A new study shows how “insect apocalypse” is unfolding across America’s farmland since neonicotinoid pesticides were introduced several decades ago.
Researchers found that farmland across the country is 48 times more toxic to insect life than 25 years ago, and neonicotinoid pesticides account for a large majority of the increase in toxicity.
“It is alarming that US agriculture has become so much more toxic to insect life in the past two decades,” said Kendra Klein, Ph.D., study co-author and senior staff scientist at Friends of the Earth.
“We need to phase out neonicotinoid pesticides to protect bees and other insects that are critical to biodiversity and the farms that feed us.”
Published in the journal PLOS ONE on Tuesday, the new study is a complete assessment of pesticide usage on farmland in the US, is the first study in the world to quantify how dangerous fields have become for insects by providing YoY changes in toxicity levels of the soil.
The increased toxic load measured in the study could explain why insect populations are collapsing in the US.
Klein said neonicotinoids are more toxic for insects than traditional pesticides and are widely used by farmers. These dangerous chemicals can remain in the soil for months to years after one application.
“Congress must pass the Saving America’s Pollinators Act to ban neonicotinoids,” said Klein.
“In addition, we need to rapidly shift our food system away from dependence on harmful pesticides and toward organic farming methods that work with nature rather than against it.”
The study suggests neonicotinoids are a major factor in the recent decline of insects, along with climate change and habitat destruction, leading scientist to warn of an “insect apocalypse.”
Insects, such as honey bees, are the world’s most important pollinator of food crops. It’s estimated that at least one-third of food consumed by humans relies on pollination mainly by bees, but also by other insects, birds, and bats.
Neonicotinoid usage has been linked to honey-bee colony collapse disorder and loss of birds due to a decline in insect populations.
Klein said neonicotinoid became popular with farmers during the mid-2000s, has contributed to the dramatic increase of toxic farmland.
The study found imidacloprid and clothianidin, produced by Bayer, and thiamethoxam, a product of Syngenta-ChemChina were the three neonicotinoids that contributed to the increasing toxic load in farmlands.
Last year, Europe banned three main neonicotinoids (clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam) for all farming activity. Several states in the US have also restricted farmers from using the chemicals, out of fear that it could further collapse the honey bee population.
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It just goes to show the dollar is god and politicians have sold their souls for a dollar. But we can always fix the system by voting for different and more politicians, right?
Trump’s EPA Sued for Not Banning Brain-Damaging Pesticide
Chlorpyrifos producer Dow Chemical falsely claims the pesticide “protects.” It’s been poisoning the earth and people for nearly half a century.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) “for a healthy planet and safer world” said Dow is the main beneficiary of the EPA’s failure to ban chlorpyrifos.
The agency “said (it’s) OK to spray this brain-damaging chemical on the array of fruits, nuts, vegetables, and cereal crops that we and our children consume on a daily basis,” UCS explained, adding:
“With this decision, the EPA continues to sideline science, put public health at risk, and roll back public safeguards in favor of private interests.”
Chlorpyrifos is a significant health hazard to pregnant women, their fetuses, young children, farmworkers, and virtually everyone else eating the crops they harvest.
Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate pesticide in use since 1965. It’s harmful to human health if touched, inhaled or otherwise ingested.
It blocks an enzyme that controls messages between nerve cells. When blocked, the nervous system can’t send normal signals, causing it to malfunction — how it kills pests.
Exposure to small amounts of the pesticide can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness, abdominal muscle cramps, muscle twitching, tremors, weakness, loss of coordination, diarrhea, and blurred or darkened vision.
It is called “Regulatory Capture” where the industry being regulated ends up coopting the regulating agency to their own benefit…..you see it in Finance, Insurance, Healthcare, Defense, Telecomms and of course big Ag….The Regulators, aka unarmed government workers, benefit the companies they are supposed to watchdog then move to those same companies for a big payday……Therefore the answer is no regulation which give rise to actual consumer watchdogs and forces consumers to be more cautious and save us all a bunch of money and heartache…..though the Statists will be upset.
Revealed: how Monsanto’s ‘intelligence center’ targeted journalists and activists
Monsanto, now part of Bayer, is a deeply crony company with mastery of seeding people in regulatory agencies.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/07/monsanto-fusion-center-journalists-roundup-neil-young
I wonder where the EPA, USDA is on this. Is it too obvious? Lets pretend they are innocent fools and are operating on the greatest good principal. If healthy Ag protocol was enforced what would happen? Skyrocketing food prices? Would people wonder why?
Would this expose other areas of irresponsibility?
Does these Ag regs feed into the Med pipeline?
How much does Med make off of bad Ag?
What percentage of Med does .gov have?
What percentage will single payer give them?
Fuck it, lets go back to pretending they operate on the Greatest Good principal, did the Broncos win last night?
Good comment. It’s becoming more and more obvious how things tie together. Trust no large organization of any kind. Organizations care for themselves only.
I noticed a friend, a third generation farmer, Inc., changed the name of his farm to read Seep Water Estates.
The seepwater issue must play a role in the toxins in the soils. Since the aquifer levels are so much depleted by over irrigation (why grow rice where fields have to be flooded by irrigation nonstop?),there is an interesting effect of river flooding this year particularly.
