biological evaluations for clothianidin, thiamethoxam and imidacloprid (three major neonic active ingredients), as required by a settlement in an earlier CFS case. EPA found that each neonic is likely to adversely affect from two-thirds to over three-fourths of America’s endangered species — 1,225 to 1,445 species in all.
These pesticidal seeds also pose danger to communities. For example, the devastation caused in the village of Mead, Nebraska from the fumes and runoff of an ethanol plant using coated seeds as feedstock.
The pollution has caused bee dieoffs and even eye and throat irritation and nosebleeds to local residents from the neurotoxins coating the corn seeds.
The 2017 petition demanded EPA close the regulatory loophole that allows seeds coated with systemic pesticides (coated seeds) to evade the registration and labeling requirements of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).
EPA currently exempts coated seeds from FIFRA’s registration requirements and has failed to assess the risks of these unregulated seeds — while never providing the public with any justification for this exemption.
In EPA’s response to denying the petition, the agency instead stated that it would “continue to review labeling instructions for pesticides registered for seed treatment” to ensure those instructions are “complete” for the seeds ultimately coated with these biocides.
EPA also promised to issue an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking “to seek additional information on pesticide seed treatment and to explore the option of issuing a rule pursuant to FIFRA section 3(a) to regulate the use of pesticide-treated seed.”
CFS, through its pollinators & pesticides program, has long advocated for thorough, science-based safety testing and proper regulation of new pesticide product uses prior to any marketing and cultivation of crops, in a manner that minimizes lethal and sublethal effects on non-target species.
Ping
The government that governs least governs best. You can take that to the bank.
Fate of Neonicotinoids in the Environment: Why Bees Are Threatened
My uncle, now deceased, had honey bees. Farmers in a nearby county would get him to bring the hives to their fields to help pollinate the crops. Most were ‘truck’ farms ... not the big ag, monocrop ‘farms’. It was devastating to him when he would have a ‘hive collapse’ and he had that happen a couple of times.
The day before he went into the hospital (died a couple of days later), he had gotten a shipment of a couple of ‘queens’. He told my aunt he was too sick to do anything with them, but later in the day, he managed to take the queens to the hives (with my aunt’s help) ..... next day he was so sick he was in the hospital & died two days later - advanced lung cancer that had metastasized to his brain.
It’s time to shut down the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Way past time.
Dirt doctor.com, been listening to Howard Garret for years. Always got the best crops and healthiest animals. Our Red Angus would sell at the highest price. I grew a ton of tomatoes every year.
CDC & FDA too. The government is corrupt to the core.
Always follow the money. Big Ag has deep pockets and an army of Lobbyists. :(
Look, I get the animus towards the government generally and the EPA specifically but this action is correct. It’s a petition from far, far (like you need a telescope and measure the distance in light-years) leftist environmental non-profits that cannot sway anyone through the normal regulatory process.
It’s not that these products are not regulated but rather that the application is deemed to take place in the factory where the seeds are treated and packaged.
That’s what the law and regulations state at the present time.
Bottom line: if someone from an NGO tells you the sky is blue, interrupt them and walk outside to confirm for yourself.
“but this action is correct”
No.
Wrong.
Ummm. Is it just me who knows pollinators pollinate flowers and not seeds?
In the article:
“Neonicotinoids are taken up into the plant’s circulatory system as the plant grows, permeating leaf, pollen, nectar and other plant tissues. Neonicotinoids affect the central nervous system of insects, causing paralysis and death.”
Folks,
no decision is perfect. There are pros and cons
These contribute greatly to crop production but can cause harm to insects.
Elimination like DDT is not the answer.
It is important to state the problem correctly.
Don't Bug the MosquitoesGilligan's Island - The Honeybees | N Gamble | February 6, 2014
All crop seeds have at least a fungicide coating to keep them from rotting in the fields before they germinate.
It has been like this for probably 70 years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
