On Tuesday, I posted MN Environmental Quality Board releases 2024 Minnesota State Agency Pollinator Report. One of the factors mentioned in the report is the use of neonicotinoid pesticides, which kill insects, including pollinators.
One indication of the presence of neonics in Minnesota? Neonic Pesticides in Minnesota Water: Their Contamination of and Threats
to the State’s Aquatic Ecosystems, a report from the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council. The report focuses on the effect of neonics on aquatic life.
With the changes in the Minnesota House Agriculture committee chairs in the coming session, I'm curious whether this report might have any consequences for law making that governs the use of pesticides in farming,
At the Minnesota Reformer, Madison McVan takes a look at the report in the article republished below.
‘Neonics,’ pesticides with harmful environmental effects, are common in Minnesota waterways
by Madison McVanA common pesticide coating on corn and soybean seeds has leached into Minnesota waterways, threatening pollinators and aquatic ecosystems, according to a report released this week by the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council.
Neonicotinoid pesticides, or “neonics,” are a group of insecticides that kill pests like aphids — but can also devastate bee colonies and aquatic insects, leading to a chain of negative effects in the polluted ecosystem.
The NRDC report, written by Pierre Mineau, a research scientist who worked for the Canadian government and teaches at Canada’s Carleton University, found that most Minnesota waterways have some amount of neonic pollution.
Using sampling data from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Mineau found that over a 12-year period, 95% of flowing-water sites had at least one neonic chemical, and 87% of the sites showed a mixture of two or more neonic chemicals.
“Where neonics were found, they appeared in most cases at concentrations expected to do biological harm,” Mineau wrote.
Ninety percent of neonic pollution in Minnesota comes from agricultural uses.
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture considers two common neonicotinoids — clothianidin and imidacloprid — “surface water pesticides of concern.” The department encourages the adoption of “best management practices” for those two neonicotinoids, including rotating neonics with other types of insecticides and using the lowest effective amount of the pesticide.
Some U.S. states, and the European Union, have banned or severely limited some of the most common neonics.
Farm groups have opposed attempts to rein in the use of neonics. When the New York state legislature passed a bill banning neonicotinoid-coated seeds last year, the state Farm Bureau called on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to veto the bill. (She did not.)
“Seeds treated with neonicotinoids were designed to be safer and reduce pesticide use…we believe the end result of this ban will force farms to revert back to spraying greater amounts of older pesticides as well as increasing tillage to combat harmful pests, releasing more carbon in the soil and increasing the likelihood of soil erosion,” New York Farm Bureau President David Fisher said.
I mbed a copy of the report itself below.
Neonic Pesticides in Minnesota Water: Their Contamination of and Threats to the State’s Aquatic Ecosystems uploaded by Sally Jo Sorensen on Scribd
The Minnesota Reformer article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Screenshot: The cover of the NRDC report
Related posts
- Commentary: Seeds treated with neonics are bad for bees, the environment and human health
- In ag omnibus bill, Minnesota is not quite so poised to lead an environmental breakthrough
- House enviro omnibus bill centers "the people, & the land, & the water & the wildlife of MN"
- Pollinator protection bills heard today in the Minnesota House Agriculture Committee at 1PM
- MN House Republicans abjectly fail to protect pesticides from radical pollinator-hugging leftists
- Update: MNHouse GOP fails to replace pesticide industry interests over local control
- MN Pollution Control Agency makes 2nd request for comments on waste treated seed rules
- Omnibus environment bill aims to ‘correct past wrongs, prepare for future,’ committee chair says
- MNHouse Ag Committee approves proposed rules for disposal of pesticide-treated crop seeds
- Though court strikes down EPA chlorpyrifos ban for farmers, product still illegal on MN state lands
- See it in the Strib: the silence of Corn Growers about deer exposure to neonicotinoids
- Preliminary results from pesticide study show widespread neonic exposure in wild MN deer.
- Study shows endocrine-disrupting imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid, messes up does and fawns.
- South Dakota News Watch: study shows neonics a danger to deer, pheasant study results soon
- South Dakota study on neonicotinoids' effects on whitetails prompts MNDNR deer spleen request.
- LCCMR funded scholars studied the impact of neonicotinoids on surface and groundwater
- Large study finds neonicotinoids push honeybee hives over the edge; pesticide makers polish turd
- EPA cancels registration of 12 neonicotinoid products from Bayer, Syngenta & Valent
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