(Beyond Pesticides, June 18, 2019) As the New York Times wrote in November 2018, “The Insect Apocalypse is Here.” But can we reverse it? Pollinator Week this year is overshadowed by a greater, all-encompassing crisis that spans the entire insect world. Scientists and researchers have identified three broad contributors to the crisis: pesticide use, habitat destruction, and climate change. It is evident that multi-national agrichemical industries, companies like Bayer Monsanto, DowDupont, Syngenta, and the umbrella organization Croplife, that pervade our food system share much of the blame. But through public pressure and consumer choice, we can shift towards alternative products and practices, improve biodiversity, and begin to repair the damage done by industrial agriculture.

Pesticide Use

Industrial agricultural often places pesticide use as the first tool in the toolbox of possible fixes to pest problems. This leads to a range of deleterious impacts both up and down the food chain, as both prey and predator succumb to the effects of broad spectrum pesticides. Although it makes common sense that pesticides kill off more than their target insect, the scale of the problem was not realized until a study was published in PLOS One by German researchers. It found, after 27 years of trapping flying insects, that overall biomass declined by 75% within the time frame of their study. Researchers identified agricultural intensification and pesticide use as a plausible cause of the results. As renown UK ecologist and study coauthor David Goulson, PhD, said at the time, “We appear to be making vast tracts of land inhospitable to most forms of life, and are currently on course for ecological Armageddon. If we lose the insects then everything is going to collapse.”

In a systematic review of insect declines made by researchers Francisco Sánchez-Bayo, PhD and Kris A.G. Wyckhuys, PhD, pesticide use was identified as a critical component of addressing the crisis at large. “A rethinking of current agricultural practices, in particular a serious reduction in pesticide usage and its substitution with more sustainable, ecologically-based practices, is urgently needed to slow or reverse current trends, allow the recovery of declining insect populations and safeguard the vital ecosystem services they provide,” they write.

Habitat Destruction

Clearing land for agriculture is ultimately a necessary undertaking in order to feed human populations. But most impactful is the rate of habitat elimination, and the use of the land cleared for farming. In many countries, including the US, tax incentives and priority has been given to the production of row crops such as corn and soy. But many of these crops don’t make it onto consumer’s plates, and are used as cattle feed, or in the production of biofuels.

The most salient and recognizable impact of industrial agriculture’s influence on habitat destruction has been with butterflies and moths. In the U.S., both western and eastern monarchs are in catastrophic declines. In the 1980s, over 10 million western monarchs overwintered in California. In the late 1990s, that number had shrunk to 1.2 million. This past winter recorded only 200,000 monarchs at breeding sites. Eastern monarchs have also seen their numbers vanish – from nearly one billion in the late 1990s, to only 93 million today.

These impacts can be traced to the introduction of genetically engineered (GE) cropping systems, the most extreme version of chemically-dependent, industrial agriculture. These crops have been developed either to produce their own insecticide, or withstand continuous spraying of highly toxic herbicides. In the case of monarchs, repeated, broad-scale herbicide applications have led to the loss of milkweed plants the butterflies require to lay their eggs.

Climate Change

In a study conducted in Puerto Rico, researchers found 90% declines of ground dwelling insects over a period of 35 years. The authors attribute these impacts to rapidly increasing temperatures on the island. “The number of hot spells, temperatures above 29C, have increased tremendously,” study co-author Bradford Lister, PhD told the Guardian. “It went from zero in the 1970s up to something like 44% of the days.”

Intensive farming practices are significant contributors to man-made climate change. Within the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 10% of emissions are a result of agriculture. While gross production of CO2 is relatively low at 1%, the rest of the discharge comes in the form of crop and livestock emissions of methane and nitrous oxides from synthetic fertilizers. These chemicals are greenhouse gases with heat-trapping power hundreds of times more potent than CO2.

Averting the Apocalypse

The response to industrial agriculture must take into account the possibility for food production to result in these wide-ranging adverse impacts. But in each area, organic agriculture provides an answer to the industrial model. Not all organic farms are perfect, and weakening of organic regulations has the potential to permit more farms to operate a monoculture, industrial model, so advocates and consumers must remain vigilant in defense of organic principles.

But when organic principles are put into practice, soil sequesters carbon, land use fosters insect biodiversity, and pesticides are rarely employed. Some argue that organic is also a contributor to climate change. But studies show that organic farms sequester 13% more CO2 than conventional farms. A white paper published by the Rodale Institute in 2014,  Regenerative Organic Agriculture and Climate Change: A Down-to-Earth Solution to Global Warming, argues that it is possible to sequester more than 100% of current annual CO₂ emissions by switching to widely available and inexpensive organic management practices, which are referred to in the paper as “regenerative organic agriculture.”

Organic detractors will also claim that organic farms require more land than conventional farms. But by reshaping lands currently under mono-crop production into diverse organic cropping systems, we can improve these agricultural areas so that they foster, rather than destroy, biodiverse insect populations.  Research finds that while conventional farms are often devoid of pest predators, organic farms can maintain their numbers.

Many will also claim that pesticides compatible with organic systems are just as or more dangerous as those used in conventional farming. This is simply untrue. In fact, the review process for allowed materials is much more rigorous in its protection of human health and biodiversity, resulting in the only real option we have to preserve life on this planet. Pesticides in organic must be evaluated for their impacts to health and the environment, essentiality, and compatibility with an organic system. With any pesticide in organic, its use is not allowed without an “organic systems plan” that, through soil management, the planting of buffer zones, cover crops, and trap crops, can avoid or even the use of the least-toxic pesticides approved under organic certification.

This Pollinator Week, help raise awareness of the role industrial agrichemical companies play in the promotion of industrial agricultural practices. By advocating for safer practices to grow food we eat, and purchasing organic whenever possible, we can stop making food production and insect abundance a zero-sum situation. For more actions you can take to honor pollinators and the insect world this Pollinator Week, see previous Daily News stories and the Bee Protective webpage.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

(Beyond Pesticides, June 17, 2019) During Pollinator Week, starting June 17, ask your elected representative in Congress to support pollinators by co-sponsoring Saving America’s Pollinators Act (SAPA). If they are already a cosponsor, use the occasion to thank them for their leadership on this critical issue.

With the ongoing saga that is the pollinator crisis, we know who the villains of this story are: Bayer, Syngenta, Croplife America, and other multi-national companies that produce, promote, and protect pollinator-toxic pesticides.

But where are the heroes? 

Pollinator Week should be a week-long celebration of pollinators and the benefits they provide for people and the environment. Unfortunately, we must point out that the wrongdoers are running the show, and our fluttering friends are disappearing.

Chemical corporations use this week to greenwash their products by sponsoring outreach events that completely ignore their role in unprecedented pollinator declines. Don’t be fooled by their disguise.

We know that real solutions won’t come from a masked crusader. It won’t be a singular superhero that saves the day. In order to fight the fiendish forces behind the global insect apocalypse, we need a mass mobilization of everyday heroes. Heroes like you can inspire good in your elected officials.

Ask your elected representative in Congress to support pollinators by co-sponsoring Saving America’s Pollinators Act (SAPA). If they are already a cosponsor, use the occasion to thank them for their leadership on this critical issue.

By introducing this critical piece of legislation, U.S. Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Jim McGovern (D-MA) have begun the fight to protect pollinators in the face of the vested economic interests of chemical companies, chemical service industry, and an unresponsive U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). And as a result of pollinator heroes like yourself, they’ve already enlisted 52 cosponsors to join the effort.

The Saving America’s Pollinators Act (H.R.1337) will not only cancel specific bee-toxic pesticides, it will reshape the EPA process for permitting pesticides to be used in our communities and homes in the first place. Current law is filled with language that allows chemical lobbyists to unduly influence EPA decisions and loopholes that favor pesticide dependency instead of incentivizing alternatives like organic practices and products.

Under SAPA, pesticides that pose risks to pollinators will undergo a higher level of review by a board of unbiased pollinator experts. If these experts, who will not have conflicts of interest with the chemical industry, determine a pesticide is too toxic, then it will be removed or never allowed on the market in the first place.

SAPA creates a sustainable model for pollinator protection, including an annual, ongoing review on the health of pollinator populations. In the face of an EPA captured by chemical company corruption, SAPA will become an important tool to prevent ongoing chemical crimes against pollinators and the environment.

During Pollinator Week, starting June 17, ask your elected representative in Congress to support pollinators by co-sponsoring Saving America’s Pollinators Act (SAPA). If they are already a cosponsor, use the occasion to thank them for their leadership on this critical issue.

Stay tuned to Beyond Pesticides Facebook and Twitter for more heroic actions you can take during Pollinator Week 2019.

(Beyond Pesticides, June 14, 2019) Next week, June 17–22, marks Pollinator Week 2019, a celebration of the beauty and benefits these critical species provide, but also a call to action to protect pollinators and the natural world. Since United States Senate declared the first Pollinator Week in 2007, nearly every week since there has been new research published linking pesticides to pollinator declines. Yet the companies that produce pollinator-toxic pesticides, like Bayer and Syngenta, make use of this week to excuse their products from any culpability. Instead, they sponsor events and posters, discussing every threat to bees except those posed by the pesticides that make up their bottom line.

They are the villains in this story, but there is no superhero in line to save bees, butterflies, birds, and bats.  That’s why it’s up to you, everyday heroes that support protecting pollinators, to alert the public, and inspire good in elected officials.

We’ve outlined a week of actions aimed at educating and inspiring action to protect pollinators.

Monday
Support the New Saving America’s Pollinators Act (SAPA), HR1337. SAPA represents the best opportunity to enact meaningful changes at the federal level that will protect pollinators in the long term. This bill, reintroduced by Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Jim McGovern (D-MA), would immediately cancel pollinator-toxic pesticides and institute a Pollinator Protection Board of experts to review other pesticides for their toxicity to pollinators. On Monday, help us raise awareness of this legislation and inspire your Congressional Representative to add to the current list of 53 cosponsors.

Tuesday
The Insect Apocalypse and the Magnitude of the Current Crisis. It’s not just pollinators that are in decline. More and more studies are showing that the entire insect world is under at global catastrophic risk. However, the root causes of these emergencies all relate to the global spread of industrial agriculture and its operations to displace and/or poison habitat, whether directly through the destruction of wild lands for farming, or the application of pesticides, or indirectly through their contributions to climate change. On Tuesday, help us fight back against totalitarian agricultural practices that place profit above the natural world.

Wednesday
Watch and Share the short film, “Seeds that Poison.” The majority of corn, soybeans, and other food crop seeds are coated with toxic pesticides. Many seeds and flowers marketed as “bee-friendly” at garden centers are also contaminated with systemic chemicals. These pesticides emerge from the seed through the plant, and invade soil biology and surrounding waterways, causing indiscriminate poisoning and contamination.  On Wednesday, share this video with your friends, neighbors, and community, and encourage them to purchase organic, uncoated seeds in their yards and gardens.

Thursday
Protect Pollinators in the Marketplace. Groceries sold in supermarkets like Harris Teeter, Fred Meyer, King Soopers, and other Kroger-owned stores can contain pollinator-toxic pesticides. Kroger has the ability to eliminate these highly toxic chemicals in the food products it sells, but it has so far refused to do so. On Thursday, we’ll be asking Kroger customers to visit their local stores and deliver a letter urging them to remove highly toxic pesticides from its supply chain and provide more affordable, organic options.

Friday
Promote organic, pesticide free zones and join the #ProtectPollinators twitter chat. To save pollinators, we need a positive vision for the future of food production and pest management. Organic agriculture and land management is a necessary part of that future – and every individual can do something in their own yard or community towards that effort. Show the world you’re protecting pollinators and model what’s possible without pesticides by placing a marker on the Pesticide Free Zone Map. Take the Pesticide Free Zone Survey, and upload a picture of your pollinator friendly, pesticide-free lawn, yard, or garden.

We’ll also be joining allies in a #ProtectPollinators twitter chat on Friday, June 21 at 12pm to call out industry malfeasance, and spread the word about the important efforts going on throughout the country – at the local, state, and federal level, to truly #protectpollinators.

Thank you to all who can engage in these efforts and be a pollinator hero this pollinator week. Stay tuned for more updates throughout next week!

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

(Beyond Pesticides, June 13, 2019) The U.S. allows the use of 85 pesticides that have been banned or are being phased out in the European Union, China or Brazil, according to a peer-reviewed study published last week by the academic journal Environmental Health.

