EPA Corrects its Soybean Economic Study in Response to CRE, Recognizes Benefits of Neonics
December 19, 2017
Editor’s Note: CRE filed a Data Quality Alert with EPA in response to its analysis of the economic benefits neonicotinoid-treated soybean seeds. EPA’s Response to Public Comments discusses CRE’s Data Quality Alert and states that the agency “appreciates the opportunity to clarify and correct the assessment.” EPA’s Biological and Economic Analysis Division now estimates that “the total benefits of neonicotinoid [soybean] seed treatments nationally to be up to $215 million per year.”
From: Inside EPA via Genetic Literacy Project
EPA reverses course, says neonicotinoid insecticides benefit soybeans, other crops
EPA has reversed an Obama-era determination that seeds treated with commonly-used neonicotinoid insecticides bring little benefit to soybean production, a finding that spurred environmentalists’ calls for restrictions on neonicotinoids to protect bees, and the agency also has found that neonicotinoids aid in the production of other crops.
The agency’s Dec. 15 announcement that it is reversing the 2014 conclusion that uses of neonicotinoid-treated seeds pose little benefit appears to strike a blow to environmentalists’ long-standing push for the agency to significantly restrict or ban certain uses of neonicotinoids to reduce harms to bees.
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