Neonics Case Closed

OMAHA (DTN) -- A federal judge said in a ruling this week that he cannot make the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulate neonicotinoid seed treatments, ending a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco.

The Center for Food Safety, a number of other environmental groups, and beekeepers from California, South Dakota and Pennsylvania, as well as farmers from Pennsylvania and Kansas, filed a lawsuit at the beginning of 2016 to force the EPA to require neonicotinoid registrations under the Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, or FIFRA. The groups argued neonicotinoids are used extensively on crop acreage but EPA has not adequately assessed the seeds under FIFRA as a pesticide.

"The court is most sympathetic to the plight of our bee population and beekeepers," Judge William Alsup said in his ruling Monday on summary judgement in favor of EPA.

"Perhaps the EPA should have done more to protect them, but such policy decisions are for the agency to make. A district judge's role is limited to judicial review of final agency actions, which do not include the type of guidance involved here."

Several agricultural groups intervened in the case back in March on EPA's behalf. Those groups included CropLife America, the American Seed Trade Association, Agricultural Retailers Association, American Soybean Association, National Cotton Council of America, National Association of Wheat Growers and National Corn Growers Association.

Agribusiness groups argued seed treatments were created to provide precise, low-dose applications of pesticides and are economical to use. The treatments minimize impacts to non-target organism and reduce the amounts of chemical pesticides applied by sprayers.

Further, the agricultural groups argued EPA conducted a vigorous review of seed treatments under the FIFRA law and found that seed treatments perform their "intended function without unreasonable adverse effects on the environment."

Richard Wilkins, Greenwood, Delaware, farmer and president of the American Soybean Association, said the court's ruling is favorable for science.

"Monday's ruling is a big step forward in the push for a science-based system," he said. "The federal ruling underscores how activists use lawsuits to force duplicative additional regulations to tie up farmer productivity. Our farmers make their decisions based on science, and as such, need regulations based on that same sound science. We appreciate the ruling today, and hope that it will signal a respect for pragmatic regulation moving forward."

Andrew Kimbrell, director of the Center for Food Safety, said the ruling was a "crushing blow" in the effort to protect bees.

"It is astounding that a judge, EPA or anyone with any common sense would not regulate this type of toxic pesticide use, especially when the seed-coatings are so broadly applied and there is so much at risk," he said.

"Study after study has shown that seeds coated with these chemicals are a major culprit in catastrophic bee kills. Now more than ever our country's beekeepers, environment and food system deserve protection from agrichemical interests, and it is EPA's job to deliver it."

Farmers plant corn and soybeans with neonicotinoid coatings on about 150 million acres across the United States.

Jeff Anderson, a California- and Minnesota-based commercial beekeeper and honey producer who was the lead plaintiff in the case, said in a statement the decision will hurt the bee industry.

"The broader implications of this decision drive the nails in the bee industry's coffin," he said. "Of course as a beekeeper I am concerned about my livelihood, but the public at large should also be alarmed. More than one-third of the average person's diet is generated by pollinators that I help manage."

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com

Follow him on Twitter @toddneeleyDTN

(PS/AG)

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