Insecticide Threat to Bees

A report analysed by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) has found that honey bees face ‘a number of risks’ from the neonicotinoid treatment of seeds.  According to the report, which EFSA acknowledges contains a high level of uncertainty and widespread gaps in available data, the seed treatments clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam pose risks to bee colonies, with the first two treatments causing acute risks to honey bees when used on flowering crops such as maize, OSR, sunflowers and cotton which are attractive to bees for pollen and nectar.  Even so EFSA has deemed the studies to be ‘inconclusive’ as the chemicals used in the study were at much higher concentration than they would be found in normal field conditions.  France, Germany and Italy already have restrictions on some uses of neonicotinoids, but environmental NGO’s are calling for an EU wide ban. 

The report follows a study carried out by German based EU think tank ‘Humboldt Forum for Food and Agriculture’ which concluded that the EU’s agricultural economy could lose over €4 billion a year due to lower crop yields and increased costs of production if there is a ban on neonocotinoid seed treatments.   The report funded by Bayer CropSciences and Syngenta is also supported by the European Farmers and European Agri-Cooperatives (Copa-Cogeca), and the European Seed Association (ECPA).  In addition it concludes a ban or suspension would have serious implications in the short- term as well as in the medium term including:

• The EU could lose €17 billion over a five year period
• 50,000 jobs could be lost within the EU and the livelihoods of more than a million people involved in arable production would suffer
• Significant reduction in production
• To make up the production shortfall three million hectares of land outside the EU would have to be brought into production resulting in around 600 million tonnes of additional CO₂

DG SANCO officials have said the findings by EFSA are worrying and have asked Bayer and Syngenta, both users of the treatments to respond.  Both reports will be discussed by Member State experts at the Standing Committee on 31^st January.