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Ontario Beekeepers Association petition for ban on neonicotinoids

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Aug 3rd, 2013
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AWARE Simcoe August 3 2013
This is a link to the official Ontario Beekeepers Association petition to ban the use of neonicotinoids,
The Ontario government has appointed a panel to look into neonicotinoids, but as millions of bees perish in deaths associated with the use of neo-nicotinoids (the value of which in increasing crop yields has been challenged), there is no urgent timetable for action, and no regard for the precautionary principle. A report commissioned by the American Bird Conservancy (see below) concludes that the harm caused by neonicotinoids extends to entire food chains, from birds to aquatic life.
More information:

No honey, more problems: a ‘catastrophic’ year for bee colonies
By VIDYA KAURI AND PAUL WALDIE The Globe and Mail Jul. 31 2013
Freezing temperatures, killer parasites, toxic chemicals: The plight of honey bees is getting worse in many parts of the world and no one seems to know precisely why.
This past winter was one of the worst on record for bees. In the U.S., beekeepers lost 31 per cent of their colonies, compared to a loss of 21 per cent the previous winter. In Canada, the Canadian Honey Council reports an annual loss of 35 per cent of honey bee colonies in the last three years. In Britain, the Bee Farmers’ Association says its members lost roughly half their colonies over the winter.
“It has been absolutely catastrophic,” said Margaret Ginman, who is general secretary of the Bee Farmers’ Association. “This has been one of the worst years in living memory.”
“There are some beekeepers that have lost 70 per cent over the last winter, and you can’t even make that up in one season,” says Dan Davidson, president of the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association. “That’s a disaster.”
Just why so many bees have died is far from clear. In Britain, many blame a wetter than usual fall and winter. Queen bees typically mate while flying and the wet weather kept them from moving around, resulting in lower colony populations.
In the U.S. and Canada, scientists have different theories, with some blaming the Varroa mite, which burrows into bees and feeds on their blood, and others pointing to disease and an increased use of pesticides by farmers. “The decline in honey bee health is a complex problem caused by a combination of stressors,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report released last month.
There’s no doubt bees are critical to humans. By some estimates, bees and other pollinating insects, such as butterflies and moths, contribute $200-billion to global agriculture every year. Almost one-third of the food we eat has been pollinated by bees and some crops, such as broccoli and almonds, are entirely dependent on bees for pollination.
David Schuit, a honey producer in Elmwood, Ont., had plans last year to expand his family’s honey business when disaster struck. He runs 35 bee yards under the name Saugeen Country Honey with his wife and seven children in Elmwood, Ont. He says he had a healthy, robust crop of bees that had survived the winter, but one spring day in May of 2012, he found his bees in “terrible agony,” going around in circles, venom dripping from their back sides. The bees were either staying away from their hives or unable to find their way inside.
“It hurts deep inside when you see your hives dying in this manner,” he says.
The family ended up losing 90 per cent of the bees on their home yard alone. All in all, Mr. Schuit said they lost around 37 million bees, and the family produced barely half the honey they make each year. They were forced to give up their 100-acre organic cash crop farm because they could no longer continue making mortgage payments on it.
The loss of bees was difficult to recover through the following winter, a time when bee populations generally decline because of the freezing temperatures, and this year, Mr. Schuit says bees are continuing to die en masse. “It’s hard on us. We need help,” he says. “I’m ready to throw the towel in.”
