Three reasons we should stop using bee-killing pesticides

Pesticides that kill bees, birds and other plant pollinators are being used to coat seeds that will be planted on as much as 150 million acres nationwide — and none of this makes any sense.

I’m talking about neonicotinoid pesticides, better known as“neonics.” One neonic-coated seed is poisonous enough to kill a songbird.

To protect the bees and other pollinators that our agriculture relies on, let’s get neonic-coated seeds off the market. Make your Earth Day gift now to help phase out these toxic seeds.

Reason #1: Neonic-coated seeds are a huge loophole

There’s another neonic seed conundrum: Above ground, sprayed neonics are at least somewhat regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. But once neonics are planted below ground, they’re no longer considered pesticides, allowing hundreds of millions of toxic seeds to enter the environment each year. It’s truly absurd.

Reason #2: Neonics can harm humans

And this doesn’t just threaten disaster for pollinators, either. A Nebraska community suffered health and neurological impacts after neonic pesticides leached into their water from a nearby ethanol plant that had used neonic-coated seeds to make its ethanol.

Reason #3: Neonics put our food supply at risk 

These seeds are just the latest evidence of an agricultural system that’s grown overly dependent on petrochemical-based fertilizers and pesticides. But without bees and other pollinators, so many of the foods that we eat would vanish from our tables.

No bees, no food.

These pesticide-coated seeds are, in part, so dangerous because the chemicals don’t stay on the plant. Instead, they’re absorbed by the plant, blown into the air as dirt and dust get kicked up, and leached into groundwater.

Pesticides have made huge swaths of land all across America poisonous for pollinators. The American bumblebee has already disappeared from eight states. More exposure could send our vital pollinators towards extinction.

We’re taking action to make sure that doesn’t happen. Here’s the kind of work your donation supports: 

• We’re urging Amazon and other companies to stop the sale of neonic pesticides.
• We’re calling on states to phase out the worst uses of these pesticides.
• We’re calling on the EPA to close the seed loophole by regulating neonic-coated seeds the same way the agency does other pesticides.