In 2016, the U.S. used 322 million pounds of pesticides that are banned in the E.U., accounting for more than one-quarter of all agricultural pesticide use in this country, according to the study. U.S. applicators also used 40 million pounds of pesticides that are banned or being phased out in China and 26 million pounds of pesticides that are banned or being phased out in Brazil.

“It’s appalling the U.S. lags so far behind these major agricultural powers in banning harmful pesticides,” said Nathan Donley, PhD, a senior scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity and author of the study. “The fact that we’re still using hundreds of millions of pounds of poisons other nations have wisely rejected as too risky spotlights our dangerously lax approach to phasing out hazardous pesticides.”

The study compared the approval status of more than 500 pesticides used in outdoor applications in the world’s four largest agricultural economies: the United States, European Union, China and Brazil.

Report Highlights

• The U.S. EPA continues to allow use of 85 pesticides for outdoor agricultural applications that are banned or in the process of being completely phased out elsewhere, including 72 in the E.U., 17 in Brazil and 11 in China.
• The U.S. has banned only four pesticides still approved for use in the E.U., Brazil or China.
• Pesticides approved in the U.S. but banned or being phased out in at least two of the three other nations in the study include: 2,4-DB, bensulide, chloropicrin, dichlobenil, dicrotophos, EPTC, norflurazon, oxytetracycline, paraquat, phorate, streptomycin, terbufos and tribufos.
• The majority of pesticides banned in at least 2 of the 3 nations studied have not appreciably decreased in the U.S. over the past 25 years and almost all have stayed constant or increased over the past 10 years. Many have been implicated in acute pesticide poisonings in the U.S., and some have been further restricted by individual states.

The study concludes that deficiencies in the U.S. pesticide regulatory process are the likely cause of the country failing to ban or phase out pesticides that the E.U., China and Brazil have prohibited.

The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act gives the U.S. EPA significant discretion on which pesticides to cancel and makes the EPA-initiated, nonvoluntary cancellation process particularly onerous and politically fraught. This has, in effect, made pesticide cancellation in the U.S. largely a voluntary endeavor by the pesticide industry itself. As a result, pesticide cancellations in the U.S. are more often economic decisions rather than decisions made to protect human or environmental health.

“Bans are the most effective way to prevent exposures to highly hazardous pesticides and can spur the transition to safer alternatives,” said Dr. Donley. “A combination of weak laws and the EPA’s broken pesticide regulatory process has allowed the pesticide industry to dictate which pesticides stay in use. That process undermines the safety of agricultural workers and anyone who eats food and drinks water in this country.”

The U.S. EPA’s Pesticide Office has come under intense scrutiny in recent years as a result of numerous scandals, including:

• Ignoring its own established protocols to conclude that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, does not cause cancer, a finding that’s at odds with the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, EPA’s Office of Research and Development and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry;
• Its refusal to protect endangered species from pesticides, even when it’s been demonstrated by other federal agencies that use of the chemicals could put certain species at risk of extinction;
• The agency’s industry-motivated decision to overturn a long-overdue ban on chlorpyrifos despite compelling evidence that it harms the brains of children;
• The recent approval of the largest ever expansion of medically-important antibiotics for use in plant agriculture, ignoring strong concerns about increased antibiotic resistance from the FDA, CDC and public health officials;
• Having to change the instructions on the dicamba pesticide label twice after the drift-prone pesticide damaged a reported 5 million acres of crops, trees and backyard gardens over the last two years.
• Its liberal use of an “emergency” exemption loophole that allows unapproved pesticides to be used for routine, foreseeable situations for many consecutive years.

Source: Press Release, Center for Biological Diversity
Contact: Nathan Donley, PhD, Center for Biological Diversity, 917-717-6404, [email protected]

(Beyond Pesticides, June 12, 2019) A new study finds that the widespread insecticide fipronil causes transgenerational toxicity across generations of zebrafish. Fipronil, already known to be highly toxic to aquatic organisms, is now implicated in causing even more damage than previously thought. Even individuals who are not themselves directly exposed are shown to suffer from maternally transmitted toxic effects, including a more than doubled mortality rate.

The study, published in Environmental Pollution, tracks hatching, growth, and survival of offspring whose mothers were exposed to fipronil. Researchers exposed a total of 90 adult female zebrafish to environmentally relevant levels of fipronil, within the range of concentrations known to occur in U.S. surface waters, for a period of 28 days. After exposure, females were mated with unexposed males, and their offspring were monitored for hatching, growth, locomotor behavior, heart rate, toxicity and gene expression assays. The conclusion: maternal fipronil exposure induced multiple toxic effects in offspring, including a 30% reduction in hatch rates and, alarmingly, a more than doubling of the offspring mortality rate.

Fipronil is a broad-spectrum insecticide widely used for indoor and turf pest control in the U.S., and identified as a ubiquitous contaminant of U.S. surface waters. Fipronil is a known endocrine disruptor and has been shown to disrupt thyroid function in humans and wildlife.

These new results indicate that non-target organisms need not be directly exposed to fipronil to feel its effects. Offspring in the study were found to be contaminated with fipronil and its highly toxic degradation product, fipronil sulfone, at concentrations that varied in a dose-dependent manner with maternal treatment. Maternal transmission of toxins, authors report, may have caused some of the observed toxic effects. However, in addition to the more direct pathway of toxin transmission, the indirect disruption of maternal thyroid hormones likely played a major role in harming offspring.

Fipronil sulfone, a highly toxic derivative of fipronil, detected in offspring in the new study, has previously been shown to cause thyroid disruption in mammals. Adding to these findings, authors of the present study found that fipronil exposure, both direct and indirect, significantly lowered the levels of thyroid hormones. Because maternal thyroid hormones are known to be critical to embryonic development, the researchers believe that this mechanism of thyroid disruption to be one of the principle drivers behind the observed toxic effects.

Aquatic organisms are far from the only group threatened by continued use of fipronil and similar systemic insecticides. Fipronil has been heavily implicated in elevated bee toxicity and decline, acting to reduce behavioral function and learning performances in honey bees, for example. One 2011 French study reported that newly emerged honey bees exposed to low doses of fipronil and thiacloprid succumbed more readily to the parasite Nosema ceranae compared to healthy bees,  supporting the hypothesis that the synergistic combination of parasitic infection and high pesticide exposures in beehives may contribute to colony decline. An extensive overview of the major studies showing the effects of pesticides on pollinator health can be found on Beyond Pesticides’ What the Science Shows  webpage.

Fipronil is also a threat to human health. It has been classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a Group C (possible human) carcinogen. A recent study of pesticide exposure among teenage girls living in Salinas Valley found that 84 out of 97 girls were routinely exposed to fipronil sulfide, a breakdown product of fipronil. As the authors note, fipronil “has exhibited oncogenicity and neurologic toxicity in animal studies,” raising concerns for 86.6% of children living in agricultural zones, whose routine exposure levels the study reflected.

These newest findings add to the litany of harms wrought by continued use of fipronil and similar toxic insecticides. Risk assessments cannot possibly capture the complex and nuanced ways in which the chemicals we allow to reach ubiquitous levels in our waterways end up causing irrevocable damage to countless organisms, and to ourselves. If fipronil can harm fish without directly touching them, what else can it do?

Join Beyond Pesticides in advocating for regulation and management that follows the precautionary principle. Stay abreast of the latest updates in science and regulation by following the Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog. Become a member to gain access to a supportive network of like-minded individuals and organizations. Together, we can build a future free of toxic pesticides.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Environmental Pollution

(Beyond Pesticides, June 11, 2019) Genetically engineered (GE) wheat developed to tolerate repeated applications of Bayer Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide has been discovered in a farm field in Washington State. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has never approved a GE wheat variety for commercial production, making the incident a potential economic export risk. In the past, Asian and European countries have temporarily blocked purchases of U.S. wheat as a result of GE contamination. Organic and non-GE farmers are also at risk as any contamination with non-GE varieties can result in loss of certifications and price premiums.

According to USDA, the discovery was made on an unplanted wheat field, though officials have refused to disclose where in the state the GE plants were found. In 2013, a similar situation played out in Oregon after a farmer noticed wheat plants persisting after an application of Roundup. The discovery led to a number of lawsuits against agrichemical company Monsanto, which is now owned by Bayer Cropscience.

At the time, Monsanto indicated that the incident was isolated, or potentially even the result of “sabotage.” An investigation by USDA was inconclusive, indicating the case “appears to be an isolated occurrence and that there is no evidence of any GE wheat in commerce.” However, the Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) noted it was, “unable to determine exactly how the GE wheat came to grow in the farmer’s field.”

Though wheat is commonly self-pollinating, it can be wind pollinated, with some studies showing the crop cross pollinating up to one and a half miles from where it’s planted.

Just as USDA wrapped up its 2013 Oregon investigation, GE wheat was again discovered growing at the Montana State University’s Southern Agricultural Research Center (SARC). In both instances, GE wheat field trials had occurred in the early 2000s, but not grown since then. USDA vowed to tighten up any GE wheat planting trials since those incidents.

The news comes in the midst of an ongoing trade war struggles for U.S. farmers, although APHIS is again insisting that there is no evidence GE wheat has entered commercial supplies. The US Wheat Associates and National Association of Wheat Growers said in a statement, “We cannot speculate or comment about any potential market reactions until we have a chance to discuss the situation in more detail with overseas customers.”

GE wheat is an unnecessary experiment with numerous downsides for average farmers and the marketplace as a whole, and upsides that would only further benefit multinational agrichemical companies like Bayer Monsanto. According to the Center for Food Safety, the U.S. is the world’s biggest exporter of wheat, an over $8 billion business. A 2005 study estimated that the wheat industry could lose $94 to $272 million if GE wheat were introduced. Past transgenic contamination episodes involving GE corn and GE rice have triggered over $1 billion in losses and economic hardship to farmers.

The risks are particularly pronounced for organic farmers. Under current regulations, organic and non-GE conventional farmers must pay for crop assurance or self-insure themselves against unwanted GE contamination. Placing the onus on these farmers that can lose their organic certification or price premium from industrial operations is the wrong approach to safeguarding the food supply. Not only are these farmers at risk of genetic drift from GE varieties, increased use of herbicides like Roundup means a higher likelihood that herbicides will drift, which can damage crops and also lead to a loss of certification.

Organic farming represents a viable, scalable path towards a safer food supply and better trade relations for U.S. agricultural exports. While industry-captured regulatory agencies like USDA continue to promote the benefit of GE agriculture and downplay its many risks, farmers, farmworkers, the economy, the environment and public health suffer. Learn more about the risks of GE herbicide tolerant crops by visiting Beyond Pesticides’ Genetic Engineering webpage.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Bloomberg, Morning AgClips

(Beyond Pesticides, June 10, 2019) On May 20, U.S. Representative Nydia Velazquez, with 18 co-sponsors, introduced H.R. 2854, “To amend the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966 to prohibit the use of neonicotinoids in a National Wildlife Refuge, and for other purposes.” The bill follows an August 2018 Trump administration announcement that reversed a 2014 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) decision to ban neonicotinoid insecticides on National Wildlife Refuges.

Tell members of Congress to protect biodiversity by co-sponsoring HR 2854, which reinstates the 2014 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ban on neonicotinoid pesticide use in wildlife refuges that was reversed by the Trump administration in 2018.

The administration’s action threatens not only pollinators, but contributes to the attack on biodiversity worldwide. “These pollutants upset the delicate ecosystems of our Wildlife Refuges and they have no place in our public lands,” said Rep.Velázquez. “The ban’s revocation comes as mounting evidence suggests the chemical has damaging environmental effects on bees and other pollinators, undermining the national wildlife system,” she continued.

In 2014, FWS announced that all National Wildlife Refuges would join in the phase-out of neonics (while also phasing out genetically engineered crops) by January 2016. FWS “determined that prophylactic use, such as a seed treatment, of the neonicotinoid pesticides that can distribute systemically in a plant and can potentially affect a broad spectrum of non-target species is not consistent with Service policy. We make this decision based on a precautionary approach to our wildlife management practices and not on agricultural practices.” This move was not only intended to protect honey bees that have suffered average losses above 30% since 2006, but also the federally threatened and endangered pollinators that live in National Wildlife Refuges.

