Federal policymakers are moving too slowly to implement pollinator protective policies, but bees need meaningful action \u2014 and they need it now.<\/p>\n
Working with beekeepers, farmers and scientists, PAN is building momentum for pollinator-protective policies across the country. Together with our partners, we\u2019re keeping the pressure on decisionmakers in D.C. and state capitals from Minnesota to California to take bee-harming pesticides off the market.<\/p>\n The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allowed neonicotinoids<\/a> onto the market without sufficient review \u2014\u00a0and the agency has been incredibly slow to wrap up its review, even though independent science shows a clear connection between these commonly used insecticides and bee declines. It’s time for action!<\/p>\n EPA also allows the widespread use of neonicotinoids as a seed coating on crops like corn and soy, even though this practice doesn’t much help farmers<\/a>. In fact, seed treatments are so common that farmers report it’s nearly impossible to purchase commodity crop seed that isn’t <\/em>covered in neonics. And, because EPA doesn\u2019t count seed treatments as a \u201cpesticide application\u201d and therefore doesn’t track or regulate them as such, bees continue being exposed on farmland across the country.<\/p>\n We\u2019re also urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to increase pesticide-free pollinator habitat and expand support for agroecological<\/a>, pollinator-friendly farming practices.<\/p>\n Want to take action for bees? Here are a few ways to get involved in this important campaign.<\/p>\n For more tips and tools for bees, download our \u201cBee the Change\u201d toolkit.<\/a> And share with your community!<\/p>\n Want to learn more? Click below for additional details about the challenges facing bees and what to do about it.<\/p>\n Pesticides & pollinators<\/p>\n The causes behind recent bee declines are not a \u201cmystery.\u201d After having tried and failed to link them with a particular parasite, virus, fungus or other pathogen, scientists now largely concur that bee declines are caused by a combination of increased overall pathogen loads, poor nutrition and pesticide exposure. Recent debates have hinged on which of these three co-factors is driving losses most directly.<\/p>\n In the last few years, neonicotinoid pesticides \u2014 both alone and in combination with other pesticides \u2014 have emerged as the leading suspects<\/a> because of their direct toxicity to bees and because of their indirect and cascading effects.<\/p>\n For example, individual bees can be acutely poisoned while flying through pesticide-contaminated planter dust in a recently planted corn field; or chronically poisoned at sub-lethal levels by eating and drinking contaminated pollen, nectar and\/or water over time. (Neonics are water soluble and persist for months in the environment.) Bees are then more likely to get sick, less able to forage effectively, and so on.<\/p>\n Colonies experience these poisonings at the population level as a hive\u2019s highly interdependent generational cycles, immune system functions and social communication abilities are disrupted.<\/p>\n The weight of evidence from independent, peer-reviewed studies clearly indicates that neonicotinoids \u2014 this relatively new, long-lasting and widely used class of pesticides\u2014 \u00a0are a key driver behind continuing bee declines.<\/p>\n Still, industry studies provide much of the basis for regulatory decisionmaking in the U.S. One consequence of this arrangement is that products such as neonics are rushed to market and remain there before rigorous toxicity tests have been conducted.<\/p>\n U.S. behind the curve<\/p>\n While federal regulators in the U.S. remain paralyzed \u2014 apparently captive to industry-funded science and a regulatory framework that finds chemicals innocent until proven guilty \u2014 European governments are heeding the science and taking action.<\/p>\n In 2013, the European Food Safety Authority released a report concluding that neonics pose an \u201cunacceptable risk\u201d to bees. This report prompted a two-year ban of neonics in the European Union, which was implemented in December 2013 and is being extended.<\/p>\n Additionally, Canada moved towards banning the neonic pesticide imidacloprid after Health Canada\u2019s Pesticides Management\u00a0Regulatory Agency concluded that the pesticide is highly toxic to pollinators in late 2016. Health Canada will conduct special reviews over the next two years, and has proposed to ban imidacloprid for major agricultural uses\u00a0in the next three to five years.<\/p>\n The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is still conducting a review of neonicotinoids \u2014 slated to complete in 2018 \u2014 and the White House issued a memo in 2014 pressing the federal agencies to directly address pollinator declines. And while some steps toward improved habitat have been made, the pesticide problem remains largely unaddressed.<\/p>\n Community “Bee Havens”<\/p>\n Across the country, people are stepping up to protect bees in their backyards and communities<\/a> by creating pesticide-free \u201choney bee havens\u201d with ample pollinator habitat and access to fresh water.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t have a yard? A few containers of the right kinds of plants on a balcony or front stoop will get you started with your pollinator safe haven.<\/a><\/p>\n Communities that have already passed resolutions declaring \u00a0themselves havens \u2014 committing to stop the use of neonicotinoid pesticides and increase pollinator habitat \u2014\u00a0include:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/honey-bee-pollinator-food_0.png\")
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