The Schuits are among a growing number of beekeepers who are blaming sudden and massive bee deaths on neonicotinoid pesticides. These are nicotine-like substances that attack the nervous system of insects. They are also water soluble, meaning they can be added to the soil and taken in by the entire plant, making every part of it lethal to bugs.
Corn, soybean and canola farmers coat their seeds with the insecticides using a machine that needs to be lubricated with talc to push the seeds out. The talc absorbs some of the pesticide and bees get exposed to this toxic mixture when the machine blows the talc out.
Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency noticed that honey bee deaths in about 250 bee yards in Southern Ontario and Quebec coincided with the corn-planting season. They found neonicotinoids in 70 per cent of bee samples taken from these regions
In April, the European Union passed a two-year ban on neonicotinoids because of the risk they pose to bees. Beekeeper associations in Ontario and Quebec are calling for a similar ban in Canada, but they will likely face an uphill battle against grain farmers, who say the pesticide has been crucial to their business since it was approved for use in 2004.
In July, the Grain Farmers of Ontario mailed out 28,000 postcards urging their members to call their local political representatives and oppose any kind of a ban on the neonicotinoids.
“A knee-jerk reaction shouldn’t happen until we find out more about what is actually happening from a bee-health perspective because there are are other issues that affect the bee populations,” says Barry Senft, chief executive officer of Grain Farmers of Ontario. “If we start to move away from a science-based approval process, everything then is subjective.”
The group says that a ban on neonicotinoids would result in a loss of three to 20 bushels per acre for Ontario farmers. For the average farmer with a 500-acre field, this would translate to a loss of two to 13 per cent of their gross income, making it difficult for them to compete with farmers in Western Canada and the United States, Mr. Senft says.
Health Canada says that more research needs to be done and continues to collect samples of affected bees this year. It says regulatory action to protect bees against neonicotinoids may be taken, if warranted, at any time during this review process.
Ernesto Guzman, head of the Honey Bee Research Centre at Guelph University, says the Health Canada data points to a definitive link between neonicotinoids and bee deaths, but says the pesticides are not the only cause of declining bee populations. It is also not known if the pesticides are the major cause of bee deaths. Mr. Guzman says that, during the winter, Varroa mites are the main cause of bee deaths. They came from Asia about 20 years ago and are found on virtually all bee colonies.
On average, bee keepers expect to lose about 10 to 15 per cent of their numbers in the winter because the cold makes it harder for the bees to survive. Paul Vautour, the Maritimes director for the Canadian Honey Council, says a drought last fall made it even harder for his bees to withstand the prolonged winter, causing him to loss 85 per cent of his bee colonies. He had 238 colonies at the start of winter, and by May, this number was down to 36.
Mr. Vautour says this was a “big loss” as a relatively small commercial beekeeper, and he had to spend $24,000 to buy 100 new colonies.
Many beekeepers say they know how to manage their Varroa mites, however, and insist that they don’t cause as much destruction as the neonicotinoids.
Mr. Guzman says it is important for the government to invest in independent research to help beekeepers facing significant losses.
“The beekeepers need help and they need help immediately,” he says. “Research to find answers to the problem and to answer the question of how much pesticides are killing bees relative to other causes might take many years.”
HONEY BEES BY THE NUMBERS
7,000: Number of beekeepers in Canada, according to the Canadian Honey Council
15 per cent: Industry-standard acceptable loss of honey-bee colonies during the winter, also known as “wintering loss”
35 per cent: Annual average loss of honey-bee colonies in Canada during the last three years
12 per cent: Wintering loss in Ontario in 2012, the lowest by province
27.9 per cent: Wintering loss in New Brunswick, the highest by province

