Protecting honey bees and wild pollinators
If anyone needs evidence of the extremely urgent need to stop hazardous pesticide use, just have them read about the disappearance of the bees. Yes, this crisis is a complex issue, but a little digging on the issue brings us directly to the fact that our pesticide policies do not adequately protect sensitive species, with bees at the top of the list.
Recent Highlights
- Research: Pesticide Toxic to Bees and Aquatic Life Contaminates Surface Waters.
- Factsheet: Economic Value of Beekeeping. Honey bee losses impact our food system and the economy. Press release, January 2012.
- Research: Study Shows Honey Bees Exposed to High Levels of Bee-Killing Pesticide, PLoS ONE, online January 2012.
- Listen: Beekeeper Tom Theobald and others talk to The Organic View about systemic pesticides and GMOs on public lands, January 2012.
- Research: Low Doses of Pesticides Put Honey Bees at Risk, PLoS ONE, online June 2011.
- Report: Global Bee Colony Disorders and other Threats to Insect Pollinators, United Nations, March 2011.
- Read: "Protecting Pollinators: Stopping the Demise of Bees," from the Spring 2011 issue of Pesticides and You
- Watch: Protecting Pollinators from Pesticides: Video recording of three presentations from Beyond Pesticides' National Pesticide Forum.
Colony
Collapse Disorder
The crisis of colony
collapse disorder (CCD) in the honeybee population is an increasingly
widespread phenomenon of bees disappearing or abandoning their hives.
There are, of course, numerous theories that involve pesticides, viruses,
and pathogens. Bayer CropScience, the manufacturer of one of the implicated
pesticides, imidacloprid and clothianidin, dismisses the pesticide connection.
But countries, including France, Germany and Italy, have taken steps to
limit their use, along with other pesticides like fipronil. The National
Union of French Beekeepers brought the problem to national attention on
and forced their government to restrict these pesticides. The U.S. lags
behind, outside the glare of public outrage and protests that have been
seen in Europe. The pesticide link to bee poisonings is not new. And,
the lack of an adequate regulatory response is as old as our 1972 federal
pesticide law and all its revisions. What we are seeing today is an escalation
of a problem that has been building for decades. Bees support our environment,
pollinating half the flowering plant ecosystem and one-third of agricultural
plants.
Problems
Escalate Under Risk Assessment Standards
The disappearance
of the bees alerts us to a fundamental and systemic flaw in our approach
to the use of toxic chemicals –and highlights the question as to
whether our risk assessment approach to regulation will slowly but surely
cause our demise without a meaningful change of course. While admittedly uncertain and filled with
deficiencies, risk assessments establish unsupported thresholds of acceptable
chemical contamination of the ecosystem, despite the availability of non-toxic
alternative practices and products. Why do we allow chemical-intensive practices
in agriculture when organic practices that eliminate the vast majority
of hazardous substances are commercially viable? Risk assessments, supported
by environmental and public health statutes, in effect prop-up unnecessary
poisoning.
Clothianidin Controversy
An internal EPA memo, leaked to the beekeeping community from an undisclosed source at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in December 2010, shines a spotlight on a key deficiency in the agency’s efforts to protect honeybees.
- EPA Memo, 11-2-2010 - EPA memo declaring core study unacceptable for registration.
- Letter to EPA, 12-08-2010 - Letter requesting removal of chemical by EPA from beekeepers and environmentalists. Also Press Release, Backgrounder, Available for Interviews.
- Listen to beekeeper Tom Theobald and Beyond Pesticides executive director Jay Feldman talk about the leaked EPA document.
- EPA rejects immediate action on pesticide toxic to bees. Read EPA's letter in response to the 12-08-10 letter from beekeepers and environmentalists, including Beyond Pesticides, requesting clothianidin cancelation.
- Read about more about clothianidin here.
What Can You Do?
Solutions to the loss of bees and human productivity are clearly within our reach if we engage our communities and governmental bodies. A little outrage will help. The shift to organic practices is a necessity that is protective of health and the environment, sustainable and cost effective. The bees should serve as a warning because our very existence depends on theirs.
- Tell EPA to ban bee-killing pesticides: You can email EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson directly to tell her you support the ban of clothianidin and other bee-killing pesticides: jackson.lisa@epa.gov. Be sure to also send a copy (CC) to Steve Bradbury, bradbury.steven@epa.gov, Director of EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs.
- Make your yard or local park a "Pesticide Free Zone." Display a Pesticide Free Zone sign and show your neighbors that pesticide-free spaces are important for health and the environment (download owner's manual). You can also order "Green, Safe Lawn for Childen and Pets" doorknob hangers to get the word out in your community.
- Become a backyard beekeeper. Attracting and keeping bees in your backyard may not be as difficult as you may think, especially if you already enjoy gardening. By providing bee habitat in your yard, you can increase the quality and quantity of your garden fruits and vegetables. See our Backyard Beekeeping factsheet.
Protecting Pollinators from Pesticides: Stopping the demise of honeybees
(2011 National Pesticide Forum)
A presentation on protecting honeybees and other pollinators given at "Sustainable Community: Practical solutions for health and the environment, Beyond Pesticides' 29th National Pesticide Forum, April 8-9, 2011, Denver, CO. Speakers: Tom Theobald, owner, Niwot Honey Farms; founder, Boulder County Beekeepers' Association, Niwot, CO; James Frazier, PhD, professor of entomology, Penn State University, University Park, PA; Marygael Meister, president and founder, Denver Beekeepers' Association, Denver, CO.
More Resources
Download the brochure,
Pollinators and Pesticides: Protecting honeybees
and wild pollinators- Pollinators and Pesticides: Escalating crisis demands action, Pesticides and You
- Backyard Beekeeping: Providing pollinator habitat one yard at a time, Pesticides and You
- Film: Vanishing
of the Bees, narrated by Ellen Page