In The Neonic Ban: A Scientific Fraud
Becomes Enshrined In EU Regulatory Law, I described the many
elements of corruption that led to Europe’s recently announced ban on neonic
insecticides (“neonics”) which is based on the fallacy that they are
responsible for a supposed collapse in bee populations. In fact, bee
populations are rising on every habitable continent in the world, and have been
since neonics first came on the market.
So far, despite some worrisome signals from EPA early on, U.S. farmers appear tohave
escaped the regulatory fate of their European counterparts. Largely unreported
by the mainstream media, the agency recently released draft final assessments
on neonics that reach dramatically different conclusions from Europe’s
counterpart agency EFSA.
A few unresolved issues notwithstanding, EPA’s magnum opus – 12 separate, voluminous reviews of effects on non-pollinators, human health, drinking water and aquatic environments for the four major products -- imidacloprid, clothianidin, thiamethoxam and dinotefuran -- re-affirms the critical importance of neonics to U.S. agriculture and largely refutes the claims of environmental activists. Combined with earlier, positive assessments on bees and other pollinators, EPA has now effectively given neonics a clean bill of health.
A few unresolved issues notwithstanding, EPA’s magnum opus – 12 separate, voluminous reviews of effects on non-pollinators, human health, drinking water and aquatic environments for the four major products -- imidacloprid, clothianidin, thiamethoxam and dinotefuran -- re-affirms the critical importance of neonics to U.S. agriculture and largely refutes the claims of environmental activists. Combined with earlier, positive assessments on bees and other pollinators, EPA has now effectively given neonics a clean bill of health.
As the Duke of
Wellington said of his victory over Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo, however,
“it was a close run thing.” This is not because the science concerning bees and
neonics was in doubt. The campaign to ban neonics was never about science and
facts -- it was about politics. While the U.S. regulatory system has more
structural safeguards against manipulation than Europe’s -- which has
practically none -- it is far from immune to political pressure. During the
last U.S. administration, especially, it too often appeared that activists were
calling the shots at EPA.
Activists were calling the shots
Activists were calling the shots
When the EU
banned neonics in 2013, the environmental movement smelled blood in the water.
Much of the activist cash used to promote the false bee-pocalypse narrative in
Europe was subsequently targeted on the U.S. As usual, many in the mainstream
media were willing accomplices in spreading their apocalyptic narrative. Time
magazine’s iconic cover story, “A World Without Bees,” was just one of
thousands declaring that honeybees were going extinct and that we’d all soon
starve to death because bees “are responsible for one-third of everything we
eat” (the latter part being yet another fictitious and endlessly repeated
claim).
Like EFSA, the
U.S. EPA knew full well that:
1) honeybee populations are rising, not falling
2) pesticides as a whole play only a minor role in bee health,
3) some of the most problematic pesticides are those used directly in the hive by beekeepers to control the deadly Varroa mite
4) neonics are significantly more benign than the older pesticides they replaced, such as organophosphates and pyrethroids, and
5) the real cause of honeybee health problems is the global spread of parasites and the myriad diseases that currently infect beehives.
It was clear
that mere facts weren’t going to matter very much, however. At the time of the
EU ban, the head of the EPA office in charge of pesticides, Jim Jones,
complained that the intense political pressure then being exerted on EPA would
force the agency to either ban or tightly restrict neonics in this country as
well. That pressure only became more intense when President Obama took a “personal interest” in bees and formed a White
House Task Force on Pollinators.
EPA caved to political pressure from the White House
EPA caved to political pressure from the White House
At first, EPA
appeared to be capitulating. Neonics had already undergone rigorous assessments
before they were commercialized, of course, but without any scientific
justification those initial tests were now deemed insufficient, and new, more
stringent standards were set up for an accelerated re-assessment. ThenEPA
released a bizarre and unprecedented “efficacy” study of neonicotinoid seed
treatments on soy that found they had little value to farmers.
That analysis
was remarkable in several ways: EPA had never conducted such a study before;
its authors neglected to actually ask soy farmers what they thought; and the overwhelming weight of evidence from other
studies clearly showed substantial benefits. In fact, EPA’s manipulation of the
facts and data was so egregious that USDA issued a public rebuke to theagency! Calling the
report “incomplete,” “premature,” and damaging to farmers, they strongly urged
EPA to withdraw it.
 |
What canola fields really look like without neonics: Left has not been treated, while the right has. Credit: Gregory Sekulic, Canola Council of Canada Agronomy Specialist
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Undaunted and
unrepentant, EPA started laying the groundwork to restrict or even ban neonic
use on citrus and cotton, in spite of the fact that neither crop requires bees
for pollination. Inasmuch as orange and cotton farmers only allow hives to be
placed on their property as a favor to beekeepers, who can charge a significant
premium for orange and cotton blossom honey, it seemed as if EPA was punishing
the farmers for being good neighbors.
