New legislation would speed up approval of products that control bee pests
WASHINGTON,
Sept. 15, 2014 - As concerns continue about the U.S. bee population, lawmakers
are looking at new legislation that would expedite the registration of products
intended to improve pollinator health by controlling the Varroa mite, a
detrimental pest to the honey bee.
Congressman
Austin Scott, R-Ga., introduced H.R. 5447 last
week, which would amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act
(FIFRA), the federal legislation regulating the crop protection industry.
Scott,
the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Horticulture,
Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign Agriculture, said in an op-ed that beekeepers have had an
increasingly difficult time managing varroa mites.
“These
difficulties have been directly tied to higher over-wintering losses and poor
colony health,” Scott said. “It is for these reasons that new products, more
effective at protecting the bee from pests, must be developed.”
In
June of this year, a Presidential Memorandum issued
by President Barack Obama called for immediate action against the threats
affecting honey bees and other pollinators. The President's Pollinator Health
Task Force is expected to publish an action plan at the end of the year in
response.
According
to the Memorandum, the honey bee population alone adds more than $15 billion in
value to agricultural crops each year. Annual overwintering losses of honey bee
colonies in the U.S. have been recorded at 23.2 percent in 2014, down from 30.5
percent in 2013, but they remain above “acceptable” losses in the 12 to 15
percent range.
Beau
Greenwood, the executive vice president of government relations and public
affairs at CropLife America (CLA), said Scott's bill, H.R. 5447, would
allow the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to grant an expedited review
for products intended to improve pollinator health. Products categorized as
“reduced risk pesticide” get a time advantage of 21 months versus the typical
24 months for review.
H.R.
5447 also mandates reports from the USDA and EPA on the impacts of varroa mites
and agency actions to address them.
The
Center for Food Safety said the bill would only benefit agricultural chemical
companies instead of bee keepers.
“Fast-tracking
pesticide approvals is what got us into this mess in the first place and
focusing strictly on varroa mites will not get us out,” said Larissa Walker,
pollinator campaign director for Center for Food Safety, in a press
release.
The
group supports a bill introduced in July 2013 by Reps. John Conyers and Earl
Blumenauer (HR 2692), which would ban the use of most neonicotinoid chemicals
until more intensive review from the EPA.
Although
this bill has not advanced, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced that it would ban on the use
of neonicotinoids in their National Wildlife Refuge System by 2016.
However,
Greenwood said HR 5447 is just one step in an overall solution to improve honey
bealth.
“Activists
would prefer to use pollinator health issues as a vehicle to drive an
anti-technology agenda,” he said. “That's not to say there isn't some role for
chemical stressors around pollinator health. That's why we're working toward a
comprehensive solution.”
Greenwood
expects bipartisan support for HR 5447, which is meant to “get a running start”
on an anticipated White House report on pollinator health and to be ready for
immediate action from Congress at the beginning of next year.
In
2013, the “Report on the National
Stakeholders Conference on Honey Bee Health,” issued by USDA and EPA
recognized a “complex set of stressors and pathogens” associated with bee
health and bee losses.
Stakeholders
focused on four main issues affecting bee health: nutrition, pesticides,
parasites/pathogens and genetics/ biology/ breeding. However, the report
identified the Varroa mite as the “single most detrimental pest of honey bees”
in the United States.
At
the request of stakeholders, USDA scheduled a Bee Nutrition and Forage Summit
in conjunction with the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC)
in October.
Greenwood
noted that there have been multiple studies on active stressors for bee
populations, “but little tangible action has been taken.”
He
said HR 5447 is one step in a comprehensive plan to address honey bee
health. “There is certainly more work to be done beyond the varroa mite,”
he noted.
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