Bluestem Prairie's favorite Daryn McBeth moment came in 2011 interview with former City Pages reporter Nick Pinto, Daryn McBeth, agribiz lobbyist: People who photograph farms should be felons.
Back then, lobbyist McBeth was the Minnesota Agri-Growth Council's president, and he wanted to start a conversation about making photographing farms a felony via "ag gag" legislation.
Now a lobbyist for Crop Life America, McBeth is out to warn lawmakers against refraining from using seeds and plants treated with neonicotinoid insecticides on conservation acres purchased with money appropriated from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (aka lottery money).
Such pro-pollinator prudence might lead to things like banning GMOs or using only organic seeds on state projects.
McBeth also urges the use of neonicotinoid treated seeds in pollinator health and habitat programs.
The ag lobbyist made the statements Thursday in testimony against what had been considered a non-controversial amendment by Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul) to HF390, an appropriation bill authored by Paul Torkelson (R-Hanska), that's co-sponsored by three DFL representatives.
As the business publication Food Navigator notes in Harvard study backs link between neonicotinoids and bee population collapse, research strongly suggests that use of long-lasting chemicals intended to kill insects will indeed kill insects. While this feature creates certain advantages for acreage intended for production agriculture, Hansen's amendment would prohibit their use on certain acres purchased with some of the appropriations allocated in HF390.
Crop Life America wants none of that bee-hugging. McBeth testified:
Crop Life America represents the crop protection industry, in crop protection, pesticide and crop protection and insecticide technology to help production agriculture and farmers while respecting the environment and occupational safety and food safety.
As you all have heard, probably in the papers, of the subject of seed treatments using neonicotinoids, an insecticide ingredient, has become controversial. . . .
[The audio system grows scratchy, and there are some remarks about it]
Seed treatments using neonicotinoid chemical have become controversial in how they may or may not affect pollinators or honeybee health, and other types of pollinators and different environmental and scientific reviews examining that topic are underway at the Environmental Protections Agency level and even with some direction from the legislature last year at the level of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. . . .
Prejudging the outcomes of that and agricultural practices related to that I think is certainly premature and I maintain on behalf of Crop Life America, that this amendment is more about sending a message of affects on pollinators of the neonicotinoids than it is anything substantive and that is because treated seeds for crop protection purposes are miniscule in use on state lands that would be acquired under this provision.
I acknowledge that.
However, to make a broad statement to ban those uses in this way is akin to banning -- these crops uses on these types of lands could be for habitat, could be for food plots for wildlife etc-- so, but banning the use of these types of treatments would be akin to banning GMO seeds or requiring all crops on all state crops to be organic for instance, and that would be a policy of determination under your purview, but I think sends the wrong message from the State of Minnesota in supporting technologies and seeds that by the way are regulated by the EPA and USDA and the Federal Insecticide and Fungicide Regulatory Act (FIFRA), that it sends the wrong message.
. . .Ironically, I also think that for certain projects that the LCCMR funds on pollinator health and pollinator habitat, it may behoove those projects to actually use treated seeds and neonicotinoid products to better assess outcomes.
That's my position.
After committee chair Denny McNamara addresses some adjustments that are being made to address industry concerns, amendment author Rep. Rick Hansen notes that the motion to amend is for a session appropriation law, not a statutory law, adding:
I understand the canary in the coalmine, because I've just used that analogy, and the camel's nose under the tent, and all the other things that get used here at the capitol, but this is what it is. It's not dealing with GMOs, it's not dealing with other things. It's dealing with the land we buy with the lottery money, as the one yesterday as the one yesterday was the one with the land bought with the constitutional dollars and those have some very specific constitutional purposes.
So we're not talking about the 44 million acres that are treated with neonicotinoid-impacted products, we're talking about the land that the public is purchasing with their dollars that they've approved in the constitution, so I look forward to continuing the discussion.
Hansen has emerged as a champion of pollinator-friendly policy in the Minnesota legislature. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in soil management from Iowa State University and managed a pesticide-related program at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture when he was first elected to the House.
Concern for declining pollinator numbers has prompted Hansen and other policymakers to propose devising strategies that make state public wildlife and conservation lands pollinator-friendly habitat.
Here's the video clip of the moment from the committee hearing:
Bluestem looked at an earlier hearing and some bee-friendly bills in last week's post, A gentle buzz: pollinator-friendly legislation quietly moving through Minnesota House. After watching Mr. McBeth's testimony, we'd like to add that Big Ag is getting a bee in its bonnet over these common sense measures on land that's supposed to be friendly to wildlife--including pollinators.
Moreover, we have wonder why the slightest suggestion of criticism of ag practice (even on acres intended for wildlife and conservation) brings out such defensiveness. One would think that the industry was on its last legs, faltering like a downer cow, not the powerhouse that Minnesota Farmers Union president Doug Peterson described in Senate hearing last week.
Screenshot: Daryn McBeth as he shares his worry that banning seeds and plants treated with insecticides on land intended for wildlife and conservation and bees and such might lead to banning GMO seed and use of organic plants and stuff.
If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen P.O. Box 108, Maynard MN 56260) or use the paypal button below:
Email subscribers can contribute via this link to paypal; use email sally.jo.sorensen at gmail.com as recipient.
Comments