ARTICLES
|
National Resources
Defense Council Sues EPA to
Get Public Records on
Pesticides | |
|
| |
| WASHINGTON - August 18 - The Natural Resources Defense
Council filed a lawsuit today to uncover critical information that
the US government is withholding about the risks posed by pesticides
to honey bees. NRDC legal experts and a leading bee researcher are
convinced that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has
evidence of connections between pesticides and the mysterious honey
bee die-offs reported across the country. The phenomenon has come to
be called “colony collapse disorder,” or CCD, and it is already
proving to have disastrous consequences for American agriculture and
the $15 billion worth of crops pollinated by bees every year.
EPA has failed to respond to NRDC’s Freedom of Information Act request for agency records concerning the toxicity of pesticides to bees, forcing the legal action. “Recently approved pesticides have been implicated in massive bee die-offs and are the focus of increasing scientific scrutiny,” said NRDC Senior Attorney Aaron Colangelo. “EPA should be evaluating the risks to bees before approving new pesticides, but now refuses to tell the public what it knows. Pesticide restrictions might be at the heart of the solution to this growing crisis, so why hide the information they should be using to make those decisions?” In 2003, EPA granted a registration to a new pesticide manufactured by Bayer CropScience under the condition that Bayer submit studies about its product’s impact on bees. EPA has refused to disclose the results of these studies, or if the studies have even been submitted. The pesticide in question, clothianidin, recently was banned in Germany due to concerns about its impact on bees. A similar insecticide was banned in France for the same reason a couple of years before. In the United States, these chemicals still are in use despite a growing consensus among bee specialists that pesticides, including clothianidin and its chemical cousins, may contribute to CCD. In the past two years, some American beekeepers have reported unexplained losses of 30-90% of the bees in their hives. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), bees pollinate $15 billion worth of crops grown in America. USDA also claims that one out of every three mouthfuls of food in the typical American diet has a connection to bee pollination. As the die-offs worsen, Americans will see their food costs increase. Despite bees’ critical role for farmers, consumers, and the environment, the federal government has been slow to address the die-off since the alarm bells started in 2006. In recent Congressional hearings, USDA was unable to account for the $20 million that Congress has allocated to the department for fighting CCD in the last two years. “This is a real mystery right now,” said Dr. Gabriela Chavarria, director of NRDC’s Science Center. “EPA needs to help shed some light so that researchers can get to work on this problem. This isn’t just an issue for farmers -- this is an issue that concerns us all. Just try to imagine a pizza without the contribution of bees! No tomatoes. No cheese. No peppers. If you eat apples, cucumbers, broccoli, onions, squash, carrots, avocados, or cherries, you need to be concerned.” Chavarria has spent more than 20 years studying bees, and has published a number of academic papers on the taxonomy, behavior and distribution of native bees.
NRDC filed the lawsuit today in federal court in Washington DC. In documents to be filed next month, NRDC will ask for a court order directing EPA to disclose its information about pesticides and bee toxicity.
The Message brought to you by Bee Culture, The Magazine Of American Beekeeping |
The Sierra Club Wants Neonicotinoid Treatments stopped, NOW!
By Alan Harman
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.
This message brought to you by Bee Culture, The Magazine of Practical American Beekeeping www.BeeCulture.com