If you are a farmer you no doubt have been following the issues popping up around neonicotinoids.
Neonicotinoids (sometimes shortened to neonics) are a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically similar to nicotine, notes Wikepedia. In the late 1990s neonicotinoids came under increasing scrutiny over their environmental impact when their use was linked in a range of studies to adverse ecological effects, including honey-bee colony collapse disorder (CCD) and loss of birds due to a reduction in insect populations. In 2013, the European Union and a few non EU countries restricted the use of certain neonicotinoids.
The studies into the impact of Neonicotinoids on bees are not black and white, but the decision in the EU illustrates governments are nervous.
That nervousness is created by realities. The first is a concern by consumers, which as a group has become quite reactionary in terms of any hint of farm chemicals impacting the environment. Even when solid science suggests the threat is minimal, consumers are largely unconvinced as the world tends to be leery of science these days.
Consumers are voters, so governments listen.
Then there is the suggestion neonicotinoids impact bee populations which are a key food plant pollinator.
Scientists have conducted dozens of studies on neonicotinoid seed treatments and the potential impact on bee health, but now new research from closer to home are suggesting neonicotinoids are having a negative impact in terms of our environment.
Reported by the Western Producer recently, researchers at the University of Saskatchewan have found that canola seed coated with imidacloprid, a type of neonicotinoid, can be toxic to songbirds.
“Imidacloprid dosed birds exhibited significant declines in fat stores and body mass and failed to orient correctly,” the scientists wrote in a study published Nov. 9 in the journal Scientific Reports, detailed at www.producer.com
“These results suggest that wild songbirds consuming the equivalent of just four imidacloprid-treated canola seeds… per day over three days could suffer impaired condition, migration delays and improper migratory direction, which could lead to increased risk of mortality or lost breeding opportunity.”
These latest findings are worrisome in the sense neonicotinoids are so widely used. They are applied as a seed treatment to almost all of the canola and corn grown in North America and a portion of the soybean crop.
The loss of neonicotinoids as an insect control option in such high valued crops as canola, corn and soybeans would be a major hit to producers.
But with mounting evidence neonicotinoids are impacting bee populations, and now may be a threat to songbirds too, it is hard to envision mounting consumer pressure to deal with the situation through tighter use restrictions, if not outright bans.