The river subsided even though additional flooding continued. It seeped outward. My friends’ farm is 40 miles from the river. He lost crops to seepwater.
Think about river water spreading out and pushing all that sediment and chemical residue upward into topsoil. In
your right, everything is connected in nature, but man thinks that by creating parcels and boundaries, some how his actions will not impact anyone else.
A new neighbor decided to build on one of the last available sites in our area, and drilled a 400 foot well. a different neighbor who lives 1/2 mile away, with a similar depth well, was impacted with cloudy water and larger particle impacting his water supply, due to the drilling into the same aquifer.
I’ve noticed that this year, I have hardly any wasps or hornets trying to make nests in the eves, when usually they are nests on all 4 corners, so, something is going on with the bugs.
We humans are not in a sustainable relationship with nature, and nature will win, always.
‘oh, we can fix the atmosphere by not eating cheeseburgers’ – these people are insane.
Lots of problems get solved with lots of people being deaded.
Seedy,
Please finish this thought. I am interested.
“Think about river water spreading out and pushing all that sediment and chemical residue upward into topsoil. In”
I meant to finish this…
In some areas there is an unusual odor. Old timers, the few who are around and lucid, say it is probably all that DDT that got dumped that one year.
Then they laugh and six or more say “which year?”
There were a few spills in my lifetime. I do not remember cleanup other than the rain.
I am sure there was some.
I don’t trust anything an environmental organization have to say. They and their Big Daddy, the Federal Government, are the reason pickup trucks cost $75,000 and not $16,000, which is the inflation adjusted price of a pregovernmental control 1965 Ford 4X4. They are also the reason it cost thousands of dollars to get rid of bedbugs, which used to be dealt with quickly by use of a teaspoon of Chlordane per gallon of water. They are also the reason blast furnaces can’t be built anymore; the last one was built in 1971. They are the reason the coal industry has been gutted, and our electric bills have skyrocketed due to the use of expensive natural gas.
Anytime these people start talking about what needs to be changed and ENFORCED by the Government, it will cost you big bucks or simply won’t be available at all.
THEY are the shills for the Elites
These people are some of the many troublemakers in this country, and if you get rid of the troublemakers, then you don’t have any more problems.
I still have 80 acres of my old home place. I lease it out to cattle people for grazing. One part of our “agreement” is for them to clip the pasture twice a year for weed control. Needless to say it never gets clipped once a year unless I do it. Recently in a discussion about said “pasture clipping” they informed me that they would buy a spray-rig and use chemical herbicides to control the weeds.
Now, I’m no tree hugger by a long shot but I am observant of the decline in insect populations, especially the bees.
Again, needless to say, I informed them that I did not want any chemicals sprayed on my pastures. It’s only 80 acres but it’s mine and if I want to have a bee and insect sanctuary I will (at least for a few more years till I crap out.)
Ahhhhhh 80 acres….outstanding!
80 acres is the dream. Believe me!!
Short term benefits, longterm disasters. Bacteria in the soil and insects form the bottom of the food chain. Kill them and produce sterile soil which requires much more phosphate and more potent insecticides, herbicide and fungicides in a never ending, declining spiral.
We’re so fucking bright it’s a wonder we’re still around. Only because of nature’s resiliency are we still here. We won’t be if we don’t get in step with nature. Choosing to club it to death; bright indeed.
“We’re so fucking bright it’s a wonder we’re still around. “
I just had to repeat that for everyone to see. Great comment.
Why isn’t this one of the most well known and despised men in America? Michael Taylor has bounced repeatedly between Monsanto and FDA regulator. Why aren’t people knocking on his door at 2 am threatening to burn him alive (reference -call to burn Tucker Carlson).
https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/why-is-a-former-monsanto-vice-president-running-the-fda-michael-r-taylor-was-was-promoted-to-commissioner-of-the-fda-after-spending-years-lobbying-for-the-gmo-foods-giant-the-position-affords-taylo/
I have a front lawn with a plum tree in it. This year’s long wet spring (even in a desert like Utah! Go figure) produced a bumper crop of plums; I made plum jam, a couple of quarts worth. Around my front porch I have potted petunias, marigolds, sunflowers, tomatoes, green peppers, bunching onions, and roses.
Earlier in the spring there were almost no bees. I think (hope) no one is spraying Roundup in the middle of the city, and that the bee mite infestations are low. Today I saw at least three species of bees chasing each other and nectar / pollen around my flowers; there were honeybees, what I think are Mason bees (about 15% of honeybee size) and some tiny, 1/8″ max baby bees (sorry, no idea). They were doing bee examinations of the various flowers, but the sunflowers seemed to attract them most. If I only have one sunflower or two (previous years) I rarely / never see a bee, but having seven or eight at once (this year, most with multiple blooms) seems to hit a “critical mass” necessary to attract them. Or maybe they just like variety, and different crops and roses together is what’s needed. HSF, do you have bees? Do you watch / know what they like most?
“I think (hope) no one is spraying Roundup in the middle of the city”-
James, do you ever wander into the outdoor section of the big box stores and go over to the pesticide/herbicide area? Ever notice how in herbicides the most shelf space seems to go to Roundup in a large variety of “flavors”? Ever try to find something “tame”, like Sevin? It seems Monsanto has a very, very tight grip on the market.
smart people would pay attention to Boric Acid too.