Organic Industry Works To "Replace" Neonics With Even More Toxic Pesticides

[HuckleB]

http://risk-monger.blogactiv.eu/2015/06/17/save-the-bees-ban-these-two-toxic-pesticides-immediately/

"...

Those who think a natural toxin (and thus acceptable for organic farming pest control) is less damaging or toxic than well-tested synthetic pesticides are quite frankly very stupid. Cue our friends at the UK organic lobby, the Soil Association, who illegally granted special permission to organic farmers to use azadirachtin on apples. Azadirachtin is a natural pesticide (it is also called neem or neem oil after the tropical tree from which its toxins are extracted) with a long history of use in organic farming. It is approved as an organic pesticide in most EU countries despite lack of data (but not as a pesticide in the UK).

Now the problem is that last week the European Commission concluded that azadirachtin, commonly used by organic farmers in Europe, is seriously fatal to bumblebees even at “concentrations 50 times lower” than the recommended levels for organic farmers. The study showed that only 30% of the bumblebees survived exposure at any dose level of azadirachtin. Azadirachtin may be natural and promoted for organic farming but it is deadly to bees (although perhaps in an organic way).

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And what do our jokesters at Pesticide Action Network have to say about azadirachtin? PAN recommends this organic bee-killer as an alternative to several neonicotinoids. So a toxic chemical used in organic farming that wipes 70% of bumblebees out at concentrations 50 times lower than the recommended organic farming levels is considered as a safer alternative than well-tested neonicotinoids. This type of lobbying should be criminalised (but large-scale bee deaths don’t count for much in a court of law).

I really don’t get this at all. When faced with the possibility that the data on neonicotinoids is not sufficient to be certain that they cause no potential risk to honeybees, the activists in DG Santé go full-frontal precaution. And yet faced with its own clear evidence of a natural pesticide used by organic farmers that literally exterminates bumblebees at very low doses, and everybody in Michael Flüh’s unit sheepishly look away. How do you spell stupid???

..."


The more time we have to observe the organic industry, the more we find its unethical practices to be, uh, really, really, really, really unethical.