However, it is not just pollinators who are affected. Recent research has found dramatic drops in overall insect abundance, leading entomologists to speak of an “insect apocalypse.” Various studies have found reductions of up to a factor 60 over the past 40 years –there were 60 times as many insects in some locations in the 1970s. Insect abundance has declined over 75% in the last 27 years, according to new research published by European scientists in PLOS One. The dramatic drop in insect biomass has led to equally dramatic pronunciations from highly respected scientists and entomologists. “We appear to be making vast tracts of land inhospitable to most forms of life, and are currently on course for ecological Armageddon,” study coauthor David Goulson, Ph.D. of Sussex University, UK, told The Guardian. “If we lose the insects then everything is going to collapse.”

Insects play important roles in food webs –most song birds, for example, depend on insects during the breeding season, at least. Insects are important decomposers –Australia had to import dung beetles to handle the waste problem caused by the importation of cattle. They contribute to the health of soils. The loss of insect abundance poses cascading effects at all ecosystem levels.

Neonicotinoids also pose a direct threat to non-insect wildlife, including birds. Birds and other wildlife are mobile, moving in and out of crop fields without regard for pesticide treatments. Birds, in particular, absorb pesticide sprays and vapors through respiration, as well as orally in food and preening and dermally by walking in sprayed fields.

It is more important than ever to ban neonicotinoids in National Wildlife Refuges, which should be refuges from toxic chemical use.

Tell members of Congress to protect biodiversity by co-sponsoring HR 2854, which reinstates the 2014 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ban on neonicotinoid pesticide use in wildlife refuges that was reversed by the Trump administration in 2018.

Sponsors include:

Sponsor: Nydia Velazquez (D-NY); Co-sponsors: Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Matt Cartwright (D-PA), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Deb Haaland (D-NM), Jared Huffman (D-CA), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Grace Napolitano (D-CA), Eleanor Norton (D-DC), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Aumua Amata Radewagen (R-ASO), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Bennie Thompson (D-MS)

[If your Representative has already co-sponsored this legislation, the letter below will be sent as a thank you.]

 Letter to U.S. House of Representatives

I am writing to ask you to urge you to co-sponsor H.R. 2854, “To amend the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966 to prohibit the use of neonicotinoids in a National Wildlife Refuge, and for other purposes.” The bill follows an August 2018 Trump administration announcement reversing a 2014 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) decision to ban neonicotinoid insecticides on National Wildlife Refuges. The legislation requires the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Department of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to reinstate the ban on neonicotinoid pesticides in wildlife refuges. The administration’s action threatens not only pollinators, but biodiversity of the whole planet.

In 2014, FWS announced that all National Wildlife Refuges would join in the phase-out of neonics (while also phasing out genetically engineered crops) by January 2016. FWS “determined that prophylactic use, such as a seed treatment, of the neonicotinoid pesticides that can distribute systemically in a plant and can potentially affect a broad spectrum of non-target species is not consistent with Service policy. We make this decision based on a precautionary approach to our wildlife management practices and not on agricultural practices.” This move was not only intended to protect honey bees that have suffered average losses above 30% since 2006, but also the federally threatened and endangered pollinators that live in National Wildlife Refuges. Insect abundance has declined over 75% in the last 27 years, according to new research published by European scientists in PLOS One. The dramatic drop in insect biomass has led to equally dramatic pronunciations from highly respected scientists and entomologists. “We appear to be making vast tracts of land inhospitable to most forms of life, and are currently on course for ecological Armageddon,” study coauthor David Goulson, Ph.D. of Sussex University, UK, told The Guardian. “If we lose the insects then everything is going to collapse.”

However, it is not just pollinators who are affected. As summarized in a New York Times magazine article in November, “The Insect Apocalypse is Here,” recent research has found dramatic drops in overall insect abundance. Various studies have found reductions of up to a factor 60, over the past 40 years –there were 60 times as many insects in some locations in the 1970s. Insects play important roles in food webs –most song birds, for example, depend on insects during the breeding season, at least. Insects are also important decomposers –Australia had to import dung beetles to handle the waste problem caused by the importation of cattle. They contribute to the health of soils. The loss of insect abundance poses cascading effects at all ecosystem levels.

Neonicotinoids also pose a direct threat to non-insect wildlife, including birds. Birds and other wildlife are mobile, moving in and out of crop fields without regard for pesticide treatments. Birds are particularly vulnerable, having high metabolic and respiratory rates. They absorb pesticide sprays and vapors through respiration, as well as orally in food and preening and dermally by walking in sprayed fields.

It is more important than ever to ban neonicotinoids in National Wildlife Refuges, which should be refuges from toxic chemical use.

Please consider co-sponsoring H.R. 2854, “To amend the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966 to prohibit the use of neonicotinoids in a National Wildlife Refuge, and for other purposes.”

Sincerely,

(Beyond Pesticides, June 7, 2019) Fruit orchards and vineyards endure some of the most intensive chemical management in all of agriculture. What has not been investigated — until now — is how pesticide drift from such agricultural sites may be affecting nearby public spaces. A recent, first-of-its-kind study out of northern Italy tested 71 public playgrounds near to apple orchards and vineyards in four valleys of the North Tyrol, and finds that 45% are contaminated with a single pesticide, and 24% by more than one. Study authors note that the playground contamination will likely grow worse over the course of the growing season. This would likely amplify the impacts of such chemical trespass on nearby public spaces, never mind the varieties of harm to the sites themselves and the food produced on them. Organic agriculture, of course, remedies all these concerns.

The study randomly chose 71 public playgrounds in the four South Tyrolean regions, and analyzed grass samples for potential contamination by 315 different pesticides. Because pesticides applied to agricultural fields, orchards, and vineyards are easily volatized, carried aloft by wind, and/or washed by rain off of the target site, the study also evaluated the impacts of those (and other) factors on the degree of pesticide contamination at playgrounds.

Published in Environmental Sciences Europe in early May, the investigation, which was conducted at the start of the growing season, discovered that 92% of the dozen pesticides detected are endocrine disrupting (ED) compounds. EDs mimic the actions of endogenous hormones, and are linked to a variety of human health anomalies, including reproductive dysfunction and neurodevelopmental distortion, as well as cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and childhood and adult cancers. The economic health costs associated with the use of endocrine disrupting chemicals were recently identified as $340 billion annually.

The compounds found across the four study sites were the pesticides phosmet, imidacloprid, chlorpyrifos-methyl, methoxyfenozide, and cypermethrin; fungicides fluazinam, dodine, difenoconazole, penconazole, tetraconazole, and penthiopyrad; and the herbicide oxadiazon. Among those, only dodine has no association with endocrine function. Cypermethrin, oxadiazon and tetraconazole are confirmed endocrine disruptors; chlorpyrifos-methyl, fluazinam, penthiopyrad, and methoxyfenozide are suspected endocrine disruptors; and difenoconazole, imidacloprid, penconazole, and phosmet are endocrine-active substances, or potential endocrine disruptors.

The authors identify, as a limitation of the study, the fact that it analyzed only active ingredients, and did not consider impacts of metabolites and adjuvants, “although these have also been classified as highly toxic.” They add, “Not much is known about effects by exposure to multiple substances. It is known, however, that the exposure to an increasing number of EDs in the environment is associated with an increasing incidence of hormone-dependent cancers like breast, prostate and thyroid and a decreasing sperm quality in the European and U.S. population.”

This investigation was undertaken because researchers recognized that children’s ED exposures are of especial concern, given that — if they happen during critical developmental windows — they increase the risk of adverse health effects, as compared with adult outcomes. Children play on grass and soil at playgrounds, and may have additional exposure risk through inhalation. Too, public spaces such as playgrounds are frequented by more-vulnerable people, such as children and pregnant women, and exposure times at these sites may be protracted.

Peter Clausing, Dr. sc. agr.,co-author and toxicologist of Pesticide Action Network Germany, comments, “I can imagine that people reading our study will respond that it is not relevant if grass samples are contaminated with pesticides because children do not eat grass. However, the discovery that 92% [of] pesticides found are considered to be endocrine-active substances should worry us. These substances can alter early development, which is an especially sensitive phase for children.” First author Caroline Linhart points to additional utility of their research: “Of course a prediction model always features a range of uncertainty, but the model could considerably contribute to a better pesticide application model, as well as to decrease pesticide drift.”

The published research additionally notes that, “For children, the risk for cancer is even associated with parental exposure to occupational or non-occupational pesticide. Evaluations and measurements of potential hazards for children are essential to conduct health risk assessments of pesticides. For that it is crucial to consider the often neglected, low-dose and diffuse pesticide exposure via spray drift. While this inconspicuous exposure might not yield great amounts of pesticides, the cumulated effect of multiple pesticides might pose risks for human health.”

The study examined: playground distance from agricultural sites, the number of nearby agricultural fields, rainfall, wind direction and speed, and solar irradiance (level of sunlight exposure). Study analyses demonstrated that closer proximity to agricultural sites, rainfall, and strong winds all correlated with higher pesticide concentrations. The authors posit that to reach a “zero pesticide contamination level,” the distance between playgrounds and agricultural sites ought to be at least 100 meters, although they also acknowledged that under strong wind conditions, pesticides may drift 300 meters away and potentially farther.

Koen Hertoge, study leader of the Pesticide Action Network Europe, concludes that current efforts to mitigate pesticide drift are insufficient, and says that comprehensive pesticide monitoring systems should be in place in public spaces nearby to agricultural sites where intensive pesticide use happens. He notes, “These climatic aspects are usually ignored when assessing the environmental impact of pesticides. . . . The EU Directive on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides . . . is up for revision soon (by 2019, but it could be postponed depending on Member States‘ implementation of National Action Plans). We call on this revision for pesticides to finally be banned, rather than ’seriously limited,‘ in public areas.”

As Beyond Pesticides has maintained, society needs to do far better in protecting people from pesticides by reducing and, ultimately, eliminating their use, and transitioning to organic means. It has written about the threats related to aerial spraying and pesticide volatilization and drift, in particular. Beyond Pesticides covers and advocates for alternate approaches — optimally, organic ones — to the use of pesticides for agriculture and other land management. As a recent Daily News Blog noted, organic agriculture is on the rise as people increasingly recognize the serious risks of our chemically intensive conventional approaches to food production. Learn more through the Daily News Blog and the Beyond Pesticides journal, Pesticides and You.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources: https://www.pan-europe.info/press-releases/2019/05/children%E2%80%99s-playgrounds-contaminated-pesticides-apple-and-wine-orchards and https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-019-0206-0

Bromeliads growing on trees in tropical regions provide habitat for a range of insects //Photo credit Edd Hammill

(Beyond Pesticides, June 6, 2019) Pesticide use eliminates pest predators and permits mosquito populations to flourish, according to research conducted in Costa Rica by scientists at Utah State University. The new study, “Adaptation to agricultural pesticides may allow mosquitoes to avoid predators and colonize novel ecosystems,” highlights the dangers of human intervention through broad scale pesticide applications, and the urgent need to consider ecosystem-wide impacts before allowing chemicals to be placed on the market.

As lead study author Edd Hammill, PhD, told National Geographic, the investigation got its start after he observed higher numbers of mosquitoes in orange groves he was visiting, when compared to other, non-agricultural areas. “We felt like we were getting a lot more mosquito bites in plantations than in pristine areas and started to wonder why,” noted Dr. Hammill.

The study focuses first on the role that bromeliads, a tropical flowering plant that grows on tree branches, play in affecting mosquito populations. Mosquitoes use the water that these plants catch in between their leaves to lay eggs. Many other species are found to lay eggs within the leaves, including the top-level predator in this system, the damselfly.

Dr. Hammill’s team looked at community composition within bromeliad leaves at chemical-dependent orange plantations, organic groves, and what they considered “pristine” regions unspoiled by any agricultural production. The results were startling.

Pristine areas had 58% fewer mosquitoes than the chemical-dependent orange groves surveyed. Moreover, chemical-dependent groves have zero damselfly predators within any bromeliad plant sampled; none at all. While organic orange groves have lower levels of damselflies detected than pristine areas, they still contain a viable population of the species.

Researchers want to find out why this might be the case. Discussions with conventional farmers in the region reveal that the organophosphate insecticide dimethoate has been used for up to several decades to manage psyllid pests.

To determine whether pesticide resistance is involved, researchers tested and compared mosquitoes from chemical-intensive groves and pristine areas. Mosquitoes within chemical-dependent groves are able to endure significantly higher levels of pesticide exposure, up to ten times (10x) more than mosquitoes find in pristine areas. Although no damselflies are found in chemical-dependent groves, those in pristine areas were tested for their resistance. While damselflies are more resistant to dimethoate than mosquitoes found in pristine environments, they are significantly more sensitive than mosquitoes that had learned to tolerate the conditions at chemical-dependent farms.