Moreover,neither
crop would survive without neonics, as EPA knew full well. Neonics areFlorida
orange growers’ last line of defense against the Asian psyllid thatcarries
citrus greening disease, an incurable infection that has alreadyslashed Florida’s orange productionby 70 percentover
the last 20 years. The loss of neonics would be just as devastating for cotton,
collapsing the industry and turning
cotton-dependent communities throughout America’s southeast into ghost towns.
Talk about the “Deep State” conspiring to injure the nation’s economy.
Something
happened on the way to the activists’ party, however. The neonics kept passing
EPA’s doubly rigorous scientific tests. Even before the first preliminary
assessments, Reuters reported that the EPA official in charge of regulating
pesticides admitted that that neonic seed treatments – which account for
thevast majority of neonic uses – do not pose a threat to bees
If nectar
brought back to the hive from worker bees had more than 25 parts per billion of
the chemical, "there's a significant effect," namely fewer bees, less
honey and "a less robust hive," said Jim Jones, EPA's assistant
administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention.
But if the nectar chemical level was below 25 parts per billion, it was as if there were no imidacloprid at all, with no ill effects, Jones said. It was a clear line of harm or no harm, he said. Levels depended on the crop, Jones said.
While nectar of cotton and citrus fruits were above the harmful concentrations, the levels were not harmful for corn — the nation's top crop by far — most vegetables, berries and tobacco. Other crops weren't conclusive and need more testing, including legumes, melons, tree nuts and herbs
Also, the controversial practice of treating seeds with the chemical seemed not to harm bees, Jones said.
But if the nectar chemical level was below 25 parts per billion, it was as if there were no imidacloprid at all, with no ill effects, Jones said. It was a clear line of harm or no harm, he said. Levels depended on the crop, Jones said.
While nectar of cotton and citrus fruits were above the harmful concentrations, the levels were not harmful for corn — the nation's top crop by far — most vegetables, berries and tobacco. Other crops weren't conclusive and need more testing, including legumes, melons, tree nuts and herbs
Also, the controversial practice of treating seeds with the chemical seemed not to harm bees, Jones said.
Given that
crop residues from neonic seed treatments fall far below 25 parts per billion –
usually between undetectable and the low single digits -- it was becoming clear
that there simply was no scientific justification for a widespread ban.
The recent
draft assessments should cut off the last hope the activists have for
significant restrictions. Effective reversals on restrictions of neonics on
cotton and citrus acknowledge how critical these chemicals are. And on soy, EPA
essentially issued a mea culpa, admitting that seed treatments are
critical to crop survival in much of the United States.
Interestingly,
Canada’s EPA-equivalent, PMRA, issued a parallel briefing in December on its
long-awaited review of neonics’ health, safety and environmental risks in
Canadian agriculture. In spite of intense lobbying by environmental activists
in Ontario and Quebec for an outright ban on neonics, PMRA found that nothing
more was justified to cope with a handful of minor and isolated risks than to
prescribe a few targeted mitigation measures. That will likely be EPA’s final
finding as well for the few unresolved issues that remain concerning birds and
aquatic systems.
Neonics are OK in the United States for now - but environmentalists hate to lose against science
Neonics are OK in the United States for now - but environmentalists hate to lose against science
For now,
neonics are OK in the United States. But how long will this last? Central to
Europe’s regulatory dysfunction is the so-called “precautionary principle, ”which
as I’ve written about before, is neither a principle nor truly precautionary.
By writing into law the idea that hypothetical (and often, imaginary) threats
are more important than actual evidence, the EU has fundamentally abandoned the
field to the activists, who are masters at whipping up public hysteria over
imminent crises, even if, as with the bee-pocalypse, they’re entirely
fictional.
In the United
States, by law, EPA regulation must still be based on science. Unfortunately,
the activists are becoming increasingly adept at manipulating the process,
producing junk studies by the boatload, continually pushing for relaxed
evidential standards (such as greater reliance on easily fudged epidemiological
studies), and proposing ever more novel theories of environmental and
biological harm.
Science-based
regulation can’t withstand political pressure forever if it’s intense enough. It
would be naïve to think that we would be where we are with neonics if the2016
presidential election had gone differently, or that regulatory policy couldn’t
deteriorate if the House and/or Senate majorities were to switch next year. For
the time being, science is winning this battle, but the best we can say going
forward is that it will continue to be a “close run thing.”
Henry I.
Miller, a physician and molecular biologist, is the Robert Wesson Fellow in
Scientific Philosophy and Public Policy at Stanford University's Hoover
Institution. He was the founding director of the U.S. FDA's Office of
Biotechnology.
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About
Henry I.
Miller, MS, MD, is the Robert Wesson Fellow in Scientific Philosophy and Public
Policy at the Hoover Institution https://www.hoover.org/
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