Ontario to examine pesticides as possible cause of bee deaths

An expert panel of farmers, beekeepers and industry heavyweights will look at how to reduce honeybee exposure to highly toxic neonicotinoid pesticides
By: Alex Ballingall Toronto Star Jul 09 2013
Rising clamour over the deaths of Ontario honeybees has prompted the Liberal government to look into widely-used pesticides as a suspected cause.
An expert panel will look at how to prevent bee exposure to neonicotinoid pesticides, which are highly toxic to bees and coated on virtually all corn and soybean seeds planted in the province, the province announced Tuesday.
The Bee Health Working Group will include farmers, beekeepers, scientists and neonicotinoid makers Bayer Crop Science and Syngenta.
“There have been a lot of concerns raised, and a lot of talk about neonicotinoids,” said Gabrielle Gallant, press secretary for Premier Kathleen Wynne in her capacity as Minister of Agriculture.
“We want to make sure any steps we take are based on the best possible evidence,” Gallant said.
Neonicotinoids have come under increased scrutiny as a contributor to declining bee populations in North America and Europe. In April, the European Union approved a two-year neonicotinoid ban, and days later, a U.S. government report identified pesticides as one of four major contributors to bee declines, alongside parasites and disease, genetics and poor nutrition.
Meanwhile, Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency has been “re-evaluating” use of the pesticides since last June.
It expects the review to take “several years.”
On May 16, Wynne sent a letter to the federal health and agriculture ministers in May, demanding quicker completion of the re-evaluation.
The letter cited a study last year by the PMRA found traces of neonicotinoids in 70 per cent of the dead bees tested, while the pesticide turned up on 80 per cent of apiaries visited in Ontario.
“People shouldn’t be surprised. Pesticides are designed to (kill) insects, and bees are insects,” said Ernesto Guzman, head of the Honey Bee Research Centre at the University of Guelph.
“The issue of debate here is how much or what proportion of the die-off cases can be attributed directly to these pesticides?”
Many beekeepers in Ontario, however, are convinced neonicotinoids are killing their livelihood. Honeybee populations in the province have declined by 30 to 35 per cent every year since 2007, said Guzman.
“We must enact a ban before the next planting season. Our industry simply cannot sustain these losses,” said Ontario Beekeepers’ Association President Dan Davidson in a statement Tuesday.
“Allowing the status quo to remain would spell tragedy for the bees that pollinate our fruits and vegetables.”
Terry Daynard, a corn and soybean farmer outside Guelph, said the pesticides significantly improve yields, and that taking them away could put crops at risk.
“If these seed treatments were taken off the market, it would be like playing roulette,” he said. “There’s got to be a way around this.”
The bee panel is slated to make recommendations by next spring, in time for planting season.

Scientists Link Fungicides To Death Of Honey Bee Colonies, As US Crops Feel Effects Of Declining Pollination
Scientist have uncovered valuable data suggesting that fungicides play a role in the ongoing honey bee deaths
By Justin Caba Medical Daily Jul 26, 2013
The recent Colony Collapse Disorder has decimated around 10 million beehives, adding up to $2 billion in crop losses. The cause of the devastation has been a mystery to scientists, but researchers are now confident that fungicides are to blame for the ongoing honey bee deaths.
Researchers from the University of Maryland and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have pinpointed a number of pesticides and fungicides that continue to ravage honey bee populations. Results of the analysis show that these harmful chemicals are contaminating pollen collected by bees, which are used to feed bee hives, Quartz reported.
The research team conducted its examination by taking samples from honey bees that pollinated blueberry, cranberry, cucumber, pumpkin, and watermelon crops up and down the east coast. On average, nine different types of pesticides and fungicides were identified that impeded on the bees’ ability to fight off the deadly parasite Nosema ceranae.
N. ceranae is a lethal pathogen — found in European-born honey bees a few years back — that can lead to the death of an entire hive through direct contact with other bees. Considering U.S. honey bees are the descendents of European honeybees, they are just as susceptible to the parasite.
Lead researcher Dennis vanEngelsdorp said bees that were contaminated by certain chemicals that were designed to kill fungus were three times likely to be infected by the N. ceranae parasite.
According the USDA’s data, bee pollination accounts for over $15 billion of the annual crop value. Around one out of every three crops fed food sources including almonds, vegetables, and different types of berries that are attributed to honey bee pollination.
VanEngeldsorp and his colleagues have advised farmers to avoid using pesticides and fungicides in areas pollinated by honeybees. Since it is unclear exactly which chemicals are implicated in the extermination of an entire beehive, all substances that pose a threat to humans should not be used in these areas.
Source: Pettis J, Lichtenberg E, Andree M, Stitzinger J, vanEngelsdorp D. Crop Pollination Exposes Honey Bees to Pesticides Which Alters Their Susceptibility to the Gut Pathogen Nosema ceranae. PLOS ONE. 2013.