Based on these data, researchers have determined that two forces are driving higher mosquito numbers in chemical-dependent orange plantations: evolutionary changes and predator release. The evolutionary driver is a result of differences in biology between mosquitoes and damselfly predators. Life cycles of the mosquitoes studied are 12 to 24 times shorter than damselflies, providing mosquitoes with a faster opportunity to develop resistant individuals. Given this short life cycle, even a small number of resistant mosquitoes can rapidly repopulate an area with their improved genetics.

Damselflies just cannot catch up in time. This further increases the dominance of mosquitoes in an ecosystem. Without predators to tamp down their populations, mosquitoes are able to colonize new habitats. In this case, mosquitoes in chemical-dependent groves are able to lay eggs in larger bromeliads, whereas in pristine areas the presence of damselflies and other predators make this highly unlikely.

The authors conclude that there is a need to, “not only study the effects of [a] stressor on individual species, but consider how stressor-mediated impacts on species affect the ecological role the species performs.”

Beyond Pesticides is working to draw increased attention to the myriad of ecological impacts pesticides can cause beyond acute effects on one species. These are known as “trophic cascades.” In an article published in summer 2018 Pesticides and You, Pesticide Use Harming Key Species Ripples through the Ecosystem, a discussion of similar impacts from conventional pesticide use leads to the conclusion that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must develop a “No Observed Adverse Effect Level” for ecosystem-wide effects, and remove from the market pesticides that cause these complex, cascading impacts.

This study should be a lesson for vector control operations in any area of the world, as the concepts elucidated in the study are likely to hold true in a range of ecosystems. Highly toxic synthetic pesticides should be the absolute last tool in the toolbox for pest managers, and considered only when there is an imminent public health threat. Otherwise, they are likely to do more harm than good.

For more information on safer community mosquito management, see Beyond Pesticides Mosquito and Insect-Borne Diseases webpage, including the Public Health Mosquito Management Strategy for Decision Makers and Communities.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: National Geographic, Oecologia (peer-reviewed journal)

Help Protect the Integrity of Organic Standards

(Beyond Pesticides, June 5, 2019) Earlier this week, the National Organic Program (NOP) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture published a memo that will put a stop to the practice of allowing organic certification for container systems produced on land managed with substances, such as the herbicide glyphosate, which are not permitted in organic production. The decision comes after broad opposition to this NOP allowance was vociferously expressed by a cross section of commenters at the April meeting of the National Organic Standards Board. The head of NOP, Jenny Tucker, in response to questions, attempted to clarify her previous comment to farmers indicating that the practice met organic standards, but instead incited outrage at the NOSB meeting by refusing to reject the use glyphosate in container growing operations. The NOP decision is not retroactive for operations earlier allowed to use the chemicals.

The NOP memo clarifies and establishes stricter adherence to a pre-existing rule written into the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) of 1990. While this clarification represents a victory for those fighting to keep organic strong, the certification of hydroponic and other container systems as organic continues to present a major challenge for the integrity of a system whose founding law mandates increasing soil fertility, conserving biodiversity, and building soil organic matter.

The new NOP memo clarifies a longstanding rule, known as the “three-year transition period,” as applied specifically to organic crop container systems. The rule states that to be considered as organic under OFPA, crop container systems must be produced on land that has been managed without synthetic chemicals or other prohibited substances, for at least three years immediately preceding harvest.

Without this three-year transition period, organic container system producers could, and did, benefit from the organic label without substantively transitioning any of their land to organic management. Foods labeled as “organic” could be – and have been to this point – produced in containers on land drenched with prohibited pesticides, including the infamous herbicide glyphosate. And, until Monday, the National Organic Program endorsed such behavior.

As reported by the Real Organic Project, “NOP head Jenny Tucker told the National Organic Coalition on several occasions that NO transition time is required for hydroponic to be certified.” In a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) administrator Bruce Summers, the Organic Trade Association remarked, “[R]ecent reports indicate the NOP may be allowing its certifying agents to permit the use of glyphosate on certified organic farms that grow crops in containers.” It appears that in their dealings with organic certifiers, NOP consistently let silence take the place of regulation. In a letter to inspectors, staff, and container based growers, organic certifier Americert stated that the NOP was aware of their own and several other certifiers’ zero-transition practices, and provided no firm guidance as to whether they should abide by the OFPA rule. Americert concluded, “It appears that on this issue, we are left on our own to determine how to proceed.”

Fortunately, certifiers will no longer be left on their own, as the new guidance provides firm grounding for all future container system certification to abide by organic land management practices, for at least three years leading up to organic production. The decision to firm up the transition rule comes after appeals by the Organic Trade Association, the National Organic Coalition, the Organic Farmers Association, Beyond Pesticides, and other allied advocates for organic integrity.

While NOP’s clarification and stricter enforcement come as a welcome victory, their firm stance will only apply to as-yet uncertified operations. The memo explicitly excludes previously certified operations from regulation, grandfathering in even those operations whose land has been treated with prohibited chemicals within the last three years, including up to the very day of certification.

The confusion over how to organically manage container systems arose in the first place due to the relative novelty of allowing any container systems to be considered as “organic.” Beyond Pesticides and allied advocates for organic integrity question the basis for certifying any hydroponic operation as organic, regardless of their transition practices.

Hydroponic plants are grown without soil and fed entirely through manufactured nutrient solutions. Hydroponic operations rely on nutrient inputs that do not return to the system. Whether or not these inputs are organic products, the hydroponic practices themselves, as noted by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) in a recent rulemaking petition, fulfill zero out of the three core requirements that define “organic production” in OFPA: to “foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity.” Soil is integral to organic production. Under OFPA, to be called organic, producers must engage in practices that actively support the rich, living biodiversity of the soil that sustains future production.

The U.S. is the only developed country still allowing hydroponics to fall under the organic label. Canada and Mexico prohibit hydroponics from organic, and the European Parliament voted to end the organic certification of hydroponic products in April 2018. With the U.S. regulatory gates open, industrial hydroponic operations have access to flood the organic market and, longtime organic producers warn, to push soil-based organic farmers out of business. “Hydroponic producers getting the benefit of the organic label without actually doing anything to benefit the soil undermines the standard and puts all soil-based organic farmers at an untenable economic disadvantage,” stated Kate Mendenhall of the Organic Farmers Association.

Organic growers and advocates warn that without a serious effort to protect it, the organic label could become wholly misleading with respect to its central tenets: prohibition of synthetic chemicals and commitment to soil improvement and biodiversity conservation.

Join Beyond Pesticides in the fight to protect organic integrity, and ultimately, to protect our future. Wholescale agricultural transformation is urgently needed to regain lost ground and ensure a future for ourselves and our children. Watch Jay Feldman’s (executive director of Beyond Pesticides) talk on organizing for organic integrity at the Real Organic Project March symposium. Contribute to the movement to protect the organic label by joining Beyond Pesticides. Stay abreast of new legal and regulatory developments through Beyond Pesticides’ Daily News Blog.  To stay engaged with the organic rulemaking process, visit Beyond Pesticides’ Keeping Organic Strong webpage.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources: Real Organic Project, National Organic Standards Board

Hot Shot No Pest Strip placed near bagels and pastries in Starbucks store

(Beyond Pesticides, June 4, 2019) A class-action lawsuit is accusing Starbucks stores in New York of misusing a highly toxic, carcinogenic pesticide near food, putting the health of customers and employees at risk.  “Stores throughout Manhattan have for many years been permeated with a toxic pesticide called Dichlorvos [DDVP], which is highly poisonous and completely unfit for use in proximity to food, beverages and people,” the suit reads.

According to the lawsuit, Hot Shot brand No Pest Strips were placed in food areas in violation of labels that prohibit the pesticide’s use in “the food/feed areas of food/feed processing or food/feed manufacturing or food/feed service establishments.” A pest control operator found the illegally placed products on a number of separate occasions, hidden under bagels or in pastry display cases, during a five year period from 2013 to 2018. This was not at only one location, but appeared to be a common occurrence at nearly every one of the 100+ stores serviced by the pest control operator.

The case brings to light a number of issues with the use of synthetic pesticides. The unsanitary conditions permitted to persist within Starbucks stores, per the pictures provided in the suit (see page 14), are indicative of an overreliance on synthetic pesticides to treat routine pest issues. This approach relies solely on a chemical solution to address pests, treating them as symptoms, while ignoring the root causes of pest problems, which can be more effectively addressed through proper sanitation, for example.

According to the suit, the pest control operator relayed the information on the illegal pesticide use to his manager, who subsequently alerted Starbucks. Numerous complaints were filed with Starbucks management, and the New York Department of Health cited the company for illegal pesticide use. Despite these warnings, the suit indicates that Starbucks’ Regional Quality Assurance Manager had admittedly, “failed to internalize ‘the importance of breaking this habit’ and instead continued to misuse DDVP in Manhattan-area stores with impunity.”

Stores continue to use the pesticide to this day, the suit alleges, “having made the decision that it is more cost effective to pay for the strips than clean up the underlying root cause of the infestations—the unsanitary conditions that pervade its Manhattan stores.”

The vast majority of common pest problems require no pesticide use at all. An organic pest management approach aims to correctly identify pests, monitor, determine action levels, keep records, and focus on prevention tactics. This approach emphasizes sanitation, structural repairs, proper food storage, and other methods that eliminate pest habitat.

Unsanitary conditions documented in lawsuit against Starbucks

Dichlorvos is an organophosphate insecticide with strong links to cancer. EPA indicates it has “suggestive” evidence of carcinogenicity, and it is listed as a carcinogen under California Prop 65. As Beyond Pesticides writes in its fact sheet on the chemical, “EPA has determined that the worst-case cancer risk to workers handling DDVP, even when wearing protective clothing, ranged up to 1/100 for exposures that amount (in many cases) to only a couple of weeks of work per year… concerning inhalation exposures encountered by ordinary consumers, EPA estimates that the cancer risk to people with No-Pest™ strips hanging in their homes may be as high as 8/1000.”

It is important to be reminded that this is a level of risk – 1 out of 100 applicators and 8 out of 1,000 home users contracting cancer – that EPA accepts as reasonable under its current review process that allows pesticides in the marketplace.

The chemical has a strong propensity to off-gas when used in “strips” similar to those in Starbucks stores, and apart from cancer concerns, poses acute risks to exposed individuals. It is easily absorbed by the body both through skin contact and food consumption. Like other pesticides in the organophosphate chemical class, DDVP inhibits a critical nervous system enzyme called acetylcholine esterase. Acute symptoms include headaches, stomach cramps, excessive salivation, muscle twitching, and in some cases delayed neuropathy.

Unsanitary conditions documented in lawsuit against Starbucks

Do not be like Starbucks. If you have a pest problem, address it early by internalizing good pest management practices into your daily routines. Make sure messes are cleaned up after they are made, food is stored in tightly sealed containers, water and dishes are not left out, floors are clear of food debris, leaky faucets are repaired, and that windows are tightly sealed and doors have door sweeps to prevent pest entry. This any other simple techniques can keep homes and businesses pest free. And in cases where, despite your best efforts, you do have a pest problem, check out Beyond Pesticides’ ManageSafe page for nontoxic practices to address the issue, and least-toxic pest control products that should be used only as a last resort.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: CBS News, Wigdor LLP, Class Action Complaint

(Beyond Pesticides, June 3, 2019) As the signs of environmental crises tied to pesticide use escalate and the need for action becomes more urgent, elected officials at the state level must step up to meet the challenges to protect biodiversity and ecosystems essential to life. Waiting on Congress to act allows precious time to pass without critically needed action. The White House fails to acknowledge scientific findings about adverse effects that threaten the sustainability of the environment and human survival. In the last several months, key pieces of science call for dramatic action to eliminate toxic pesticide use and put organic and sustainable practices in place.

Ask Your Governor to Issue an Executive Order to Protect the Ecosystems and Biodiversity of Your State.

*A 1,500-page assessment from the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity project — the IPBES [Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services] Global Assessment Summary for Policymakers is the most comprehensive look to date at the biodiversity crisis and its implications for human civilization. The findings, approved by an intergovernmental body of 132 member states, including the U.S., provide a devastating assessment of the state of biodiversity and of ecosystem services, which support the delicate balance of nature.

