The Sierra Club accuses the U.S. Department of Agriculture of caving in to lobbyists regarding recent massive bee deaths and compares this with Germany's taking a major step to address bee kills there and keep their bees pollinating crops.

In  light of the mounting evidence that new seed chemical coatings are deadly to bees and action by Germany calling for their immediate suspension, the Sierra Club reaffirmed its call for a U.S. moratorium on specific chemical treatments to protect our bees and crops here, until more study can be done.

It quotes Germany's Federal Agricultural Research Institute as saying, "It can unequivocally be concluded that poisoning of the bees is due to the rubbing-off of the pesticide ingredient clothianidin from corn seeds."

 At issue are the class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids, including clothianidin, being used in new ways - in this case as seed coatings.

For years, farmers have been spraying neonicotinoids onto their crops to stop insect infestation.   Chemical manufacturers Bayer, Syngenta and Monsanto have acquired patents to coat their proprietary corn seeds with neonicotinoids.

"Part of the situation in the U.S. is genetically engineered corn, and as more and more corn seed is being genetically spliced to completely different species -- often with a bacterium," says Walter Haefeker of the German Beekeepers Association Board of Directors. "Bayer and Monsanto in particular, recently entered into agreements to manufacture neonicotinoid-coated, genetically engineered corn, which is likely to worsen bee die-off problems."

In a statement, the Sierra Club says that former American Beekeeping Federation president David Hackenburg has been urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to do more studies on the situation.  "Look at the time based factors,” it quotes Hackenburg as saying. “Massive bee die-offs started occuring after regulatory agencies rubber stamped the use of neonicotinoid spraying and coatings."   Sierra Club committee chairman for genetic engineering, Laurel Hopwood says that their organization joins in concern for this situation with those of beekeepers.

"It's unfortunate that the regulatory agencies have been resorting double speak,” Hackenberg says. “They claim to be there to protect our food supply - yet they haven't been doing the proper studies.  A large scale loss of honeybees will leave a huge void in the kitchens of the American people and could result in an estimated loss of $14 billion dollars annually to agriculture. We need to have a precautionary moratorium on the use of these powerful insecticides and crop treatments in order to protect our bees and our food" he said.

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