Minnesota has taken a step to control neonics – Seeking to reverse bee decline, Dayton orders limits on pesticide use – and it has the support of many leading Minnesota beekeepers who have been working on this, but what will it really accomplish? Is there any real substance or is this more smoke and mirrors to give the illusion that something is being done? For all the positive press this announcement is getting, unless the Minnesota Governor plans to outlaw neonics the Executive Order is likely to do little more than prolong the death of Minnesota beekeeping.
The only safe use of neonicotinoids is NO use. Neonicotinoids are the plutonium of pesticides and even if farm use is reduced significantly, one field in ten is enough to cause widespread poisoning of the environment.
Once again we see “habitat improvement” touted, but in my reading of the executive order I see no steps to evaluate the baseline poisoning of the supposed habitat. Take a look at what Mogren and Lundgren found in their buffer plantings.