*The “crash” of pollinators is happening in a wider context of biological and biodiversity loss. The lack of attention to loss in insect populations broadly was identified in a dramatic November 18, 2018 New York Times article, “The Insect Apocalypse Is Here,” which called out the staggering attrition in insect populations during the last few decades. Here in the U.S., scientists discovered relatively recently that the population of monarch butterflies has fallen by 90% in the last 20 years, and that populations of the rusty-patched bumblebee (which used to be found in 28 states) dropped by 87% in the same period. Beyond Pesticides also noted the phenomenon in its coverage of a 2017 study by a German entomological society, which found a decline in total flying insect biomass in protected areas of the country of more than 75% over a 27-year period.

Governors, in issuing an executive order to protect biodiversity and survival of organisms essential to sustaining life, must manage public lands with practices that are compatible with ecosystem health. Last year, then-Governor of California Jerry Brown issued an executive order in tandem with a Biodiversity Initiative that recognizes the importance of state action to protect biodiversity. It recognizes that the state’s plants and animals co-exist to create the complex ecosystems upon which so much of California’s people and economy depend. The initiative is supported by a 2018-19 state budget allocation of $2.5 million, establishing a partnership with tribal groups, educators and researchers, the private sector, philanthropic groups and landowners. Although the California initiative does not specifically address the contribution of pesticides and chemical-intensive land management to biodiversity decline, based on scientific findings, eliminating toxic pesticide use and adopting an organic land management approach is key to the solution.

Ask Your Governor to Issue an Executive Order to Protect the Ecosystems and Biodiversity of Your State.

Letter to Governor

I respectfully implore you, in the face of scientific findings, to use your executive order power to establish an initiative to protect biodiversity and the ecosystems in our state. Waiting on Congress and the White House to act allows precious time to pass without critically needed action to address adverse effects that threaten the sustainability of the environment and human survival. In the last several months, key scientific findings call for dramatic action to eliminate toxic pesticide use and put organic and sustainable practices in place.

*A 1,500-page assessment from the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity project — the IPBES [Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services] Global Assessment Summary for Policymakers is the most comprehensive look to date at the biodiversity crisis and its implications for human civilization. The findings, approved by an intergovernmental body of 132 member states, including the U.S., provide a devastating assessment of the state of biodiversity and of the ecosystem services, which support the delicate balance of nature.

*The “crash” of pollinators is happening in a wider context of biological and biodiversity loss. The lack of attention to loss in insect populations broadly was identified in a dramatic November 18, 2018 New York Times article, “The Insect Apocalypse Is Here,” which called out the staggering attrition in insect populations during the last few decades. Here in the U.S., scientists discovered relatively recently that the population of monarch butterflies has fallen by 90% in the last 20 years, and that populations of the rusty-patched bumblebee (which used to be found in 28 states) dropped by 87% in the same period.  Sánchez-Bayo and Wyckhuys, in their article “Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers,” in Biological Conservation, performed a comprehensive review of research on insect declines, revealing “dramatic rates of decline that may lead to the extinction of 40% of the world’s insect species over the next few decades.”

I urge that your executive order protect biodiversity and survival of organisms essential to sustaining life by managing public lands with organic practices that are compatible with ecosystem health. More broadly, please consider the executive order (bp-dc.org/biodiversity-order) and Biodiversity Initiative (bp-dc.org/biodiversity-action-plan), adopted last year in California, which recognize the importance of state action to protect biodiversity.

Thank you for your consideration.

(Beyond Pesticides, May 31, 2019) Research from Finland provides clear evidence that there is a positive relationship between organic animal farms and bird abundance. While chemical-intensive agriculture is currently a major driver of biodiversity loss worldwide, organic practices can, conversely, bolster wild populations. Furthermore, the research points to the value of scientific analysis to inform policy.

Researchers questioned whether agri-environment-climate schemes (AES), policy elements in the EU where farmers are rewarded for various practices that support biodiversity, are having an impact on the abundance of 46 bird species associated with farmland. They studied the effect of various AES measures related to bird species traits (e.g. diet, migration ecology, Red List status). Using citizen science data from local bird watchers and land use assessments, researchers utilized ArcGIS mapping tools and statistical analysis to quantify relationships among factors.

Organic livestock farming was the only AES measure that had a significant effect on bird abundance. Insectivorous birds as well as long-distance migrant species had the highest positive relationship to organic animal farms. In the discussion, the authors reason that organic animal farms with nutrient-rich, antibiotic-free manure likely increases insect abundance which in turn supports insectivorous and, to a lesser degree, omnivorous birds. Previous studies show cow presence (and, relatedly, their manure) being positively associated with grubby fodder for birds.

In contrast to the findings of this study, researchers in France recently measured a 30% decrease in bird populations in the French countryside over the past 15 years. Vincent Bregnatole, an ecologist and author of the study, told the Guardian, “There are hardly any insects left, that’s the number one problem.” They and others point to intensive pesticide use on monoculture farms as a primary culprit of insect demise.

According to the recent United Nations report on biodiversity, “Species loss is accelerating to a rate tens or hundreds of times faster than in the past.” Over 500,000 terrestrial species “have insufficient habitat for long-term survival” and are headed towards extinction unless habitats are restored.

Organic agriculture, and specifically integrated livestock, clearly offers a viable commercial alternative to chemically-intensive practices. Not only does it support biodiversity (ex. soil biota, insect populations, birds), this practice is a potential solution for the climate crisis. Project Drawdown, a nonpartisan non-profit focused on carbon sequestration, states that if managed grazing could be amped up worldwide it could sequester over 16 gigatons of carbon by 2050. Europe provides a model for farming policy incentives, and the directive of the researchers of this paper includes moving to evidence-based, regional targeting to improve ecological outcomes.

It bears mention that as the organic industry grows the USDA organic label is under threat from large agribusiness seeking to benefit from a burgeoning market. Beyond Pesticides advocates on behalf of family organic dairy farmers who believe in the access to pasture rule, which is vital to providing the benefits named above and protecting small farms.

Former Wisconsin dairy farmer Jim Goodman wrote in the Washington Post, “When six dairy farms in Texas feed their thousands of cows a diet of organic grain and stored forage, with no discernible access to a blade of grass, they end up producing more milk than all 453 organic dairy farms in Wisconsin combined. Then they ship it north, undercutting our price. We can’t make ends meet and are forced out of the business. We played by the rules, but we no longer have a level playing field.” As Beyond Pesticides promotes organic as a solution, it is critical to simultaneously act as a watchdog and strengthen the integrity of the organic label.

Contribute to the movement to protect the organic label by staying abreast of new legal and regulatory developments through Beyond Pesticides’ Daily News Blog.  Stay engaged with the organic rulemaking process through Beyond Pesticides’ Keeping Organic Strong webpage.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources: PLOS, Anthropocene

(Beyond Pesticides, May 30, 2019) Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) agreed to a 2020 deadline for reaching a decision on protection status for monarch butterflies under the Endangered Species Act. This agreement comes nearly five years after the filing of a petition by conservationists with the Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Food Safety led to the launch of an ongoing status review in 2014. While FWS deliberates, monarch butterflies continue their staggering, decades-long population decline, perhaps for the last of their decades.

In the 1990s, the eastern monarch population numbered nearly one billion butterflies, and the western population numbered more than 1.2 million. Last year’s winter counts recorded around 93 million eastern monarchs and fewer than 200,000 western monarchs. That loss is “so staggering that in human-population terms it would be like losing every living person in the United States except those in Florida and Ohio,” Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement to Live Science. Recent studies project that if current trends continue, both eastern and western monarch populations face migratory collapse within the next 20 years.

FWS is no stranger to the threats facing monarch butterflies. A 2017 study conducted by FWS on the butterfly’s dwindling population indicated that western monarchs have an extinction risk of 86% within the next 50 years. Within only 20 years, the risk is still 72%. “This study doesn’t just show that there are fewer monarchs now than 35 years ago,” said study author Cheryl Schultz, PhD, an associate professor at Washington State University Vancouver. “It also tells us that, if things stay the same, western monarchs probably won’t be around as we know them in another 35 years.”

Monarchs have lost an estimated 165 million acres of breeding habitat in the United States to herbicide spraying and development. Their caterpillars only eat milkweed, but the plant has been devastated by increased herbicide spraying in conjunction with corn and soybean crops genetically engineered to tolerate direct spraying with herbicides. In addition to herbicides, monarchs are threatened by neonicotinoid insecticides that are toxic to young caterpillars.

“Monarch butterflies clearly warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act, and we urge the Service to propose them for listing by the end of next year,” said George Kimbrell, legal director at the Center for Food Safety.

Monarchs are not alone among butterflies, pollinators, or more broadly, insects, facing imminent risk of population collapse and ultimate extinction if the status quo of pesticide use continues. As documented in the 2019 study, Worldwide Decline of the Entomofauna, in a study of 576 species of butterflies in Europe, researchers found that 80% of species are negatively impacted by herbicide and pesticide use. A California study of butterfly populations monitored from 1972-2012 captured a 65% drop in species counts beginning sharply in 1997, following the introduction of neonicotinoid insecticides to the state in 1995 (Forister et al., 2016).

Insecticides and herbicides both play a critical role in driving monarch butterfly and other insect declines. According to the 2019 review,

In terms of toxicity, insecticides are by far the most toxic to all insects and other arthropods, followed by fungicides but not herbicides (Mulé et al., 2017; Sánchez-Bayo and Goka, 2014). Herbicides, however, reduce the biodiversity of vegetation within the crops and in surrounding areas through drift (Egan et al., 2014) and runoff, thus impacting indirectly on the arthropod species that depend upon wild plants, which either disappear completely or decline significantly in numbers (Goulet and Masner, 2017; Marshall et al., 2003). Thus, the application of herbicides to cropland has had more negative impacts on both terrestrial and aquatic plants and insect biodiversity than any other agronomic practice (Hyvonen and Salonen, 2002; Lundgren et al., 2013).

While specialist losses are alarming, losses of generalist species are even more so. Generalist pollinator species such as the peacock butterfly and v-moth have experienced major declines in the last half century. Once-ubiquitous freshwater generalists (among them stoneflies, caddisflies, mayflies and dragonflies) are rapidly disappearing from North American and European waterways. Such generalist declines signal a systemic, chemical-induced problem that extends beyond niche habitat loss.

The evidence implicating pesticide use in the loss of insect biodiversity is both astounding and unsurprising. Insecticides kill insects, often indiscriminately and with devastating consequences for biodiversity, ecosystem stability, and critical ecosystem services. Herbicides and chemical fertilizers extinguish invaluable habitat and forage critical to insect survival. Taken together, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers make large and growing swaths of land unlivable for vast numbers of insect species and the plants and animals they sustain.

Beyond Pesticides holds the position that toxic pesticides can be eliminated in organic land management systems, and that pesticide reduction is not sufficient in the face of the escalating crisis. Join Beyond Pesticides in advocating for proven, least-toxic practices that do not harm irreplaceable wildlife. For additional steps you can take to protect monarchs and other pollinators, see Beyond Pesticides’ BEE Protective webpage. Together we can commit to complete transformation of our agricultural system to stave off the extinction of the monarch butterfly, among thousands of other species similarly threatened by pesticide use.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Center for Biological Diversity/Center for Food Safety

(Beyond Pesticides, May 29, 2019) A soil health monitoring study in England finds that an alarming 42% of surveyed fields are deficient in a wriggly measurement—earthworm populations. Over half the farmers recruited in this citizen science evaluation said they planned to change their soil management practices as a result of the earthworm monitoring results.

The #60minworms method, named for the time it takes to conduct, is to dig a soil pit and place the soil onto a mat, then sort out the earthworms into a bucket. After sorting, the total number of earthworms is counted, and juveniles are returned to the soil. Adults are sorted and recorded by type using a simple key (surface worms: epigeic—small and red, anecic—pale or green; deep-burrowing worms: endogeic—heavily pigmented and large). This is repeated ten times using a W-style sampling pattern across a field.

Jacqueline Stroud, PhD, the study author and soil scientist, developed survey booklets to distribute to volunteer farmers. Recruitment methods included events, workshops, and Twitter. Farmers conducted tests on their own private land during a 6-week window in 2018. They recorded their results in the given booklets and sent the information for analysis. A total of 126 fields were surveyed. Worm data was compiled and analyzed, and the social component of farmer responses was closely monitored, recorded, and responded to.

