EPA Turns a Blind Eye as Pesticide Poisons Honey Bees

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's famous song, "The Flight of the Bumblebee," should really be changed to "The Plight of the Bumblebee." Honey bees are dying off by the masses from Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a phenomenon where bees leave the hive, never to return again. Since 2006, some beekeepers have reported losing 30 to 90 percent of their hives! And while CCD's underlying causes are still unknown, a group of environmentalists recently took steps to help the beleaguered bees out.

According to the Palm Beach Post, beekeepers and a group of non-profits recently called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to remove Poncho, a commonly used pesticide, from the marketplace and restrict its use. The group claims that the pesticide may be killing off bees, serving as a major contributor to CCD. They also say that Poncho really shouldn't have ever made it into crop fields in the first place because its effects on bees have never been adequately studied.

The group — which includes the National Honey Bee Advisory Board, American Beekeeping Federation, Beyond Pesticides, Pesticide Action Network, and Center for Biological Diversity — makes a solid point. The EPA gave Poncho, also known as clothianidin, a "conditional registration" back in 2003. That meant that the maker of clothianidin, Bayer CropScience AG, could begin selling the product, but had to conduct a field study assessing the pesticide's impact on honey bees and other wildlife. Too bad Bayer CropScience totally botched its study.

According to the Pesticide Action Network, Bayer failed to address how Poncho impacts honey bees and whether or not it contributes to CCD. The study Bayer did conduct was completely flawed: Scientists evaluated the wrong crop, didn't use proper controls, and failed to study the chemical over a long enough period of time. "It’s as if they designed the study to avoid seeing clothianidin’s effects on hive health,” Jeff Andersen, a beekeeper, said in a Pesticide Action Network press release.

Bayer's negligence may be taking a heavy toll on honey bees. "Among the neonicotinoids, clothianidin is among those most toxic for honey bees; and this combined with its systemic movement in plants has produced a troubling mix of scientific results pointing to its potential risk for honey bees through current agricultural practices," James Frazier, an entomologist at Penn State, told Pesticide Action Network. In other words, Poncho could be a big culprit in spurring CCD.

While pesticide exposure is just one of a combination of factors that may be causing CCD, it's important to tackle every possible contributor. Through pollination, honey bees are directly responsible for producing about one-third of America's food supply. Just to paint you a picture of how integral bees are to agriculture, mull this over: California's almond crop alone relies on 1.4 million colonies of bees every single year, about half of America's entire bee population. If CCD continues to wipe out the country's honey bee populations, we can kiss food security goodbye.

The group of beekeepers and non-profits is asking the EPA to immediately ban the sale of Poncho while scientists and beekeepers re-evaluate the pesticide's potential impacts on honey bees. You can help protect bees — and the future of America's food supply — by joining them. Sign our petition asking the EPA to immediately take Poncho off the market and re-evaluate its safety through a thorough, scientific study.

Photo credit: cygnus921 via Flickr