Lawsuit blames state pesticide agency stalling in honeybee disaster

A new Dutch study links declining bird populations for the first time—through the decline of insects they eat—to a family of pesticides known as neonicotinoids.

The link of neonicotinoids to honeybees is not new, and because it is not new, a coalition of advocacy groups sued California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) this week to do something about it.

Honeybees, which are crucial to California’s agricultural industry, have been dying out in unprecedented numbers since 2006. Land use and other factors can be at play, but pesticides have been one of the suspects from the beginning in the admittedly complex honeybee collapse.

The lawsuit (pdf), filed by Earthjustice on behalf of Pesticide Action Network, Center for Food Safety and Beyond Pesticides, points out that, “None of this is news” to the department.

The suit says the DPR was “compelled” to re-evaluate its position on allowing neonicotinoid use in 2009 based on evidence about its potential harm. Five years of “foot-dragging,” while expanding the pesticide’s acceptable use, is a violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and other laws, the suit contends.

Click here to read the complete article at allgov.com