Earthworms are excellent gauges of soil health and have a direct relationship to plant productivity; they break down crop residues, incorporate surface organic matter into the soil, and mix organic and mineral components together to form stable aggregates that benefit spring emergence and sequester carbon. Low population counts are indicative of overworked soils that are more likely to erode and lose nutrients. This study’s results show that tillage has a significant impact on surface level (epigeic and anecic) worms, which is cause for concern because these worms have slow population recovery rates (~8 cocoons per earthworm per year).

Farmers were highly invested in the community science. 100% of the participants said they would do the survey again, and 100% of them would recommend the survey to others. The study names a goal of developing a cost-effective way of helping farmers monitor their own fields and analyze the quality of their soil which, based on survey results, was extremely effective. As farmers in the U.S. are struggling, this methodology, which has hence been shortened to  #30minworms, provides a great example of outreach and connection to farmers about soil quality.

One way to protect soil biota, other wildlife, and the ecosystem as a whole is to support organic agriculture over conventional, chemical-intensive farming. A 2015 study found that glyphosate, the controversial and toxic active ingredient in Roundup, reduces activity and reproduction in two species of earthworms and increases soil nutrient concentrations to dangerous levels. Beyond Pesticides supports organic agriculture as good land stewardship.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources: PLOS, The Guardian

(Beyond Pesticides, May 28, 2019) In yet another attack by the Trump administration on science, public health, and children and families, as well as another wink and nod to industries whose products harm, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) are planning to end their support for research centers that do important scientific investigation related to children’s health.

Tell Your Congressional Representatives to Insist on Funding for Children’s Environmental Health Centers.

EPA has announced that it will no longer renew its grants to these centers. As of July, they will lose a huge portion of the funding that has allowed them to deploy hundreds of scientists — in genetics, toxicology, and neurodevelopment — on unusually comprehensive and longitudinal studies of what factors in children’s experiences and communities impact their health. The work of these centers has been critical in uncovering the relationships between children’s exposures to toxic chemicals, including pesticides, and diseases and health anomalies later on in their developing years.

According to Tracey Woodruff, PhD, who runs the University of California, San Francisco Pregnancy Exposures to Environmental Chemicals Children’s Center: When EPA weighs the harms of a chemical against its benefits, ignorance “works out perfectly for industry. . . If EPA doesn’t know, it counts for zero.” The centers are very concerned that EPA’s withdrawal of support will force them to stop important, long-term research projects.

The studies conducted by these centers often begin before birth and follow subjects through childhood and into adulthood, yielding unusually rich data that can track, for example, environmental exposures early in life and subsequent and related health problems years later. In addition, these longitudinal studies can adapt to the changing mixes of exposure risks children may face over 20 years or so as they grow from newborns to young adults. Ruth Etzel, MD, a pediatrician at EPA specializing in children’s environmental health, notes, “Twenty years ago, what we were studying is not the same as what we’re studying today. We have to study children now, in their communities.”

During the past 20+ years, centers have operated in California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, often producing results that lead to reform in policies and practices, and ultimately, improved health outcomes.

The withdrawal of funding by EPA will likely mean reductions in such programs, and such losses may put at risk both the health of neighboring communities and the relationships the research centers have built with them. Pediatricians and researchers find the work of the centers to be critical for communities. NIEHS has said it is unable, without significant changes to the centers’ programs, to make up the shortfall caused by EPA’s abandonment of grant support for the centers — the agency is trying to capitalize on the research the centers have completed by supporting their community outreach, and is searching for ways to keep study cohorts together going forward.

Tell Your Congressional Representatives to Insist on Funding for Children’s Environmental Health Centers.

Letter to Congress
I am writing to ask you to insist on continuation of government funding for university-based Children’s Environmental Health Centers. The Trump Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) are planning to end their support for research centers that do important scientific investigation related to children’s health.

The studies conducted by these centers often begin before birth and follow subjects through childhood and into adulthood, yielding unusually rich data that can track, for example, environmental exposures early in life and subsequent and related health problems years later. In addition, these longitudinal studies can adapt to the changing mixes of exposure risks children may face over 20 years or so as they grow from newborns to young adults. Ruth Etzel, MD, a pediatrician at EPA specializing in children’s environmental health, notes, “Twenty years ago, what we were studying is not the same as what we’re studying today. We have to study children now, in their communities.”

During the past 20+ years, centers have operated in California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, often producing results that lead to reform in policies and practices, and ultimately, improved health outcomes. Examples include:

* A University of Southern California center study of air pollution connections to obesity and poor health that resulted in state and federal guidelines to improve air quality standards and urban planning decisions, including restrictions on building of schools near major roads.

* The Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center at Dartmouth College discovered that infants who ate rice products had higher urinary levels of arsenic; this led to a proposed FDA (Food and Drug Administration) limit on inorganic arsenic in infant rice cereals.

* The Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai (Icahn School of Medicine) Institute for Exposomic Research found prenatal exposure to organophosphates to be negatively associated with children’s cognitive development (particularly perceptual reasoning) as early as age 12 months, and continuing through early childhood.

* The Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health reported in 2012 on research showing that children exposed to high levels of chlorpyrifos prenatally had lower IQs and altered brain structure compared to those with low exposures.

Please insist on funding for the Children’s Environmental Health Centers.

Thank you.

(Beyond Pesticides, May 24, 2019) University of California (UC) President Janet Napolitano announced, on May 15, a temporary ban on the use of glyphosate on all of UC’s 10 campuses. Set to begin on June 1, the ban will affect the more than 200,000 students in the UC system, and countless other staff, faculty, and visitors to the campuses. In announcing the ban, the university cited “concerns about possible human health and ecological hazards, as well potential legal and reputational risks associated with this category of herbicides.” (There are exceptions to the temporary suspension, such as uses for “agricultural operations, fuel-loaded management programs to reduce wildfire risk, native habitat preservation or restoration activities and research that requires glyphosate-based herbicides.”) The UC ban is the latest in a snowball-turning-avalanche of actions and decisions on glyphosate — the active ingredient in the Monsanto (now owned by Bayer AG) products Roundup and Ranger, and in many other herbicides.

The suspension of glyphosate use at UC comes in large part as a result of the campaign, Herbicide-Free UC — which began as Herbicide-Free Cal, founded by student-athletes Mackenzie Feldman and Bridget Gustafson. The students became active on pesticides issues when they discovered that herbicides were in use around the volleyball court on which they and other athletes spent countless hours. Begun when the women were juniors at UC Berkeley, the Herbicide-Free UC group worked with campus staff to enact a pilot program, on multiple parcels on the campus, that used chemical-free, mechanical practices for weed management. Ms. Feldman’s advocacy included getting a university Regent interested in the issue.

After she attended the first, bellwether trial related to glyphosate — DeWayne Johnson v. Monsanto Company — Ms. Feldman said she realized that she “needed to expand this campaign beyond Berkeley. This work is too important not to do. If I can prevent even one groundskeeper from getting cancer . . . then I must.” Prior to the announcement of the UC ban, Ms. Feldman had commented, “It would be irresponsible for the University of California to not take action at this point, especially after three separate juries in the state of California have decided that Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicides cause cancer.”

Chair of the UC Davis student government’s Environmental Policy and Planning Commission, Alice Beittel, said, “It’s crazy to expose students, faculty and staff — especially groundskeepers — to a host of toxic weed killers. This is a step in the right direction, but there is more work to be done to make all UC campuses herbicide-free. Many UC campuses still use herbicides listed under Proposition 65 that are known to cause cancer, birth defects, and reproductive harm.”

Herbicide-Free UC weighed in, saying, “There are many alternatives to harmful pesticide and herbicide use. There are, of course, some costs associated with adopting organic practices. Yet, when faced with the alternatives of legal liability, and the human cost of harming members of the UC community with these practices, we think the costs of maintaining our current policies far outweigh the costs of switching to organic land management practices. We will keep working with the University of California to transition each campus to all-organic land management practices.”

Glad of the UC decision, but nevertheless looking to the next step, Ms. Feldman said, “Dang, we did it,” and “We’re getting a lot of people to email the president and tell her that it’s not enough.” She added, “We are encouraged that the UC President and Regents have made the decision to stop using glyphosate on UC campuses, but there is no need to wait for more research to make the ban permanent. The science is in — glyphosate is a probable carcinogen and suspected endocrine disruptor that doesn’t belong on campus.” In personal communication with the Executive Director of Beyond Pesticides, she added, “We want to ban all Prop 65 chemicals and have the UCs commit to transition to organic on all campuses.”

Beyond Pesticides welcomes the news of the UC ban, and shared it via Twitter, but of course, advocates for ending the use of the compound, and of all toxic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, et al., and a transition to organic land management. Other science, public health, and/or environmental advocacy groups concur.

The “snowball-turning-avalanche” has picked up momentum from developments in a variety of corners. Beyond Pesticides has covered many, if not most, of such developments, which include legal decisions (see below), research demonstrating the dangers of glyphosate exposure (including epigenetic impacts, carcinogenicity, and other disease risks), the work of public and environmental health advocates, and efforts by localities to rein in or ban use of glyphosate herbicides.

A recent example includes the late March moratorium on the use of glyphosate-based herbicides issued by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Coincidentally, the board announced this step — which cited the need for public health and environmental professionals to determine whether the compound is safe for use, and to explore alternative methods for vegetation management — on the same day that the Hardeman decision (see below) came down.

On the legal front have emerged three recent and highly publicized court cases. In addition to the August 2018 landmark decision for the plaintiff in DeWayne Johnson v. Monsanto Company — which case resulted in awards of $39 million in compensation and $250 million in punitive damages, though a higher-court judge later reduced the punitive award to $39 million — glyphosate has experienced two subsequent defeats in the courts.

In April 2019, a case brought in the District Court for the Northern District of California (in San Francisco), Hardeman v. Monsanto, was decided for the plaintiff, who had developed Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL) after 25 years of exposure to Roundup. The jury found that Roundup’s design was defective, the product lacked sufficient cancer warnings, and the manufacturer (Monsanto) had been negligent, awarding the plaintiff $5.3 million in compensation and an additional $75 million in punitive damages.

In mid-May 2019, the Pilliod v. Monsanto case was decided for the plaintiffs, a couple in their seventies who had used Roundup for decades. Four years apart, each of them was diagnosed with NHL; awards to the plaintiffs in the case amounted to $2.055 billion. Notably, the jury, in a California state court in Alameda, made its decision on the basis of evidence of both glyphosate’s carcinogenicity and Monsanto’s role in suppressing and discrediting independent findings on Roundup’s toxicity.

These legal decisions have additional impacts, apart from those on plaintiffs, the hit to glyphosate’s acceptance as safe, and Bayer’s reputation. These decisions are costing the company significant amounts of money in the literal damages mandated, and potentially, in future product sales. The total amount for which Bayer is on the hook — for just those three cases — is $2,213,300,000. The company is also enduring other fiscal headwinds. Since the acquisition of Monsanto in June 2018, shareholder concerns about litigation — because approximately 13,000 glyphosate cases are pending — have caused Bayer’s value to drop by more than 40%.

Were that not enough bad news for the agro-chemical giant, insurers are starting to recognize the actuarial downsides of underwriting businesses that traffic in glyphosate products. In light of the spate of litigation against Bayer for its glyphosate products, insurers are beginning to bail on such businesses. In March 2019, Harrell’s, a major retailer that sells pesticides and other related products, announced it would stop selling glyphosate products because it could not find an insurer to underwrite the company if it kept those items in its product inventory.

The May 21 appearance, in The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, of a full-page advertisement attempting to counter the shifting view of glyphosate may be evidence of Bayer’s increasing distress in the face of myriad challenges to that line of its products. The ad includes a lead-in saying, “Tested for 40 years. Approved for 40 years. Used safely for 40 years.” It goes on to assure the public that it is “deeply committed to the safe use of our products, to the communities where they are used and to our planet” — a sentiment that is belied by the findings of a plethora of research scientists.

