No matter how you feel about Ontario’s proposal to restrict use of neonicotinoid insecticides on corn and soybean crops, we can all agree: bees matter. But as important as bees are, there’s more at stake.
Neonics are poisoning our soil and water. This problematic class of pesticides needs to be phased out globally to protect Earth’s ecosystems. By implementing restrictions now (the first in North America), Ontario will have a head start in the transition to safer alternatives.
Not surprisingly, Ontario’s proposal has drawn the ire of the pesticide industry.
Neonics have only been around for a couple of decades, but annual global sales now top $2.6 billion.
They were initially embraced because they are less directly toxic to humans than older pesticides and are effective at low levels, reducing the volume used.
They can be applied to seeds and are absorbed into the plant, which then becomes toxic to insect pests, reducing the need to spray.
We now know these characteristics are the problem. These chemicals are nerve poisons that are toxic even at very low doses and persist in plants and the environment.
They affect the information-processing abilities of invertebrates, including some of our most important pollinators.
Bees have borne the brunt of our unfortunate, uncontrolled experiment with neonics.
Beekeepers report unusually high bee death rates in recent years, particularly in corn-growing areas of Ontario and Quebec. Virtually all corn and about 60 per cent of soybean seeds planted in Ontario are treated with neonics.
Critics emphasize that other factors — including climate change, habitat loss and disease — affect pollinator health. But these factors are not entirely independent; for example, chronic exposure to neonics may increase vulnerability to disease.
A comprehensive pollinator health action plan should address these factors, and scaling back the use of neonics is a good start.
Ontario’s proposal to restrict the use of neonic-treated corn and soybean seed, starting next year, is far from radical.
The idea is to move away from routinely planting neonic-treated seeds and use neonics only in situations where crops are highly vulnerable to targeted pests. The government expects this will reduce the uses of neonic-treated corn and soybean seed by 80 per cent by 2017.
It’s no surprise that the pesticide industry and its associates oppose even this modest proposal and are running expensive PR campaigns to obscure the evidence of harm.
The industry’s objection to restrictions on neonics is eerily similar to big-budget advertising campaigns to create a smokescreen thick enough to delay regulatory responses to the obvious harm caused by cigarettes.
Let’s hope today’s decision-makers have a better grasp of the precautionary principle and a stronger commitment to protecting the public good, because bees really do matter.
David Suzuki is the host of the CBC’s The Nature of Things and author of more than 30 books on ecology. (With files from Faisal Moola.)