Iowa State AG department to facilitate seed treatment meeting

Iowa State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship held an informal meeting last week (July 26, 2012) to discuss neonicotinoid-comprised seed treatments and the potential impacts on beneficial insects.

Attendees included bee farmers, entomologists, crop growers, Iowa state officials, university experts and representatives from equipment companies, grower groups, seed treatment companies and seed companies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Lisa Nichols, American Seed Trade Association staff liaison to the Seed Treatment and Environment Committee, was also present.

The meeting was designed to help all parties better understand and address potential dust drift and collectively explore practical, innovative opportunities for minimizing dust drift potential.

Nichols said there was a lot of discussion and it was great information exchange. One area noted for improvement is communication to key stakeholders about seed treatment stewardship and best practices.

"Effective communication moving forward is the task before us and I think an immediate action the industry needs to focus on," Nichols said. "The good news is we're already headed down this path in working with CropLife America to develop a stewardship guide to seed treatments, which should be ready for publication towards the year's end."

Nichols said key points in the meeting included:

* Growers expressed their support and need for seed treatment technology.
* Beekeepers recognize the need for seed treatments
* Growers understand the need for healthy bees
* Industry and growers need to work together on effective communication strategies to relay and encourage stewardship practices.
* Growers need to have access to as many tools as possible for sustainable farming.
* Currently researchers cannot point to a singular cause of recent bee kills.
* Bees haven't changed
* The chemical makeup of seed treatment products hasn't changed.

"The group of attendees was a good cross section of stakeholders, it's reassuring to know this issue is receiving the attention it deserves and being addressed in a manner which promotes cooperation and working together to discover solutions with all stakeholder interests at heart," Nichols said.