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<TITLE>Letter in Record on neonics by GREN member Greg M</TITLE>
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<FONT SIZE="6"><FONT FACE="Times, Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:19pt'>Effects of neonics go well beyond bees<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><FONT COLOR="#5A5A5A"><FONT SIZE="2"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>W<B>ynne government reveals its anti-science sentiments — Dec. 11<BR>
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</B>Peter Shawn Taylor claims the Ontario government is "anti-scientific" because it is proposing to limit the use of neonicotinoid insecticides, which have been implicated in the decline of honey bees.<BR>
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He claims the action is "an effort to play up to vocal lobby groups," and that banning neonics is "unwarranted by available scientific evidence."<BR>
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Unfortunately, Taylor has a big problem: he simply hasn't bothered to read the available scientific evidence. Recent research published in Nature, probably the most prestigious scientific journal in the world, reveals that the harmful effects of neonics go far beyond just bees.<BR>
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Only five per cent of applied neonics is taken up by the crops it is applied to and the rest ends up as a pervasive contaminant in soil, water, and non-target vegetation where it rapidly accumulates because it persists for several years while more and more is being applied annually. Observers of Dutch insect-eating bird populations report a "tremendous decline" in such birds correlated with the introduction of the chemical over 10 years ago. This is not a direct effect from contact between birds and the neurotoxin, but rather what is called a "knock-on" effect: the insects are gone and there is simply no food left for them to eat. Canadian birders report similar alarming decreases in our birds.<BR>
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There is knee-jerk opposition to the proposed ban, now from the Grain Farmers of Ontario and CropLife Canada, which represents powerful agrichemical companies.<BR>
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Sadly, we've gone through this variety of "enviro death" before.<BR>
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Here's the last sentence of Rachel Carson's 1962 "Silent Spring" which revealed the disastrous environmental effects of then-new DDT: "It is our alarming misfortune that so primitive a science has armed itself with the most modern and terrible weapons, and that in turning them against the insects it has also turned them against the Earth."<BR>
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As for the "vocal lobby groups," Stephen Harper's government is attempting to deal them a massive systemic laryngectomy.<BR>
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A gentle letter about neonic concerns from Waterloo Region Nature (until a few weeks ago known as the Kitchener-Waterloo Field Naturalists) to the federal government resulted in an aggressive investigation by the Canadian Revenue Agency.<BR>
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It is interesting that the favourite method used by Russian president Putin to silence public opposition groups is to drum up phoney tax-evasion charges and send their leaders to jail. So, in Canada, we now appear to have Putin<I>-lite.<BR>
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Greg Michalenko<BR>
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Assistant professor emeritus<BR>
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Environment and resource studies<BR>
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University of Waterloo<BR>
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Waterloo<BR>
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See also article in today’s Globe and Mail on this topic: </I><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/neonics-sowing-seeds-of-discontent/article22078266/">http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/neonics-sowing-seeds-of-discontent/article22078266/</a><BR>
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</SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT SIZE="6"><FONT FACE="Times, Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:19pt'>Neonic efficacy in spotlight as Ontario plans to curb usage<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Times, Times New Roman"><FONT COLOR="#FF0201"><FONT SIZE="1"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:8.5pt'>ERIC ATKINS<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT SIZE="1"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:8.5pt'><FONT FACE="Helvetica, Verdana, Arial">The Globe and Mail<BR>
Published Sunday, Dec. 14 2014, 4:54 PM EST<BR>
Last updated Monday, Dec. 15 2014, 7:47 AM EST<BR>
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</SPAN><SPAN STYLE='font-size:9pt'>Ontario far</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:9pt'><FONT FACE="Arial Bold">mer </FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">Sean McGivern</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial Bold"> gr</FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">o</FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT SIZE="1"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:9pt'><FONT COLOR="#DD4B39"><FONT FACE="Times, Times New Roman">ws corn</FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Times, Times New Roman"> <FONT COLOR="#666666">an</FONT>d soyb</FONT><FONT COLOR="#4D4D4D"><FONT FACE="Arial">e</FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Georgia, Times New Roman">ans </FONT><FONT FACE="Helvetica, Verdana, Arial">with </FONT><FONT FACE="Georgia, Times New Roman">the</FONT><FONT FACE="Helvetica, Verdana, Arial"> help of </FONT><FONT FACE="Georgia, Times New Roman">t</FONT><FONT COLOR="#323232"><FONT FACE="Georgia Bold">he</FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Georgia, Times New Roman"> t</FONT><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial">ypical menu of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.<BR>