Taking Action on Bee Mortalities

Ontario Government Creating Cross-Industry Working Group
Ministry of Agriculture and Food news release July 9, 2013
Ontario is bringing together a group of experts to provide advice on how to prevent bee mortalities.
The Bee Health Working Group will be comprised of beekeepers, farmers, agri-business representatives, scientists, and staff from both federal and provincial government agencies. Drawing on a broad range of expertise, the working group will provide recommendations on how to mitigate the potential risk to honey bees from exposure to neonicotinoid — a pesticide used for corn and soybeans.
The working group will meet for the first time this month and provide its recommendations by spring 2014.
Supporting the province’s agri-businesses while protecting the environment is part of the Ontario government’s plan to create a fair and prosperous society.
Quick Facts
-Three thousand registered beekeepers manage approximately 100,000 honey bee colonies in Ontario. Honey production contributes $25 million to the province’s economy.
-The Ontario government is also working with the University of Guelph on research projects to support the health of bees and other pollinators.
Quotes
“The creation of this working group is a vital step in our efforts to protect the environment and Ontario’s agri-food sector. We look forward to working together to find solutions that will support a thriving, healthy bee population that will in turn support a strong, successful agri-food sector.”
Kathleen Wynne
Premier and Minister of Agriculture and Food
“We look forward to working with partners to find alternatives for insect treatment to better protect bee health and prevent the losses of honey bees and other insect pollinators that we have seen during the last two seasons.”
Dan Davidson
President, Ontario Beekeepers’ Association
“Grain farmers want to be part of the solution — we are actively supporting research to help ensure the health of pollinators and are optimistic that the working group will lead to a practical, balanced approach that determines Best Management Practices that ensures the health of honey bees and provides farmers with the necessary tools to grow competitive corn crops with their U.S. counterparts.”
John Cowan
Vice-President, Strategic Development, Grain Farmers of Ontario

Ontario and Quebec beekeepers call for the suspension of neonicotinoid pesticides
OBA news release July 2, 2013:
The Ontario Beekeepers’ Association (OBA) and the Fédération des apiculteurs du Québec have appealed to their respective Ministers of Agriculture and Environment to immediately ban neonicotinoid pesticides in field crops.
Both Quebec and Ontario have experienced heavy losses of colonies this spring. These losses are similar to those experienced in 2012 demonstrating what appears to be a longer term decline in bee population as a result of the continued use of these highly toxic pesticides.
‘’Our industry cannot sustain these losses. Reduced numbers of pollinators also threaten the viability of our local fruit and vegetable supply.’ says Dan Davidson, President of the Ontario Beekeepers Association.
The federal Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) concluded in their report: Evaluation of Canadian Bee Mortalities that coincided with Corn Planting in Spring 2012, “The information evaluated suggests that planting of corn seeds treated with the nitro-guanidine insecticides clothianidin and/or thiamethosam contributed to the majority of the bee mortalities that occurred in corn growing regions of Ontario and Quebec in Spring 2012.”
On April 29, the European Union suspended for two years the use of neonicotinoid pesticides in Europe.
Quebec and Ontario beekeepers have agreed to work together to obtain a ban before next planting session, says Léo Buteau, President, of the Fédération des apiculteurs du Québec, It is time to stop poisoning our bees, our water and our soil. »
Ontario and Quebec’s Ministers of Agriculture will be meeting in Halifax on July 17-19. It is expected that the pesticide issue will be an important topic of their discussions.
The OBAs position http://www.ontariobee.com/issues-and-advocacy/ongoing-issues-and-actions/spring-2012-bee-poisonings

