Recent European Initiatives for Pesticide Safety

Germany seems to be on course to follow France and ban neo-nicotinoids to save honeybee colonies. Read about it at the following link:

http://www.panna.org/files/ENSCABDsuesOverBeeDeaths20080826.pdf

I request neonicotinoids experts in India to please comment on this matter. Are our honeybees safe? I checked an imidaclopid packing leaflet today. It carries no warning related to avoiding exposure to pollinators. CCD will wreck havoc with countless marginal farmers and the landless as well. Honeybees are are most precious bio-diversity resources. Foreign companies which own neonicotinoid patents should underwrite the risks of their products in India. 

Please voice your powerful opinion today.

New Pesticide Safety Plane Takes Off

I must admit that superb organization made the day. The meeting room was full right on time. The presentations were received with rapt attention. The subsidized protective gear and the free samples of disinfectant herbal gel were received with enthusiasm. The laddoos did full justice to Haryana's reputation for mouth-watering desserts.

I am glad to say that the new pesticide safety program has got off to a pleasing start at Bawana today.

A New Pesticide Safety Dawn

Practising Hindus believe that the fourth day of the bright phase of the moon during the indigenous month of Bhadra is exceptionally auspicious. That is why, with the approval of all my friends, whether Hindu or of other systems of faith or ideology, I invoke the obstacle-dissolving blessings of beloved Lord Ganesha, in my new pesticide safety endeavor.

All stakeholders support pesticide safety. I welcome everyone's invaluable contributions to make my humble contribution to this universal task successful. You can post below, or send mail to sochiye.pesticidesafety@gmail.com at any time. You need not disclose your identity. All legal comments, especially most critical ones, are welcome.

My focus is on agricultural laborers who are most in danger of exposures above NOELs. I want to follow the lead of the United States, and use this cadre to create a force for positive change in pesticide safety and pest management standards.

Here are the five principal planks of my new pesticide safety strategy:

1. Provide professional spray operators with protective clothing and aids, remote-controlled and drift-resistant application equipment, IPM knowledge resources, and beneficial insect rearing facilities.

2. Spread the good word about Universal Health Insurance, and provide recorded annual health-appraisal facilities.

3. Campaign against the abuse of pesticides with systemic potentials, so that honeybees, other pollinators, and humans are saved from insidious toxicity.

4. Support the development of new pesticide formulations that eliminate ingredients with untested carcinogenic potentials, that waste precious water resources. and which contribute to destruction of the ozone layer of Mother Earth.

5. Prevail upon the powerful pesticide industry lobby to adopt a life-cycle approach to their enterprises, ensuring clean-up and remediation following use of their molecules.

Now it is your turn.

Follow the Pesticide Safety Leader

Singur is the most fertile agricultural block in which I have ever worked. I have always envied Robin Bhakta, who was the dealer I served for this verdant paradise. That is why my family name is not the reason for my personal opposition to building a factory of any kind in my God's country.

However, no jumbo disaster can detract from my respect for the House of Tata. The pesticide arm of this conglomerate has always been at the vanguard of plant protection. It has been a beacon for me from the days of Dr. Vevai to Dr. Sohoni. 

Please use the following link to get new inspiration for pesticide safety:

http://www.tata.com/innovation/articles/inside.aspx?artid=arpVL36Krrg=

I have developed a new program by following this creative process. I will launch it in Bawana after paying obeisance to Lord Ganesha today.

Please share your innovative ideas about pesticide safety by posting below. All languages and media are welcome, and it is not essential to disclose your identity.

Fear of the unknown stalks CCD. We know that honeybee colonies all over earth are in danger, but we are not sure of the cause.

Pesticides, especially foliar neonicotinoids and others with systemic potentials are suspect. However, they are patented properties of the most influential pesticide manufacturers from Europe. We cannot dare to challenge them, to say nothing of national regulators.

Honeybees can make a lot of noise, but who is willing to listen?

This is a golden opportunity for the pesticide industry to discharge its corporate social responsibilities. Please lend your capable shoulders for the following burdens:

1. Promote the use of Endogram during flowering.
2. Use Endocel during the cool hours of the day when pollinator activity is relatively low.
3. Stop all systemic pesticide use a fortnight before a crop enters its reproductive phase.
4. Ban neonicotinoid foliar application during flowering.
5. Restrict systemic fungicides in favor of sulfur formulations.
6. Promote health bee programs.
7. Support the development of improved and tolerant honeybee strains.

My recommendations are inspired by the following link:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572

Thank you for your vigorous, immediate, and sustained responses.

Regulations are not meaningful if the affected public is not allowed to participate in decision-making processes.

Allegations abound about connivance between regulators and the pesticide industry to foist harm on unsuspecting communities.

Controversies about the roles played by neonicotinoids to cause Colony Collapse Disorder in honeybees have caused widespread distress.

Every stakeholder in pesticide safety stands to gain if there are open discussions about the risks of using new and patented pesticides.

That is why I consider the contents of the following link to be a harbinger of positive change towards pesticide safety:

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetail&d=EPA-HQ-OPP-2003-0254


Thank you for posting your valuable opinion on this matter of vital national interest.

The dead honeybee below cannot be brought back to life. However, you can save colonies from extinction by acting now to restrict non-essential foliar applications of neonicotinoids. Ask farmers to switch to contact molecules with favorable profiles for all beneficial insects during flowering. Substitution with Endogram will be even best.

Combination Pesticide Safety

Every one of the three Plant Protection Advisers to the Government of India, with whom I have worked, has been in a titan in office.

I dedicate today's post to the memory of Dr. K. D. Paharia. He was certainly one of the fiercest officials I have ever known. I hated him for a long time because he banned Disulfoton, one of the first molecules with which I launched my career. However, today with reports of Colony Collapse Disorder, I realize that Dr. Paharia was dead right in one respect: he refused to register combination pesticides.

Here are just three of widespread references on how neonicotinoids are suspected to cause Colony Collapse Disorder:


http://bee.airoot.com/content/colonycollapsedisorderpdfs/2%20colony%20collapse%20disorder%20update%20by%20malcolm%20sanford.pdf

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/11/26/millions_of_bees_dead_bayers_gaucho_blamed.htm

http://www.ento.psu.edu/MAAREC/pressReleases/FallDwindleUpdate0107.pdf

I can appreciate today that Dr. K. D. Paharia would not have stood by idly and let the honey bee colonies of India die. We need his spirit today to restrict the use of dangerous pesticides patented by European companies from invading our biodiversity. Seed treatment with neonictonoids under expert supervision is good enough: there is no case for their unrestricted aerial application after the reproductive phase of a crop life-cycle starts.

I appeal to the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine, and Storage in Faridabad to consider immediate restrictions on neonicotinoid use, to protect the honey bees of India.

Please add your voice to this campaign in the interests of Indian agriculture.