John,
Pesticides that kills 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 no part of this makes any sense.1
I'm talking about neonicotinoid pesticides, better known as"neonics." One neonic-coated seed is poisonous enough to kill a songbird.2
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.
John, here'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.3 It's truly absurd.
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.4
Why are we tolerating such a toxic food system when there are better, safer ways to grow our food?
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.
This Earth Day, let's stand up against pesticides. Donate today.
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.5
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.6
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.7
- We're calling on the EPA to close the seed loophole by regulating neonic-coated seeds the same way the agency does other pesticides.
We've set a goal of raising $25,000 by midnight on Earth Day to help fuel campaigns like these. Will you make your Earth Day gift now?
Thank you,
Faye Park
President
1. Steve Blackledge, "The loophole that lets toxic seeds kill birds and poison bees," Environment America, January 27, 2023.
2. Steve Blackledge, "The loophole that lets toxic seeds kill birds and poison bees," Environment America, January 27, 2023.
3. Steve Blackledge, "The loophole that lets toxic seeds kill birds and poison bees," Environment America, January 27, 2023.
4. Diana Kruzman, "How a Nebraska ethanol plant turned seeds into toxic waste," Grist, April 21, 2022.
5. Kimberly A. Stoner, "Best Management Practices for Farmers Using Seeds Treated With Neonicotinoid Insecticides," Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, January 1, 2017.
6. Elizabeth Gamillo, "The American Bumblebee Has Nearly Vanished From Eight States," Smithsonian Magazine, October 6, 2021.
7. Wendy Wendlandt and Steve Blackledge, "What's being done to save the bees?" Environment America, October 11, 2023.
Your donation will power our dedicated staff of organizers, policy experts and attorneys who drive all of our campaigns in the public interest, from banning toxic pesticides and moving us beyond plastic, to saving our antibiotics and being your consumer watchdog, to protecting our environment and our democracy. None of our work would be possible without the support of people just like you.
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