US's Minnesota to review insecticide for bee deaths

The US’s Minnesota state will conduct a special review of insecticides tied to the dramatic decline in honeybees across the country, a step that could lead to tighter regulations for one of the most widely used chemicals in agriculture.

It would be the third review of a pesticide by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture in recent years and goes beyond what the state legislature requested last year as part of new laws designed to protect both domestic and wild pollinators. It also coincides with a much more lengthy and extensive review of the same family of pesticides that the Environmental Protection Agency launched last year, which is underway.

Both are in response to the rising fears around the world about the loss of honeybees, which play a vital role in the global food supply, and which have been dying at a rate of 35 percent per year. Many beekeepers and researchers blame a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, which use nicotine as a toxin, and which are now built into virtually all cultivated plants, from corn to soybeans to potatoes to the garden plants homeowners buy at the nursery. In recent years, a growing body of research around the world shows that while they do not poison bees directly, they can cause neural damage so they can’t find their way home again and weaken their immune systems.

“I operate in west central Minnesota, where all I see are corn and soybean fields,” said Steve Ellis, a beekeeper from Barrett, who recently testified at a legislative hearing about the plight of pollinators in Minnesota. He said that the number of hives available to pollinate food crops like almonds, applies and onions is in decline, raising concerns that food production will be affected as well.