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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><img width=580 height=110 id="irc_mi" src="cid:image001.jpg@01CEF258.3C7641F0" alt="http://m.agriculture.com/images/mobile/logo-1280.jpg"><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><img width=320 height=200 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.jpg@01CEF258.3C7641F0" alt="http://www.agriculture.com/uploads/assets/articles/2013/12/large/img_52a0dafa97cb7_35972.jpg"></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span style='font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Bee health debate heats up over pesticides<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.agriculture.com/persona/407"><span style='color:blue'>John Walter</span></a></span></b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> 12/05/2013 @ 1:58pm <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.agriculture.com/news/policy/bee-health-debate-heats-up-over_4-ar35972">http://www.agriculture.com/news/policy/bee-health-debate-heats-up-over_4-ar35972</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>A new national campaign to restrict use of a widely applied group of pesticides is bringing increased attention to the question of how to improve the health of honeybees and other pollinators. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>This week a full-page advertisement appeared in major U.S. newspapers calling for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to impose a moratorium on use of neonicotinoids, a type of chemical used in seed treatments and other insecticides. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>A large group of advocacy and environmental organizations, organic food businesses, and agricultural activists signed the petition, which cites the website Save-Bees.org. The ad was paid for by the Ceres Trust. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The ad also endorsed a U.S. House Bill, Saving America’s Pollinators Act, which seeks to require EPA to suspend the registration of a group of neonicotinoid insecticides used in seed treatments and other products until proving that the insecticide aren’t causing “unreasonable adverse effects" on pollinators. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“This week, 15 countries are imposing a two-year restriction on the use of several of these chemicals,” the ad stated. Currently, EPA is not expected to take further action until 2018, it said. “Bees can’t wait five more years — they are dying now.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The pollinators bill in the House, introduced by Representative John Conyers (D-MI) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), is cosponsored by 38 Democrats. In other recent action, House Republicans prepared a draft report directing EPA to further review neonicotinoids for their impact on pollinators. The draft from the House appropriations committee stated that research suggests that the pesticides increase threats to bee health, according to a report from Insideepa.com. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Also, a federal lawsuit in a U.S. district court pits environmentalists against manufacturers over the claim that pollinator impacts are unavoidable because of their systemic mode of action, which places the chemicals in the plant pollen, nectar, leaves, and stems.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Pesticide manufacturers and other agricultural interests have pointed to a recent report from EPA and USDA showing that there is no “smoking gun,” no single cause, in the honeybee health crisis. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The report, released last spring, cited multiple factors for the decline in honeybee colony numbers, including parasites and disease, genetics, poor nutrition, and pesticide exposure.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The Save-Bees.org campaign “distorts the real situation regarding pollinator health and repeats the same unsupported accusations regarding the use of critical crop protection products,” says Bill Marks, senior counselor for Porter Novelli, which represents Bayer, a manufacturer of neonicotinoid products.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“While our industry recognizes the importance of honeybees to agriculture and supports reasonable measures to protect them, it is incorrect and irresponsible to suggest that neonicotinoid insecticides are responsible for declines in bee colony health,” Marks told Agriculture.com. “Calls by advocacy groups to ban neonicotinoids would only hurt the American farmer and would have no appreciable benefit to bee colony health."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>A scientific group devoted to conservation of pollinators disagrees, saying that neonicotinoids are a significant cause of bee declines. The problem with the insecticides is fourfold, says Scott Black, executive director of the Xerces Society: The insecticides are highly toxic to pollinators, they are systemic, long-lived, and they are widely used, he says.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>While embracing “smart use of pesticides” in integrated pest-management practices, Black says “neonicotinoids don’t work well in the IPM structure. They are a problem for bees. Action should be taken to learn where they are safe and where they are not. We think EPA should pull the products from the market then reevaluate their safety.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In the same week as the media campaign against neonicotinoids, agricultural groups launched a program promoting “safe use of seed treatments.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The effort by the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) and CropLife America (CLA) provides new information and research to growers on planting, storing, and handling treated seed. It was endorsed by the National Corn Growers Association, Farm Bureau, the American Soybean Association, and the National Cotton Council.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The groups began the campaign in response to “growing concern about the potential effect of seed treatment dust from planting on pollinators and the environment,” ASTA and CLA said in a statement. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“The health of pollinators, especially honeybees is crucial to agricultural production,” said Jay Vroom, president and CEO of CropLife America, a crop protection industry trade organization. “The crop protection industry, seed companies, seed treatment applicators, equipment manufacturers, and farmers all play a role in supporting thriving bee populations through stewardship and sound science.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Black of the Xerces Society welcomed the initiatives from the industry organizations. But, he added that “if they are serious about pollinator conservation, they need to work to provide more nontoxic pest-control alternatives, including nontreated seed.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“As any farmer knows, there’s no silver bullet,” Black says. “But we need to keep looking for multiple solutions.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'>_______<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Scott Hoffman Black<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Executive Director<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Chair<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> IUCN Butterfly Specialist Group<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>628 NE Broadway, Suite 200, Portland, OR 97232, USA<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a href="https://webmail.integra.net/src/compose.php?send_to=sblack%40xerces.org"><span style='color:blue'>sblack@xerces.org</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Tel: (503) 232-6639 ext. 101<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Toll free: 1-855-232-6639 ext. 101<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Cell: (503) 449-3792<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Connect with Xerces:</span><br><b><span style='color:red'><a href="http://www.xerces.org/" target="_blank"><span style='color:red;text-decoration:none'>xerces.org</span></a></span></b><span style='color:#1F497D'> </span><b><span style='color:#17365D'><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Xerces-Society/193182577358618" target="_blank"><span style='color:#17365D;text-decoration:none'>Facebook</span></a></span></b><span style='color:#1F497D'> </span><b><span style='color:#984806'><a href="http://www.xerces.org/enewsletters/" target="_blank"><span style='color:#984806;text-decoration:none'>E-newsletter</span></a></span></b><span style='color:#1F497D'> </span><b><span style='color:#0070C0'><a href="https://twitter.com/xerces_society" target="_blank"><span style='color:blue;text-decoration:none'>Twitter</span></a></span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation is an international nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>To join the Society, make a contribution, or read about our work, please visit <a href="http://www.xerces.org/"><span style='color:blue'>www.xerces.org</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Buy our best-selling book:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a href="http://www.xerces.org/announcing-the-publication-of-attracting-native-pollinators/"><span style='color:blue'>Attracting Native Pollinators. Protecting North America’s Bees and Butterflies</span></a></span></i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>