For our readers' late night reading, we offer a report about neonicotinoid use and corn dust research. We'll be saying more about this over the weekend.
Bee Culture reports in CATCH THE BUZZ – Nonprofits, Industry, Universities Join Together in Recommendations to Keep Honey Bees Safe during Corn Planting:
The Corn Dust Research Consortium (CRDC) announced recommendations based on over three years of targeted research designed to keep honey bees safe during corn planting. The CDRC effort, managed by the non-profit, Pollinator Partnership (P2), engaged stakeholders from beekeeping, agriculture, manufacturing, research, and regulatory agencies to facilitate research designed to provide practical guidance to reduce bee-kills and long-term damage to honey bees as a result of “fugitive dust” produced during the planting of treated corn seed.
Honey bee exposure to neonicotinoid pesticides has been a growing concern with the ubiquity of treated corn seed planted in North America and Europe. Risk reduction is a primary concern for beekeepers that have colonies in agricultural areas. Dr. Reed Johnson, the Ohio State University, Dr. Art Schaafsma, University of Guelph, and Dr. Jerry Bromenshank completed three years of study into risk reduction strategies that generated best management practice suggestions for US and Canadian regulators, growers, manufacturers and beekeepers. Dr. Mary Harris, Iowa State University completed two years of study and contributed to the data used to develop the recommendations. . . .
We'll have more in a future post about the Pollinator Partnership; according to the organization's website, the research was funded by these organizations:
Funding and participation through the life of this project has come from:
- American Beekeeping Federation
- American Honey Producers Association
- American Seed Trade Association
- Association of Equipment Manufacturers
- BASF
- Bayer CropScience
- Canadian Honey Council
- Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association
- Industrial Minerals Association – North America
- National Corn Growers Association
- Pollinator Partnership
- Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC
- University of Maryland
The United States Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Health Canada’s Pesticide Management and Regulator Agency are key members of the CRDC and have received support for policy actions and best management protocols from the research findings.
Here's the document:
Photo: An apple orchard. How close can neonics be applied to orchards without harming bees?v
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