Banning Neonicotinoids is an Environmental Catastrophe
January 12, 2017
The European Union’s ban on neonicotinoids is causing environmental damage around in Europe and around the world through increased insect resistance, releasing massive quantities of carbon through increased agricultural use land, and increased water consumption for agriculture. The following are key conclusions from the HFFA Research Report, “Banning Neonicotinoids in the European Union: An ex-post assessment of economic and environmental costs.” The complete report is attached here.
“All studies highlight that the ban on neonicotinoids has caused a yield decrease in oilseed rape production of the European Union. . . . On average, a yield depression of 4.0 percent for oilseed rape production in the European Union as a whole can be extrapolated from the studies.”
“All the analysed studies confirm that in the absence of neonicotinoid seed treatment, insecticide foliar applications are used more often than before the restrictions came into effect. The application of pyrethoids appears to be the next best solution for combating insects. Additional sprays range from 0.2 to 2.7 applications per hectare depending on insect pressure and pest coverage analysed by an individual study. . . . This additional application of pyrethoids and other insecticides has not only increased resistance problems but also oilseed rape production costs. . . .”
“Banning neonicotinoids has increased global land conversion to towards agricultural uses by 553,00 hectares since the 912,000 tons of oilseed rape production missing in the European Union has to be produced somewhere else. . . .”
“All this now agriculturally used land had sequestered carbon both above and below ground before it was converted to farmland as a consequence of the ban on neonicotinoids in the European Union.”
“Finally, it can be concluded that the ban on neonicotinoids on balance has caused an additional water use of more than 1.3 billion cubic meters at a global scale.”
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