As emerging science continues to underscore established findings on the dangers of glyphosate, the urgency of the need to shift to organic agriculture and land management approaches grows. Developments continue to unfold across sectors — legal, business insurance and commercial, scientific, et al. — in the trajectory toward the elimination of the use of the chemical. The UC suspension is an encouraging step on the way to a permanent ban on the UC campus (and all campuses), as well as more broadly. Beyond Pesticides is hopeful that the “tipping point” on glyphosate is not too far off, and advocates for a ban on the toxic compound and a rapid transition to organic agricultural practices that do not threaten human health, the food supply, and ecological systems that are the bases of life on the planet.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources: https://abc7news.com/society/uc-campuses-issues-temporary-glyphosate-suspension/5306055 and https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/food-water-watch-applauds-uc-president-and-regents-temporary-halt-use-toxic-herbicide and https://www.independentsciencenews.org/news/university-of-california-system-halts-use-of-glyphosate-herbicide/

(Beyond Pesticides, May 23, 2019) On Monday in the conclusion of a lawsuit, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the final notices of cancellation on the registration of twelve neonicotinoid pesticide products in the Federal Register, each of which contains chlothianidin or thiamathoxam as an active ingredient. The decision to pull these products from the market was required as part of a legal settlement under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in December 2018 of a successful case, Ellis v. EPA, brought by beekeeper Steve Ellis and a coalition of other beekeepers and environmental groups, including Beyond Pesticides. The case establishes a legal precedent in which the court required action to address the bee-toxic effects of pesticides; however, the effect of the settlement and its impact on overall neonicotinoid and other systemic insecticide use is limited.

For all but two of the twelve canceled products, a nearly identical surrogate remains actively registered. Furthermore, the fact remains that there are hundreds more products containing the active ingredients targeted by the lawsuit that have not been removed in any capacity – 106 products containing clothianidin and 95 containing thiamethoxam remain untouched on the market. Breaking down the impacts of the EPA ruling even further, there are several eerily similar classes of insecticides that operate the same way neonicotinoids do that remain untouched by regulation. The sulfoxamine insecticide sufloxaflor, for example, is functionally identical to the neonicotinoid imidacloprid, which negatively impacts foraging and immune responses in bees. Even at low levels, sulfoxaflor impairs reproduction and reduces bumblebee colony size.

In the originating lawsuit, filed in 2013, plaintiffs made a number of claims related to EPA’s failure to protect pollinators from dangerous pesticides, its poor oversight of the bee-killing pesticides clothianidin and thiamethoxam, and its practice of “conditional registration,” as well as labeling deficiencies. Plaintiffs noted that the subject pesticides “have been shown to adversely impact the survival, growth, and health of honey bees and other pollinators vital to U.S. agriculture” and have “harmful effects on other animals, including threatened and endangered species.”

“The federal pesticide law is a weak statute and offers limited protection for bees, the ecosystem, and public health” said Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides. “People are taking matters into their own hands by adopting practices around their homes and community-wide and purchasing products that are protective of bees, the environment and people,” he continued.

In May 2017, a federal judge ruled that EPA violated the Endangered Species Act when it issued 59 neonicotinoid insecticide registrations between 2007 and 2012 for pesticide products containing clothianidin and thiamethoxam. U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney rejected the claims of intervenors (pesticide producers) that the plaintiffs had not established causation between the subject pesticides and the harm to plaintiffs. But rather than order EPA to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) — a requirement when a pesticide is registered (so as to reduce risks to endangered species) — the judge directed the parties, including the plaintiffs, defendant EPA, and intervenor Bayer CropScience, to move forward with a settlement conference to resolve the disputes. The result: a compromise solution with, at best, weakly protective impacts. The court ruling denied plaintiffs’ claims under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, the nation’s pesticide control law, that EPA had a statutory duty to suspend cited bee-toxic pesticides, as established in an emergency legal petition filed in March 2012. The judge said that the court lacked jurisdiction due to conflicting laws or EPA’s actions were not “approvals” subject to court challenge.

Systemic insecticide-treated seeds are pervasive and widely used across the agricultural landscape, home gardens, and public spaces. Of the two most widely planted crops in the U.S., between 79 to 100 percent of corn seed and 34 to 44 percent of soybean seed were treated with neonicotinoids in 2011. A conservative estimate of the area planted with neonic-treated corn, soybean, and cotton seed totals just over 100 million acres, or 57 percent of the entire area for these crops.

Pollinators are far from the only victims of ubiquitous systemic insecticide contamination. In a recent avian risk assessment, EPA scientists found that neonicotinoids present in treated seeds exceeds the agency’s level of concern for certain birds by as much as 200-fold. A 2017 study by researchers at the University of Saskatchewan confirmed that tiny amounts of neonicotinoids – the equivalent of just four treated canola seeds, for example – are enough to cause migrating songbirds to lose their sense of direction and become emaciated. Recent research uncovered the endocrine-disrupting health impacts of imidacloprid on white-tailed deer, leaving the disturbing open question: if large mammals are feeling the impacts, are humans as well?

In light of the shortcomings of federal action to protect pollinators, wildlife, and people, it is left up to the public to establish safe havens by creating pesticide-free habitat and educating others to do the same. Get involved at the community level to pass policies that protect imperiled pollinators. Use Beyond Pesticides’ resources and educational materials, including our BEE Protective doorknob hangers to get the word out. See Beyond Pesticides’ series celebrating unsung wild pollinator heroes through the Polli-NATION campaign.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Center for Food Safety

(Beyond Pesticides, May 23, 2019) Glyphosate weed killers may be contributing to the growing worldwide epidemic f non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a condition that causes swelling of the liver, and can eventually lead to cirrhosis, cancer, or liver failure. Researchers at the University of California (UC) San Diego found that higher levels of glyphosate detected in urine corresponded significantly with individuals that have also been diagnosed with NAFLD. Advocates are urging lawmakers at every level to respond to the accumulating science on the danger of glyphosate herbicides, ban their use, and adopt policy changes that put into place organic land management practices.

“There have been a handful of studies, all of which we cited in our paper, where animals either were or weren’t fed Roundup or glyphosate directly, and they all point to the same thing: the development of liver pathology,” said Paul J. Mills, PhD, professor and chief in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine in a press release. “So I naturally thought: ‘Well, could it be exposure to this same herbicide that is driving liver disease in the U.S.?’”

Dr. Mills and his team received urine samples from 93 patients enrolled in a separate UC San Diego study on NAFLD, who were either diagnosed or determined to be clear of the disease through a liver biopsy. Both diagnosed and disease-free individuals had their urine tested for the presence of glyphosate residue. Controlling for a range of confounders, including race, body mass index, age, ethnicity, and diabetes status, researchers found that glyphosate residue in urine was significantly higher in individuals with NAFLD.

With glyphosate still the most popular herbicide used in the U.S., exposure to the chemical is alarmingly widespread. “The increasing levels [of glyphosate] in people’s urine very much correlates to the consumption of Roundup [glyphosate] treated crops into our diet,” said Dr. Mills.

He cautions that the results need further follow up, and there may be other pesticides in the environment leading to similar disease outcomes. “There are so many synthetic chemicals we are regularly exposed to,” Dr. Miller notes. “We measured just one.”

The research team plans to continue this work by switching subjects to an all-organic diet, and observing any changes in liver functioning as a result.

Studies show that the majority of American likely have glyphosate in their urine, a trend that has increased in lock step with increased use of the product. Research conducted in Germany found that 99.6% of individuals had at least some level of glyphosate in their urine, with over 75% at amounts higher than what the European Union allows in drinking water.

But, changing diet appears to have a critical effect on the level of glyphosate and other pesticides that can be detected in one’s body. A study released earlier this year found that consumers who switched from a conventional to organic diet saw pesticide levels in their urine drop dramatically, averaging a 60% reduction for the 14 pesticides tested. And these results confirmed earlier studies, including one in 2014, and two in 2015 (1,2), which found similar results.

Past studies conducted on laboratory animals have also found links between glyphosate and liver impacts. A 2015 study found that chronically exposing rats to ultra-low doses of glyphosate in drinking water results in tissue and organ damage, including changes to gene expression within the liver and kidneys. And a 2017 study, which also fed miniscule doses of glyphosate weed killer to rats, found an increased likelihood that exposed animals would develop NAFLD.

As new health impacts pile on top of established science linking glyphosate products to cancer, there is an urgent need to rapidly mobilize a movement towards organic food production. Only then will be able to eliminate the risks synthetic pesticides pose to public health. Take action today by sending a letter to your Governor urging them to stop the use of glyphosate and adopt safer practices. Read more about the benefits of organic agriculture on Beyond Pesticides’ Why Organic webpage.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: UC San Diego Health Press Release, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology

(Beyond Pesticides, May 21, 2019) As farmers nationwide are facing extreme stressors and either consolidating or retiring, organic is going against the grain. Despite overall declines in the number of U.S. farms, the number of organic farms increased 27% between 2012 and 2017, according to new data from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The value of organic sales in 2017 was $7.2 billion, and the average value of sales per farm has increased a remarkable 84% since 2012. Laura Batcha, the executive director of the Organic Trade Association, told Bloomberg that young families are among the drivers in the organic market as they seek to avoid residues of chemicals, antibiotics, and hormones on food.

Organic products fetch a higher price point than conventional. Indiana farmer Joe Mills can sell his organic food-grade corn for about $10.50 a bushel, while chemical-intensive sells for about $3.50/bushel. Mr. Mills notes, “Yes, it’s economical, but there is a huge learning curve and a mindset change. We relied on commercial fertilizers and pesticides for so long.” At the same time, the benefits and affordability of organic food are critical to the market, as consumers consider their purchasing choices. Read the Beyond Pesticides’ report Low Food Prices: The Real Story on the Affordability of Organic Food.

Many farmers, faced with five years of low commodity prices and an onslaught of problems, are experiencing unsustainably low income. Extreme weather and shifting climate are rapidly increasing—these are devastating threats for under-protected and economically vulnerable farms.

Even before the mass flooding of the Midwest earlier this year, net farm income had fallen nearly 50% since 2013. Trump administration trade tariffs have exacerbated the problem; the trade war with China has lasted nearly ten months and is having a significant impact on producers. In the first quarter of 2019, farm income declined by $11.8 billion. Farm debt has increased rapidly, reaching levels last seen during the 1980’s. Soybeans are the most valuable U.S. agricultural export, and China is the country’s number one buyer. China has drastically reduced its purchases of American exports and, as the trade war escalates, there is evidence that they may stop purchasing agricultural products altogether.

Experts are concerned about the mental health of farmers and farmworkers, who have a statistically higher suicide rate than other occupations. The flooding situation is especially dire, as the Chicago Tribune explains: “Now, the floods may have stripped many farmers’ land of the soil it needs to grow crops, which could take years to return to production. Some farmers have been storing grain for several years in anticipation of better prices, but floodwaters eroded their land and contaminated the grain. Neither USDA disaster programs nor insurance policies cover stored grain. Crop insurance may cover inputs, such as chemical and fertilizer, but it won’t provide additional income to support households.”

As an aging farming population assesses the current troubles and their return on investment, many are choosing to retire. In contrast, organic producers are generally younger and more likely to be full-time farmers. 17% of organic producers are age 34 or less, more than double the number in the same age bracket for all farms (8%).

In a time of economic and environmental upset, organic agriculture is a viable commercial alternative that can help to mend the planet through carbon sequestration, and elimination of water, air, and soil contamination associated with pesticide and synthetic fertilizer use. U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree wrote for Civil Eats, “…in our new push for climate solutions—from the ambitious Green New Deal to our recommitment to the Paris Agreement—farmers and ranchers need to have a seat at the table.” While food production contributes approximately a quarter of annual greenhouse gases, “Those who produce our food also hold the potential to reverse that statistic,” Rep. Pingree said.

Organic farms will also be more resilient to the threats of a changing climate: healthy soil and soil cover help prevent nutrient and water loss, making them better prepared to withstand floods and droughts. The Rodale Institute reports that organic plots produce yields up to 40% higher than chemically-intensive plots in times of drought because and organic soil system retains more water.

Now, more than ever, it is critical to invest in America’s organic farms—not only is it a good financial decision, it could help save the planet. See Beyond Pesticides’ extensive resources on organic for more.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources: Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune, Reuters, Civil Eats

(Beyond Pesticides, May 20, 2019) The bans of chlorpyrifos in three important agricultural states show the support for a ban of the chemical nationwide. Hawai’i banned chlorpyrifos a year ago with a unanimous vote of the legislature. New York and California banned it this month. States have been pursuing bans since the Environmental Protection Agency rescinded its proposed ban in 2017.