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The one thing he does not use is neonicotinoids, the class of pesticide linked to widespread declines in populations of pollinators.<BR>
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Instead, Mr. McGivern relies on the age-old practice of rotating crops, so hungry worms and beetles can’t thrive and spread season after season. But he says too many farmers are trying to use neonics to repeatedly grow the same crop in the same field.<BR>
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It’s a pr<FONT COLOR="#323232">a</FONT></FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT FACE="Georgia, Times New Roman"><FONT SIZE="2"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>ct</SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT COLOR="#FF0201"><FONT SIZE="1"><FONT FACE="Times, Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:8.5pt'>ice th</SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT SIZE="1"><FONT FACE="Georgia, Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:9pt'>at has grown in popularity in step with the rise of neonics, <FONT COLOR="#323232">w</FONT></SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:9pt'><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial">hich have been linked to deaths of bees and other pollinators. The pesticides have also been found in water and tied to the reduced numbers of birds and the insects they eat.<BR>
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The Ontario government plans to put in place rules to reduce the use of neonics on corn and soybeans 80 per cent by 2017, in a bid to cut overwintering bee deaths to 15 per cent, from the current 58 per cent, by 2020. The federal government, meanwhile, is reassessing its approval of the pesticides, which are under a moratorium in Europe.<BR>
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The Grain Farmers of Ontario, which is the largest farmers’ lobby group, says the “near ban” will handcuff farmers. The group funded a study with the chemical lobbyists CropLife Canada that said restricting neonics will slash crop revenues by $630-million.<BR>
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The makers of neonics, which include Germany’s Bayer AG and Switzerland’s Syngenta AG, say the seed treatment is safe if used as directed, and pollinator populations are increasing. They say the treatment, which is applied to the seed and makes the plant toxic to insects, protects the environment by helping farmers grow more on existing farmland. “Neonicotinoid seed treatments have contributed to the adoption of conservation tillage practices and the use of cover crops by farmers,” said Erin O’Hara, a CropLife spokeswoman.<BR>
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“As the economics of growing corn improve, growing consecutive corn crops in the same field is a very tempting prospect,” Bayer CropScience says of its neonic corn-seed treatment, Poncho.<BR>
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Scientists say neonics impair bees’ abilities to forage, and worsen the effects of viruses and blood-sucking mites. A study from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found the chemicals did not boost crop yields. A recent study from Pennsylvania State University said use of neonics actually reduced crops yields by killing the insects that eat plant-destroying slugs.<BR>
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The seed treatments, which became popular in the past decade, have become an insurance policy for farmers trying to protect their yields. In Ontario, they are used on almost all corn and canola and most soybean seeds, in addition to greenhouse vegetables and flowers.<BR>
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For Mr. McGivern, whose family has grown grains and raised cattle near Owen Sound, Ont., for 27 years, relying on neonics is akin to treating a person’s high blood pressure without tackling their weight problem.<BR>
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“Rather than changing up the model to alleviate these pressures, they’re treating the side-effects of a broken system. There are a lot of farmers out there who get it, but there are a lot of farmers who get all their advice from the multinationals that are selling them all the products,” said Mr. McGivern, who heads a group called Practical Farmers of Ontario, which bills itself as a voice for family farms.<BR>
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“There’s no money made in giving people advice on how to do things that don’t cost something to do. So now we’ve gone to a system where we have multinational, petro-agricultural companies saying ‘You don’t need to have crop rotation. We’ll just sell you the technology and the seed that will allow you to grow corn in the same field for five years.’”<BR>
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Will Trudell, owner of De Dell Seeds Inc. in London, Ont., said neonic-treated seeds account for just 10 per cent of his sales, but he is the exception in a seed-selling business that is dominated by such chemical companies and their retail divisions.<BR>
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“The big players all say the farmer is going to lose yield if they don’t use this. That’s not true. It doesn’t increase the yield at all, by putting on the neonicotinoid; it only reduces the harmful effects by insect damage,” Mr. Trudell said.<BR>
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He pointed to an Ontario government study that found just 10 to 20 per cent of the province’s fields require neonic-treated crops to guard against pests. “If there’s no insect pressure, there’s no yield loss,” Mr. Trudell said. “That’s a huge part of this story that needs telling.”<BR>
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-- <BR>
John Jackson<BR>
17 Major Street<BR>
Kitchener, Ontario N2H 4R1<BR>
519-744-7503<BR>
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