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Tibor Szabo, the OBA’s 1st vice president, told OurWindsor.ca that despite the Pest Management Regulatory Agency’s announcement Friday focusing on a tightening of rules in respect to the use of neonicotinoid seed treatments, the plan as currently written is nowhere near sufficient. Some of the protective measures for corn and soybeans – which the PMRA hopes to have in place for the 2014 season - are set to include requiring the use of safer dust-reducing seed flow lubricants; requiring adherence to safer seed planting practices; requiring new pesticide and seed package labels with enhanced warnings; and, requiring updated value information be provided to support the continued need for neonicotinoid treatment on up to 100% of the corn seed and 50% of the soybean seed. “I’m concerned with the continuing emphasis focusing only on seeding dust as the cause of the pesticide bee kills. Has anyone ever actually traced all of the Neonic’s found on dead bees, stored pollen and water sources to the dust at planting time? Is there any real evidence to support this assumption?” said Szabo, adding that another relevant cause is water and soil contamination, which can be linked to pollen and nectar due to mobility dynamics. “Since 80 to 90% of active ingredients do not enter the target crop and that NNI’s are persistent and water soluble, it seems to me that this source is more likely at the core of a number of bee losses. And yet this isn’t addressed or queried anywhere in the release of intent notice,” he said.

“There’s been very little research on residential exposure to methyl bromide. Our study is the first to look at methyl bromide and birth outcomes,” said Kim Harley, study author and associate director of the Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health at the University of California, Berkeley. The soil fumigant, which is injected into the soil before planting, can volatize into the air, exposing nearby neighborhoods. Use of methyl bromide has been declining over the past decade under an international treaty that phases out chemicals that deplete the Earth’s protective ozone layer. Strawberries and a few other crops are exempt under the ban because they are deemed “critical uses.”

In this Communiqué, ETC Group identifies the major corporate players that control industrial farm inputs. Together with our companion poster, Who will feed us? The industrial food chain or the peasant food web?, ETC Group aims to de-construct the myths surrounding the effectiveness of the industrial food system. ETC Group has been monitoring the power and global reach of agro-industrial corporations for several decades – including the increasingly consolidated control of agricultural inputs for the industrial food chain: proprietary seeds and livestock genetics, chemical pesticides and fertilizers and animal pharmaceuticals. Collectively, these inputs are the chemical and biological engines that drive industrial agriculture. This update documents the continuing concentration (surprise, surprise), but it also brings us to three conclusions important to both peasant producers and policy makers. 1. Cartels are commonplace, 2. The “invisible hold” of the market is growing, and 3. Climate research shows that we don’t know (that) we don’t know our food system.

Although bee advocates have focused on farmers and their use of insecticides, homeowner use of chemicals also can affect bee populations. Many homeowners apply neonicotinoids, a widely used class of insecticides, when lawn weeds, such as dandelions and white clovers, are blooming; This practice can have a negative effect on native pollinator populations. Jonathan Larson, a University of Kentucky doctoral student, recently published the results of his homeowner research in the journal PLOS ONE. Declines in honeybee populations have captured media headlines. But other pollinators, such as bumblebees, also are on the decline due to diseases, pesticides and habitat loss. “With honeybee populations struggling, we need to rely on native bees, such as bumblebees, to pick up the slack on plant pollination,” Dan Potter, UK entomologist and Larson’s adviser, said in the release. “Many native bees are much more efficient at pollinating certain types of crops, like tomatoes, urban flowering plants and vegetables grown in home gardens.”

Dave Jamieson says he's noticed fewer birds and bird species at his Bright's Grove dairy farm in recent years, and wants to know why. “They're just not around at all... I can go out all day and I'm lucky to see one,” he said, pointing to the disappearance of barn swallows (Hirundo rustica), chimney swifts (Chaetura pelagica) and other birds. “How come nobody notices these birds aren't around?” Jamieson, who has lived on the property all his life, said he used to see more than a dozen barn swallow nests at one time. “In the last three years, there's only been about four; and this is the first year they've never had babies,” he said. “Even when you drive along the road, and look at the hydro lines – where birds used to sit all the time – they're not there anymore.” Jamieson said he's so concerned, he's contacted Sarnia City Hall and the Ministry of Natural Resources office in Chatham, but hasn't received a response. But a biologist with Bird Studies Canada said Jamieson's concerns reflect new and alarming trends among Canada's bird populations. “There's a real dramatic change in the bird landscape going on in Canada,” said Jody Allair, biologist and science educator, pointing to a ground-breaking report released last year called The State of Canada's Birds.

Last week, the first badgers were killed. Allegedly on ‘best scientific advice’. Even though the Krebs Report, in response to the trial culls nearly 30 years ago, said it would not work. Even though a top government scientist said the whole plan was ‘crazy’. Notwithstanding the outcry from wildlife NGOs and the public alike, DEFRA has appeared oblivious to other means of controlling bovine tuberculosis (bTB), and has gone ahead with the cull anyway. The argument about the badger cull is certainly the most noteworthy wildlife conflict within the UK in recent years – but there are also many other individual species that have received warrants for their extermination. While some are culled for ecological reasons – deer for example, where man has taken over from the wolves and lynx we made extinct in this country, many species seem to have become demonised with little justification. Wildlife management can usually be resolved without a trigger-happy approach. In the case of the badger cull, improving bio-security on cattle farms would be a good place to start. But the first response to rural problems never seems to be the improvement of current practice, and a disturbing trend has appeared, which shifts blame to the natural world rather than farming practice. Badgers, and many others on the hit list, have become ‘wild scapegoats’. If we don’t speak up for them, all the creatures below may soon be targeted like the badger.

In a 52-page report released Monday, the Government Accountability Office raises concerns about EPA’s method of granting conditional approval for new uses of pesticides in advance of receiving full reports from the manufacturers to support the safety of their use. The findings in the report come amid growing concern over the effects of pesticides on humans and the environment, which have been linked to neurological disorders and cancer, among other things.
EPA officials, in response to recommendations in GAO’s report, “EPA Should Take Steps To Improve Its Oversight Of Conditional Registrations,” have agreed to update their systems to allow for the easier tracking of conditional registrations and better monitor submission of the needed data. However, the agency in a July 18 letter to Alfredo Gomez, GAO’s acting director, also defends its conditional registration program. While EPA has “made mistakes in how it has identified the states of conditionally and unconditionally registered pesticides” and has limitations in tracking the submission of data, “all conditionally registered products meet applicable legal standards, and pesticides have not been allowed in the marketplace without adequate testing to ensure safety.

In its response, published today, the Government misrepresents its own science in deciding not to implement recommendations to save pollinators from neonicotinoid pesticides. In March, following extensive evidence gathering, the Environmental Audit Committee published its ‘Pollinators and Pesticides’ report, concluding that neonicotinoids are having an “especially deleterious impact on insect pollinators”. However, Government has decided that it:-
• Will not improve the transparency of the regulatory process so that studies done by pesticide companies are in the public domain, stating that “the cost of publishing this information, even on the internet, would be substantial”.
• Will not raise the UK’s environmental protection standards by including other pollinators in the national risk assessment process.
• Will not ban all amenity and garden use of neonicotinoids.
• Will not set up a pollinator monitoring scheme - although this is not ruled out for the future.

Litoria is a genus of Hylidae tree frogs native to Australia, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, the Lesser Sunda Islands, the Moluccan Islands, and Timor. They are sometimes collectively referred to as Australasian treefrogs. In Australia, some of these species are either facing an extremely high risk of extinction, or have numbers which decreased (or will) by 80% within three generations, or may even be extinct. Examples are listed below.