EPA Sued By Beekeepers

A coalition of environmental groups and beekeepers from three states have sued the EPA, claiming it has failed to regulate seeds coated with a pesticide widely acknowledged to be a major cause of hive collapse. The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of California on January 6.  Plaintiffs include beekeepers from Minnesota, South Dakota and Pennsylvania, and the Pollinator Stewardship council, farmers from Kansas and Pennsylvania, the American Bird Conservancy, the Center for Food Safety and the Pesticide Action Network. The plaintiffs argue that dust, kicked up when the neonicotinoid-coated seeds are planted, drifts to hives and damages them, but that regulators can’t do their job because of the EPA’s failure to label the coated seeds as a pesticide. “EPA has created an exemption that is so big you could drive a Mack truck through it,” says an attorney for the Center for Food Safety.