One seed can kill 80,000 bees

 

SHARE THIS ALERT    facebook     twitter   Unregulated pesticide-coated seeds are quietly decimating our bees, birds, and butterflies. Just one GMO corn seed coated with neonicotinoid pesticides contains enough pesticide to kill over 80,000 bees! Pesticide giants like Monsanto have been selling these deadly seeds with no safety testing or regulation for decades. Now, almost half of all U.S. farmland is planted with pesticide-coated seeds. That's why just weeks ago, Center for Food Safety filed a lawsuit on behalf of pollinator protection groups and farmers to finally regulate pesticide-coated seeds. And we need your help to win – if enough of us join, we can overwhelm the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a public call to stop these poisonous seeds from killing more pollinators. Add your name in support of our litigation calling on EPA to regulate pesticide-coated seeds. These poisonous seeds cause mass die-offs of bee populations and threaten hundreds of endangered species. Just one tiny seed can fatally poison a bird.  It’s hard to exaggerate the deadly impact these seeds have had on our planet. Neonicotinoids travel up a plant's circulatory system as it grows, into the leaves, pollen, and nectar. Then pollinators ingest the poison, impacting their central nervous systems and causing paralysis or even death. And that’s not even all of it – the vast majority of the pesticide coating comes off the seed after planting, contaminating our soil, wildflowers, and water!  Despite all this, EPA has never regulated pesticide coated seeds as pesticides under federal law. Companies like Monsanto have taken full advantage of this massive loophole: 95% of corn seeds in the U.S. now come coated with neonics!  In 2017, CFS filed a groundbreaking legal action demanding that the EPA evaluate and regulate coated seeds as they would any other pesticide. The agency failed to respond. So we filed another lawsuit, giving EPA the choice between voluntarily closing this massive loophole, or facing the consequences in court. They didn’t act – so now we’ve taken them to court yet again.  Will you sign our petition calling on EPA to regulate pesticide-coated seeds? Together, we can show EPA that there’s huge public concern for their continued refusal to regulate these deadly seeds. Together, let’s protect the pollinators our food system desperately needs.  Onwards, together,   The CFS Pollinator Team George Kimbrell Legal Director Sylvia Wu Senior Attorney Amy van Saun Senior Attorney Connect with Us      CFS welcomes your questions and comments. Please contact us at office@centerforfoodsafety.org, or at one of our offices. Washington, D.C. Office 518 C Street, NE, Suite 200 Washington, DC 20002 phone (202) 547-9359 | fax (202) 547-9429 www.centerforfoodsafety.org