Tell Your Governor to Ban Neurotoxic Pesticides and Support Organic; Send Thanks to Your Governor in Hawai’i, New York, and California

Like other organophosphate pesticides, chlorpyrifos has been linked to damaging and often irreversible health outcomes in workers, pregnant women, and children. A widely used pesticide, agriculture companies annually spray six million pounds on crops like citrus, apples, and cherries.  In the same family as Sarin gas, the substance was initially developed prior to World War II as a chemical weapon. It can overstimulate the nervous system to cause nausea, dizziness, and confusion. With very high exposures (accidents or spills), it can cause respiratory paralysis and even death. When applying the chemical to fields, workers must wear protective garments such as respirators. Workers are then blocked from entering the fields from 24 hours up to 5 days after application due to the chemical exposure risk.

A group of leading toxics experts, who published a paper in the journal PLOS Medicine on their research on organophosphate exposure during pregnancy and impacts on child development, are calling for a ban on organophosphate pesticides. The study evaluates current science on the risks of this class of compounds, produced by Corteva Agriscience (formerly Dow AgroSciences). Its conclusions warn of the multitude of dangers of organophosphates for children, and makes recommendations for addressing these risks. The experts conclude that: (1) widespread use of organophosphate (OP) pesticides to control insects has resulted in ubiquitous human exposures; (2) acute exposures to OPs is responsible for poisonings and deaths, particularly in developing countries; and (3) evidence demonstrates that prenatal exposures, even at low levels, put children at risk for cognitive and behavioral deficits, and for neurodevelopmental disorders.

Organic production is now a $45.2 billion enterprise and provides a viable alternative to the use of toxic pesticides. In addition to banning organophosphates, states should promote organic agriculture by providing assistance for transitioning farmers and requiring organic management on all state-owned land.

Tell Your Governor to Ban Neurotoxic Pesticides and Support Organic; Send Thanks to Your Governor in Hawai’i, New York, and California

Letter to Governor

The bans of chlorpyrifos in three important agricultural states show the support for a ban of the chemical nationwide. Hawai’i banned chlorpyrifos a year ago with a unanimous vote of the legislature. New York and California banned it this month. Statewide bans are necessary because the Environmental Protection Agency rescinded its proposed ban in 2017.

Like chlorpyrifos, other organophosphate pesticides have been linked to damaging and often irreversible health outcomes in workers, pregnant women, and children. A widely used pesticide, agriculture companies annually spray 6 million pounds on crops like citrus, apples, and cherries.  In the same family as Sarin gas, the substance was initially developed prior to World War II as a chemical weapon. It can overstimulate the nervous system to cause nausea, dizziness, and confusion. With very high exposures (accidents or spills), it can cause respiratory paralysis and even death. When applying the chemical to fields, workers must wear protective garments such as respirators. Workers are then blocked from entering the fields from 24 hours up to 5 days after application due to the chemical exposure risk.

A group of leading toxics experts, who published a paper in the journal PLOS Medicine on their research on organophosphate exposure during pregnancy and impacts on child development, are calling for a ban on organophosphate pesticides. The study evaluates current science on the risks of this class of compounds, produced by Corteva Agriscience (formerly Dow AgroSciences). Its conclusions warn of the multitude of dangers of organophosphates for children, and makes recommendations for addressing these risks. The experts conclude that: (1) widespread use of organophosphate (OP) pesticides to control insects has resulted in ubiquitous human exposures; (2) acute exposures to OPs is responsible for poisonings and deaths, particularly in developing countries; and (3) evidence demonstrates that prenatal exposures, even at low levels, put children at risk for cognitive and behavioral deficits, and for neurodevelopmental disorders.

Organic production is now a $45.2 billion enterprise and provides a viable alternative to the use of toxic pesticides. In addition to banning organophosphates, the state should promote organic agriculture by providing assistance for transitioning farmers and requiring organic management on all state-owned land.

Please ban all uses of chlorpyrifos and other organophosphate insecticides in the state. Please promote organic agriculture by providing assistance for transitioning farmers and requiring organic management on all state-owned land

(Beyond Pesticides, May 17, 2019) After two decades of co-sponsoring and co-funding research centers that do important scientific investigation related to children’s health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) are planning to end their support. EPA has announced that it will no longer renew its grants to these centers. As of July, they will lose a huge portion of the funding that has allowed them to deploy hundreds of scientists — in genetics, toxicology, and neurodevelopment — on unusually comprehensive and longitudinal studies of what factors in children’s experiences and communities impact their health. The work of these centers has been critical in uncovering the relationships between children’s exposures to toxic chemicals, including pesticides, and diseases and health anomalies later on in their developing years.

This announcement represents yet another attack by the Trump administration on science, public health, and children and families, as well as another wink and nod to industries whose products harm. Says Tracey Woodruff, who runs the University of California, San Francisco Pregnancy Exposures to Environmental Chemicals Children’s Center: When EPA weights the harms of a chemical against its benefits, this “works out perfectly for industry. . . . If EPA doesn’t know, it counts for zero.” The centers are very concerned that EPA’s withdrawal of support will force them to shutter important, long-term research projects.

The studies conducted by these centers often begin before birth and follow subjects through childhood and into adulthood, yielding unusually rich data that can track, for example, environmental exposures early in life and subsequent and related health problems years later. In addition, these longitudinal studies can adapt to the changing mixes of exposure risks children may face over 20 years or so as they grow from newborns to young adults. Ruth Etzel, MD,  a pediatrician at EPA specializing in children’s environmental health, notes, “Twenty years ago, what we were studying is not the same as what we’re studying today. We have to study children now, in their communities.”

During the past 20+ years, centers have operated in California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. The centers produce work that often leads to reform in policies and practices, and ultimately, improved health outcomes. Examples include:

• A University of Southern California center study of air pollution connections to obesity and poor health resulted in state and federal guidelines to improve air quality standards and urban planning decisions, including restrictions on building of schools near major roads.
• The Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center at Dartmouth College discovered that infants who ate rice products had higher urinary levels of arsenic; this led to a proposed FDA (Food and Drug Administration) limit on inorganic arsenic in infant rice cereals.
• The Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai (Icahn School of Medicine) Institute for Exposomic Research — a co-convenor with Beyond Pesticides of the recent 37^th Annual Forum — was an early investigator into the impacts of organophosphate pesticides (such as chlorpyrifos) on children. In 2011, a center research team found prenatal exposure to organophosphates to be negatively associated with children’s cognitive development (particularly perceptual reasoning) as early as age 12 months, and continuing through early childhood. Beyond Pesticides has covered ensuing research on chlorpyrifos, the mounting demand for its removal from the market, and various legislative attempts to achieve that.
• The Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health reported in 2012 on research showing that children exposed to high levels of chlorpyrifos prenatally had lower IQs and altered brain structure compared to those with low exposures. The center’s work also informs an ongoing lawsuit brought by environmental groups seeking to force EPA to ban the pesticide. The Columbia center has tracked hundreds of kids in New York City since 1998, collecting samples not only of urine and blood, but also, of air in children’s homes — all in service of identifying health effects of chemicals and pollutants. The journal Nature reports that, “The centre’s findings influenced New York City’s decision in 2018 to phase out diesel buses, and its staff members teach schools and community groups about the harmful chemicals and pollution that kids encounter each day.”

These centers conduct research that informs policy, but they also work — as does the Columbia center — with local communities to educate people about their findings, and about how residents can protect themselves more effectively from the chemical, particulate, or other pollution in their surrounds. Many of those communities are Environmental Justice communities that are affected disproportionately by such pollution and by a relative lack of mediation and of attention to the issue.

The withdrawal of funding by EPA will likely mean reductions in such programs, andm such losses may put at risk both the health of neighboring communities and the relationships the research centers have built with them. A pediatrician at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Aparna Bole, MD says, “I cannot think of an equivalent network that could do the same work.” Linda McCauley, RN, PhD, an environmental health researcher at the Children’s Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta, notes, “All these community stakeholders have been such critical partners for this work nationally and there’s no funding. They’re the ones being hurt the most.”

NIEHS has said it is unable, without significant changes to the centers’ programs, to make up the shortfall caused by EPA’s abandonment of grant support for the centers. Kimberley Gray of NIEHS indicates that the agency is trying to capitalize on the research the centers have completed by supporting their community outreach, and is searching for ways to keep study cohorts together going forward.

The Trump EPA (and other federal agencies) are active on numerous fronts to diminish the role of science, and some scientists see this latest move as evidence of the administration’s withdrawal from protection of human — never mind environmental — health. In September 2018, EPA put Dr. Etzel,  head of its Office of Children’s Health Protection on administrative leave; she reports that she’s never been told why EPA suspended her, and has never heard from the agency since being given the notice of leave. EPA has not replaced her.

Dr. McCauley believes that that such moves are designed to benefit the chemical industry by disabling research that might point to the need for more-robust regulation. She comments, “That’s how this administration is working. They can be effective by slowing things down to a crawl.” See Beyond Pesticides Children and Schools webpage.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01491-1?fbclid=IwAR02CO1fm6jt_wThq7rqqmSP41pcFVK-TT2xIwvQ0U8Pamtwsm7vhjqzRNA

© Ryan Brennecke/The Bend Bulletin

(Beyond Pesticides, May 16, 2019)  Use of the tree-killing herbicide aminocyclopyrachlor (ACP) is now restricted in Oregon, according to rulemaking finalized last week by the state’s department of agriculture (ODA). While an important step in the right direction, many environmentalists are perplexed by the state’s decision not to proceed with a ban on all uses of the inherently toxic chemical, which has killed thousands of old-growth pine trees along state scenic highways. Over five thousand comments from Oregonians and concerned individuals across the country urged ODA to scrap its convoluted proposed rule and simply eliminate the chemical from state commerce.

While advocates will continue to urge ODA to completely eliminate ACP use, the current restrictions did not come without a fight. Public meetings were attended by representatives from the chemical’s manufacturer, Bayer. The company strongly opposed any restrictions on its product, and acted to delay the original implementation date for ODA’s rule.

Oregon had intended to finalize the rule in late March. “We were pretty much set to file the final paperwork,” said Oregon pesticide program manager Rose Kachadoorian to The Bulletin. But through the work of its corporate lawyers, Bayer was able to track down an arcane Oregon law that allowed the company to delay implementation for 90 days. Bayer’s sought, in a last-ditch effort, to reverse or weaken the initial proposed rules. Although ultimately unsuccessful, the company’s efforts had the effect of permitting ACP use during the 90 day period, during which a currently unknown amount of the chemical may have been applied.

The first-in-the-country restriction on tree-killing ACP has garnered the attention of other states. “This certainly could set a precedent; other states would have to look at their authority to regulate the use beyond the federal requirements,” said Dale Mitchell of ODA’s pesticide program. According to advocates, while ODA’s approach is laudable, other states would be better served by completely banning ACP, eliminating any possibility it will continue to destroy old-growth forests.

ODA’s final rule prohibits ACP from being sprayed in natural and restoration areas, along the inner and outer banks of ditches and canals, and on rights-of-way. However, the rule leaves in place the ability to spray the chemical in areas that “do not exceed more than 5% of an acre” once a year, in order to control state or county-listed noxious weeds. This is slightly different than ODA’s initial proposed rule, which indicated that only “spot treatments” could occur, and contained the statement that “no individual treatment area many exceed nine square feet.”

Advocates calling for a ban are concerned that any continued use of ACP will result in ongoing impacts similar to those that led to multi-million dollar lawsuits against Dupont, when it produced the herbicide under the brand name Imprelis.

Roadside right of way management doesn’t need to rely on any toxic synthetic herbicide use in the first place, given the availability, and economic viability, of alternative practices. As Beyond Pesticides has documented, planting native vegetation, and using mechanical, biological, and other nontoxic vegetation control methods are effective solutions. Rather than sending a crew to spray a pesticide, weed whackers and other machinery can address problem vegetation. Some regions have enlisted the help of goat herds, which can clear noxious weeds at the same time as they improve soil health, preserve ground and surface water from contamination, and eliminate any chance of herbicide resistance. Recently in Maine, utility company Central Maine Power, which maintains a corridor of 53 miles of right-of-way, announced it would not be using insecticides and herbicides in its maintenance.

Under the Trump administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has become increasingly antagonistic to states taking action to restrict federally registered pesticides. But in light of unique environmental conditions within states, officials have a duty to align regulations in a way that best protects the environment for their resident’s health, enjoyment, and economic well-being. For more information about alternatives to roadside pesticide spraying, see Beyond Pesticides article, The Right Way to Vegetation Management.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Oregon Department of Agriculture, Oregon Public Broadcasting