In Monday's Minnesota House Legacy Funding Finance Committee meeting, Representative Denny McNamara (R-Hastings) claimed that since "bees don't eat corn," using neonicotinoid-treated seed corn in food plots on land purchased with Legacy funds wouldn't be an issue for pollinators.
But McNamara said during the hearing:
The letter from Pollinate Minnesota talks mostly about the need to be conscious of not having neonicotinoids plants planted that are going to kill bees when they're planted. My amendment, because it was so broad in the original adoption in so broad that it would stop the planting of certain crops that would be used temporarily to prepare the land to properly plant it with prairie plants such as corn seeds coated with the neonicotinoid, and bees don't eat corn, so it's not going to kill the bees. That's not the issue here. . .
As the photo at the top of the post illustrates, bees do gather and eat corn pollen from tassels (the flower of the corn plant), and researchers at Purdue and elsewhere have discovered that bees are exposed to neonicotinoids via pollen from corn grown from treated seeds; one study found worker bee counts to be lower at hives near corn fields. Talc dust from the seeds themselves can also be a problem.
Rep. Phyllis Kahn (DFL-Minneapolis) insisted that no neonicotinoids were safe for pollinators, while noting that non-treated seed corn, such as that used by organic farmers, was available.
Regardless, McNamara was successful in stripping language protecting pollinators from HF181, the outdoor heritage funding bill as it went through the Legacy Committee. Along the way, McNamara made an additional odd claim neonicotinoid pesticides that are playing a role in their decline.
He associated neonicotinoids with weed control, an odd notion given that herbicides, rather than insecticides, kill plants. Treating seeds with neonicotinoids is done to discourage insects, not weeds.
Here's a Youtube of the excerpts of committee discussion referenced above:
Who's encouraging McNamara to remove the pro-pollinator language? When McNamara says at the 1:06 minute mark in the video below that banning treated seeds "that's a problem for the industry," readers may remember our February 1 post, Pesticide industry lobbyist fears neonics ban on wildlife habitat acreage only first step to GMO-hating, organic-loving hippie takeover.
Here's that earlier testimony:
Since McNamara is an owner of and landscape contractor for Hoffman and McNamara Nursery and Landscape in Hastings, we would have thought he knew the difference between herbicides and pesticides that are insecticides. We can understand why he might not know much about corn pollen.
In 2008, Minnesotans voted to dedicate a three-eighths of one percent tax on themselves for 25 years, until 2034 for wildlife habitat, clean water and arts & culture. These funds are commonly called "Legacy" money.
Learn more about pollinators and neonicotinoid pesticides from the Xerces Society.
To listen to the unedited committee hearing, click on this URL
For recent posts about Rep. McNamara, who chairs the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee, check out February 8's Hot potato politics: Offutt family members gave Representative Denny McNamara campaign cash, February 12's Fehr factor vs citizen power: so a real discussion happened in a Minnesota House committee, and March 12's With friends like this, who needs lobbyists' cash? House environment committee to hear MPCA bill.
Some readers may also recall our 2012 post, In 2011, Denny McNamara & Amy Koch were ALEC Natural Resources Task Force members.
Photo: Bees gathering pollen on a corn tassel. Via University of Delaware Cooperative Extension Apiculture Program.
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