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A crop dusting plane from Blair Air Service dusts cotton crops in Lemoore, Calif. (AP/Gary Kazanjian)
Environment

As Europe Readies Ban on Bee-Killing Pesticides, Attention Turns To Bayer-Funded Studies

New Evidence Shows Bayer, Syngenta Fought Scientists For Data On Bee Study

The pesticide giants also encouraged the academics to study their own research on bees, which showed no harm from their products; only to be rebuffed by researchers.

Central Illinois corn and soybean farmer Tim Seifert loads his field planter with Syngenta insecticide for refuge corn while planting DEKALB seed corn, left front, for spring planting .

Bayer and Syngenta repeatedly asked scientists to give them raw data on a major new study which found that neonicotinoid pesticides cause harm to bees before it was published, according to emails obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) rules. Both companies cited their position as co-funders to try to get information from researchers at the

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Study: Scientists That Won’t Link Pesticides To Bee Deaths Are Often Funded By Agrochemical Industry

‘Syngenta and Bayer have a substantial amount of influence in the debate,’ said one neurobiology researcher in response to a Greenpeace analysis of corporate corruption in pesticide research.

A bumble bee perches on rape blossoms near Munich, southern Germany. A new study shows that scientists funded by pesticide makers downplayed the role pesticides had in decimating worldwide bee populations.

MINNEAPOLIS --- Pesticide manufacturers have spent millions influencing researchers who are investigating the role of neonicotinoids, a nicotine-like chemical found in many major pesticides, in bee die-offs, according to a recent analysis by Greenpeace. The analysis arrives just weeks after scientists released the results of a long-term study

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Activists Drop 2.6 Million Dead Bees On EPA’s Doorstep

Farmers, beekeepers, and food advocates met with officials from the EPA to urge an immediate ban on the widely-used pesticides linked with Colony Collapse Disorder.

Bees EPA

Between 1947 and 2005, bee colony numbers declined by 40%, from 5.9 million to 2.4 million. Despite scientists’ efforts to understand – or stop – the phenomena, the trend has only increased in recent decades. Now, it’s projected that if Colony Collapse Disorder continues at the current rate, populations of managed honey bees will completely

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That’s Gotta Sting: EPA Approval Of Dow Pesticide Rejected By Federal Appeals Court

The court ruled that “neither logic nor precedent” support the EPA’s decision to approve the Dow pesticide when the agency’s own scientists were calling for more research.

SAN FRANCISCO --- A federal appeals court made the unusual decision last week to overturn Environmental Protection Agency approval of a pesticide that many believe is contributing to the widespread death of bees. In their Sept. 10 decision, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the EPA improperly approved sulfoxaflor, a pesticide

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Ontario First In North America To Curb Bee-Killing Neonicotinoid Pesticides

Farmers and the province have agreed to rules for reduction that begins July 1, while the manufacturer maintains the controversial insecticide is safe.

Ontario is moving to take the sting out of pesticides that are killing bees. On July 1, the province will become the first jurisdiction in North America to begin reducing the number of acres planted with neonicotinoid-coated corn and soybean seeds. Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal said by 2017, the new rules should curb the acreage

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EPA Casts Doubt On Efficacy Of Pesticide Linked To Dwindling Bee Populations

“Pesticide sellers have worked hard to convince American farmers that they need to use these toxic seed treatments. Now that we know that these treatments don’t even help farmers, EPA must take action to ban them,” one environmental watchdog tells MintPress.

Kansas Daily Life

WASHINGTON --- Environmentalists and those pushing for the weakened use of chemicals in agriculture say they are bolstered by a new study from the U.S. government that strongly questions the efficacy of one of the most common pesticides used on soybeans. The class of pesticides under investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency is known

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