This commentary is by Ron Krupp, author of “The Woodchuck’s Guide to Gardening,” “The Woodchuck Returns to Gardening” and his forthcoming book, “The Woodchuck’s Guide to Ornamentals & Landscape Plants.”
Clarification from Cary Giguere, director of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets: “Vermont has denied registration of all chlorpyrifos products, No products containing chlorpyrifos are legal for use or sale in Vermont. The Agency of Agriculture made this decision in 2017. Chlorpyrifos is no longer bought, sold, or used in Vermont.”
A new peer-reviewed study on pesticides and soil health found that, in 71% of cases studied, pesticides killed or harmed soil invertebrates, including earthworms, ants, beetles and ground nesting bees.
Pesticides pose a clear hazard to soil life and are incompatible with healthy soil ecosystems.
The word “pesticide” is an umbrella term used to describe an agent that targets a pest — in plant agriculture, a pest is defined as an organism that causes harm to crops through direct damage or competition for nutrients and water — and includes insecticides, herbicides and fungicides.
Swiss voters will soon decide whether to make their country the first in the world to ban all toxic pesticides. If they do it, the battle for the bees will be forever transformed. It could start a pesticide-free revolution that we can push, country-by-country, until our fields and playgrounds and food are safe from Bayer’s poisons for good.
- Neonics — Neonicotinoid pesticides (neonics) are connected to the alarming decline of bee populations. In addition to killing bees outright, research has shown that even low levels of these dangerous pesticides impair bees’ ability to learn, to find their way back to the hive, to collect food, to produce new queens, and to mount an effective immune response.
Neonics are “systemic” pesticides, which means that the chemicals move inside plants. Generally, plant roots absorb the chemicals and then the chemicals move throughout the entire plant.
Neonics are very efficient tools for many conventional farmers, landscapers and gardeners because any pest that feeds on any part of the plant will be exposed to the toxin. The poison also flows through to the pollen and nectar and is toxic to bees and other important pollinators.
- Chlorpyrifos — These organophosphate insecticides are used for many food crops and mosquito control. Organophosphate (OP) compounds are a diverse group of chemicals used in both domestic and industrial settings. Examples of organophosphates include the following insecticides: Malathion, parathion, diazinon, fenthion, dichlorvos and chlorpyrifos.
These chemicals have been at the forefront of concern about synthetic pesticides for decades due to its neurotoxicity, especially among young children. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned chlorpyrifos for residential use in 2001, recognizing that children exposed to the substance exhibited impaired cognitive function, developmental delays, lower IQs, attention deficit disorder, and other disorders of the neurosystem.
In 2015, the EPA announced its intention to ban all uses of chlorpyrifos. In 2017, EPA reversed the order and reregistered the chemical for sale and use in agriculture in the U.S.
Recognizing the dire impact that chlorpyrifos has on children, several states — including Hawaii, New York, Maryland and California — have since passed laws to restrict or ban the pesticide. LD 316 would prohibit the use of chlorpyrifos in Maine beginning in 2022, allowing limited exemptions for one year. The Maine organic group MOFGA supports a full ban on the sale and use of chlorpyrifos.
The use and application of chlorpyrifos is prohibited in Vermont as follows: 1) Beginning July 1, 2020, no person shall aerially apply chlorpyrifos. (2) Beginning Jan. 1, 2021, no person shall apply chlorpyrifos in the state except for application to the trunks of apple trees. 3) Beginning on Jan. 1, 2022, all uses and applications of chlorpyrifos would be prohibited.
- Roundup — Roundup was a revolutionary new herbicide (weedkiller) when it hit the market in the 1970s. The science is clear that Bayer-Monsanto’s toxic weedkiller Roundup (glyphosate) is putting people and pollinators at risk. Yet Lowe’s and Home Depot still continue to sell this pesticide. You can also find Roundup at your local hardware stores.
Glyphosate exposure has been linked to cancer. And the EPA’s own draft assessment found that 93% of endangered species are at risk of being harmed or killed from glyphosate — including bees and butterflies.
Roundup has contributed to the devastating decline of monarch butterflies. It kills milkweed, the only food source for monarch caterpillars. The monarch population in North America has declined by 90% in the past 20 years alone while Roundup use skyrocketed. Monarch butterflies could vanish within our lifetimes if we don’t take steps to protect them.
Agricultural pesticide use and its associated environmental harms is widespread throughout much of the world. Efforts to mitigate this harm have largely been focused on reducing pesticide contamination of the water and air, as runoff and pesticide drift are the most significant sources of offsite pesticide movement.
Yet pesticide contamination of the soil can also result in environmental harm. Pesticides are often applied directly to soil as drenches and granules and increasingly in the form of seed coatings, making it important to understand how pesticides impact soil ecosystems.
