EPA Wants China to Sell Bee-Killing Pesticide for 165 Mil Acres of US Farmland

By Markab Algedi

Thiamethoxam is a pollinator killing pesticide that is known to be a bad decision if people who insist on using pesticides (because the agrichemical industry tries to cultivate a situation where average farmers have little option but to use some kind of pesticide).

It’s not necessary to use thiamethoxam. Why not choose something else? I can’t think of any particularly good pesticide or natural solution to pesticide, but a better option must exist than this.

The EPA is considering using the pesticide on major American food crops, covering about 165 million acres of farmland in the US. If this goes through, the crops that will be poisoned with thiamethoxam include corn, wheat, potato, rice, barley, sorghum, and alfalfa.

This seems to be a matter of the EPA submitting permission to the agrochemical giant corporation Syngenta, which produces the chemical.

The same day that the EPA released “new assessments” of the effects and dangers of neonicotinoid chemicals,  Syngenta proposed a shocking increase in the amount of thiamethoxam they sell and are allowed to by regulations. Thiamethoxam is a neonicotinoid, like Monsanto’s glyphosate.

According to the director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s environmental health program, Ann Burd:

“If the EPA grants Syngenta’s wish, it will spur catastrophic declines of aquatic invertebrates and pollinator populations that are already in serious trouble.”

“You know the pesticide-approval process is broken when the EPA announces it will consider expanding the use of this dangerous pesticide on the same day its own scientists reveal that the chemical kills birds and aquatic invertebrates.”

According to EcoWatch:

“Neonicotinoids have long been known to pose serious harm to bee populations. But the new EPA assessments found the commonly used pesticides can kill and harm birds of all sizes and pose significant dangers to aquatic invertebrates.

Thiamethoxam is currently widely used as a seed coating for these crops. This application would allow it to be sprayed directly on the crops, greatly increasing the amount of pesticide that could be used.

The just-released aquatic and non-pollinator risk assessment found that the majority of uses of the neonicotinoid on currently registered crops resulted in risks to freshwater invertebrates that exceeded levels of concern—the threshold at which harm is known to occur.

The EPA did not assess risks associated with spraying the pesticides on the crops it announced it was considering expanding use to on Friday. But it is likely that increasing the number of crops approved for spraying would dramatically increase that risk.”

The pesticide kills birds of all sizes, they want to spray it directly onto crops, and the EPA did not assess the risks: what do people expect when the days of anti-trust laws and unions are long gone and already formidable and corrupt corporations are merging across the board?

The harmful effects of neonicotinoid pesticides on bees, human beings, animals, insects, plants, water supplies, and everything else imaginable has been extensively documented on March Against Monsanto. For more information on that, visit the archives of articles here.

The thing is, Syngenta was purchased by the Chinese government. The Chinese government owned corporation ChemChina purchased Syngenta. The corporation is not unfamiliar with making power moves like this, as Monsanto-Bayer and DOW-Du Pont are capable of such sway over regulatory agencies.

As single corporations before those 3 monster chemical/biotech mergers, those entities still had the ability to get regulatory authorities on their side. We can only imagine what they will be capable of now.

When the Chinese government purchased massive Switzerland based chemical giant Syngenta, one of the world’s most powerful producers of genetically modified seeds, pesticides, and related products, a certain narrative followed the consolidation of power.

The narrative was that China wanted food security for its people. That narrative is false: the Chinese government wants power. They celebrate Mao, and that’s the man who let a lot of his own people starve not very long ago. The American people remember the 60’s and 70’s as an era of hippy music. The Chinese people who care to look at the truth see those days as a time of starvation and struggle.

Major power moves are taking place, and a “three horsemen of biotech” you could say, is becoming reality.

It’s Syngenta-ChemChina, Monsanto-Bayer, and DOW-Du Pont. Welcome to the end of the 2010’s decade.

(Image credit: UKGA)

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PHOTO : IAN CARBUTT
Cato Ridge farmer, Eugene Kalafatis goes modern with his new rotor blade crop spraying helicopter, designed to reduce costs for arable farmers.