Birds, Bees, and Aquatic Life Threatened by Gross Underestimate of Toxicity of World’s Most Widely Used Pesticide
New Report Charges EPA Ignored Staff Warnings, Approved Widespread Use of Dangerous Pesticides
American Birds Conservancy release March 19, 2013
As part of a study on impacts from the world’s most widely used class of insecticides, nicotine-like chemicals called neonicotinoids, American Bird Conservancy (ABC) has called for a ban on their use as seed treatments and for the suspension of all applications pending an independent review of the products’ effects on birds, terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, and other wildlife.
“It is clear that these chemicals have the potential to affect entire food chains. The environmental persistence of the neonicotinoids, their propensity for runoff and for groundwater infiltration, and their cumulative and largely irreversible mode of action in invertebrates raise significant environmental concerns,” said Cynthia Palmer, co-author of the report and Pesticides Program Manager for ABC, one of the nation’s leading bird conservation organizations.
ABC commissioned world renowned environmental toxicologist Dr. Pierre Mineau to conduct the research. The 100-page report, “The Impact of the Nation’s Most Widely Used Insecticides on Birds,” reviews 200 studies on neonicotinoids including industry research obtained through the US Freedom of Information Act. The report evaluates the toxicological risk to birds and aquatic systems and includes extensive comparisons with the older pesticides that the neonicotinoids have replaced. The assessment concludes that the neonicotinoids are lethal to birds and to the aquatic systems on which they depend.
“A single corn kernel coated with a neonicotinoid can kill a songbird,” Palmer said. “Even a tiny grain of wheat or canola treated with the oldest neonicotinoid — called imidacloprid — can fatally poison a bird. And as little as 1/10th of a neonicotinoid-coated corn seed per day during egg-laying season is all that is needed to affect reproduction.”
The new report concludes that neonicotinoid contamination levels in both surface- and ground water in the United States and around the world are already beyond the threshold found to kill many aquatic invertebrates. Data on surface water contamination from surveys to date, most notably from California and from the Canadian Prairies, indicate that concentrations of several of the neonicotinoid insecticides are high enough to be causing impacts in aquatic food chains. Data from other jurisdictions such as the Netherlands show even higher levels of contamination.
The report also identifies procedural deficiencies in how the US Environmental Protection Agency assesses aquatic impacts. “EPA risk assessments have greatly underestimated this risk, using scientifically unsound, outdated methodology that has more to do with a game of chance than with a rigorous scientific process,” the report says.
First introduced in the 1990s in response to widespread pest resistance and health concerns linked to older pesticides, the neonicotinoid insecticides quickly became top sellers in global pesticide markets. Now the most widely-used insecticides in the world, it is difficult to find pest control commodities that do not contain one or several of the neonicotinoid insecticides. California alone has registered nearly 300 neonicotinoid products.
EPA scientists have repeatedly documented serious concerns about the persistence, mobility and toxicity of the products, and yet the Agency continues to grant registrations allowing the chemicals to be used for an ever-widening range of crops and non-agricultural use sites.
EPA and other regulatory agencies worldwide have underestimated the toxicity of these compounds to birds partly because the risk assessment methods fail to account sufficiently for interspecies variation in toxicity. For example, risk assessments underestimate acute risk by up to 10 fold for bird species beyond mallard ducks and bobwhites, the two usual test species. As for aquatic invertebrates, EPA has underestimated the toxicity of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid by over an order of magnitude because of the Agency’s failure to consider data from the peer-reviewed literature. EPA has grossly underestimated the toxicity of the other neonicotinoids as well, in part due to the Agency’s reliance on their standard test species, Daphnia magna, a freshwater flea which happens to be uniquely insensitive to neonicotinoids.
Given that a single neonicotinoid-coated seed can kill a bird, it is also important that seeds marketed for home bird feeders remain free of these chemical treatments.  In response to sporadic wild bird seed contamination incidents, ABC has monitored bird seed sold by Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes and Target. To date, ABC’s independent bird-seed testing efforts have focused on older products such as the organophosphorous and carbamate pesticides. The neonicotinoids are a candidate for future testing.
The report also charges that there is no readily available biomarker for neonicotinoids as there is for cholinesterase inhibitors such as the organophosphorous pesticides.
“It is astonishing that EPA would allow a pesticide to be used in hundreds of products without ever requiring the registrant to develop the tools needed to diagnose poisoned wildlife. It would be relatively simple to create a binding assay for the neural receptor which is affected by this class of insecticides,” said Dr. Mineau. The ABC report calls on EPA to require that registrants of acutely toxic pesticides develop the tools necessary to diagnose poisoned birds and other wildlife.
Neonicotinoids’ toxicity to bees and other insects has brought them the most attention thus far and has dominated recent concerns of regulatory institutions worldwide. The serious risk to bees should not be understated, as one-third of the U.S. diet depends on these insect pollinators. The ABC assessment makes clear, however, that the potential environmental impacts of neonicotinoids go well beyond bees. The report urges EPA to expand its registration review of neonicotinoids to include birds, aquatic invertebrates, and other wildlife.

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