Mother Jones magazine has an article on a new government report out from the FDA that establishes clear risks to honeybees from the popular pesticide.
For more than a decade, the Environmental Protection Agency has been under pressure from environmentalists and beekeepers to reconsider its approval of a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, based on a mounting body of research suggesting they harm bees and other pollinators at tiny doses. In a report released Wednesday, the EPA basically conceded the case.
There has been great concern due to Colony Collapse disorder, along with large scale bee die off across the country in the last decade, corresponding to the introduction of this insecticide into the environment, promoted by huge chemical companies.
The FDA has ignored this problem for some time, but finally has put scientists that managed to gather data that can be taken seriously by regulators. Now the question will be whether the regulators will actually call for a ban or moratorium, or bow to pressure from the chemical companies to allow it to continue.
What is at stake is the ability for modern agriculture to exist. Without honeybees we are unable to cost effectively pollinate crops, if we can pollinate them at all. This is a classic battle between corporate profit and the people that work for it versus a small group of very concerned individuals who have teamed up to try and get proper oversight into play.
This affects us on the Peninsula because the same kind of pesticides are being used by people ignorant of this issue, often on plants in their backyard. Additionally, all our waste water sources eventually end up in the sea, and that then brings in questions about fish, and other sea creatures. I am not aware of any study haging been done on whether this is being found in the Salish Sea, though given our knoweledge of the effects and quantities of fire retardants from our furniture having been found in significant amounts, I would assume this produce will be found as well.
Original ideas for this aricle came from Joe Breskin, who has been tracking this story for some time. https://plus.google.com/113677817925719341659/posts/FTGT6syrKBZ
The Mother Jones article along a link to the original FDA document is found at:
http://m.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2016/01/epa-finds-major-pesticide-toxic-bees
Filed under: Puget Sound | Tagged: pesticides, Puget Sound, Water Pollution |
