12. Insecticides are harming human health and the environment due to state inaction
Image Source: PIRG (Public Domain)
Issue: Neonicotinoids, or “neonics,” are a class of neurotoxic insecticide used statewide, from lawns to corn fields. Of particular concern, agrochemical companies coat seeds — including corn and soybean seeds — with these neonics, a supposed effort to kill pests and increase farm profits. These companies go as far as to add bright colors to the seed coating, a reminder to those who handle them that they pose health risks.
Neonics are spread across at least 15 million acres of Minnesota farmland each year through the planting of coated seed — an area the size of West Virginia. These seeds are the primary reason U.S. industrial agriculture is nearly 48-times more toxic to insects today than 25 years ago.
The National Pesticide Information Center warns farmers not to burn, compost, or feed treated seeds to livestock. Farmers should clean up spilled seeds to prevent wildlife from eating them. Also, they should keep seeds “away from children, who may be attracted to the bright colors.”
Problem: The widespread and wasteful use of neonics broadly contaminates Minnesota’s environment. Some 95% of the neonics applied to seeds remain in the ground, contaminating soils, surface waters, groundwater and wild plant life. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) identifies these pesticides as a surface water pesticide of concern.
Neonics:
Are a leading cause of pollinator declines. Pollinators are critical to agriculture, too.
Affect human health. Possible harms include muscle tremors, altered insulin regulation, and birth defects.
Kill birds. A review of 200 studies concluded that eating a single seed can kill a songbird’s entire clutch.
Contaminate Minnesota’s surface waters. They are linked to fishery collapse.
Have been found in 94% of the state’s white-tailed deer, according to DNR testing.
Independent research — studies not funded by the pesticide industry — consistently show that neonic seed coatings in corn and soybeans do not provide economic benefits to farmers.
Regulatory Failure:
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is charged with protecting Minnesotans and the environment from pesticides’ harms. Nevertheless, MDA has failed to regulate the use of neonic-treated seeds, claiming it lacks the authority.
MDA has long had authority to regulate treated seeds. In 2023, the state legislature passed a law clearly stating the MDA had a responsibility to regulate neonic-treated seeds. As of April 2024, MDA still claims it lacks regulatory authority.
We should be able to rely on government to protect us from pesticide pollution. Instead, state government seems to view agrichemical giants as their “customer.”
References
Science: A neonicotinoid insecticide reduces fueling and delays migration in songbirds, Issue 13 Sep 2019: Vol. 365, Issue 6458, pp. 1177-1180
Letter from Minnesota Dept of Agriculture to EPA on treated seed contamination, 2024
National toxicology report from US Dept. of Health and Human Services, September 2020, ISSN: 2473-4756
Neurosciencenews.com, Neonic causes autism-like symptoms, 2022
NRDC Briefing to Congress on Neonic Pesticide Human Health Harms, October 2019
Surface water pesticides of concern, Minnesota Department of Agriculture, 2020
Scientific Reports: Effects of Neonicotinoid Insecticides on Physiology and Reproductive Characteristics of Captive Female and Fawn White-tailed Deer, Volume 9, Article number: 4534, 2019
There’s a red flag here: how an ethanol plant is dangerously polluting a US village | Nebraska, The Guardian, January 10, 2021
Neonicotinoid insecticides in New York City, 2020. Cornell University researchers found there is no overall net income benefit to using neonicotinoid treatments on corn and soybean seeds instead of untreated seeds, Page 236
Effectiveness of Neonic Seed in Soybeans, a 12-University study, including U. of M., found the current use of neonicotinoid seed treatments in soybean and other crops far exceeds pest pressures
Neonicotinoid seed treatments of soybean provide negligible benefits to US farmers, Scientific reports, Article number 11207, 2019. Mourtzinis, Krupke, et al. results demonstrate that the current widespread prophylactic use of NST in the key soybean-producing areas of the US should be re-evaluated
The science behind the role neonics play in harming bees. Xerces Society, Jennifer Hopwood, Aimee Code, Mace Vaughan et al., 2016
The Worldwide Integrated Assessment on Systemic Insecticides: Impacts on Organisms and Ecosystems: 2021 Pisa, Goulson, Yang, Gibbons, Sanchez-Bayo
Compiled by Lucas Rhoads, Senior Attorney, Food & Agriculture, Natural Resources Defense Council, AND Greg Larson, Minnesota Environmental Partnership Pollinator Cluster AND Laurie Schneider, Executive Director, Pollinator Friendly Alliance