Pollinator Protection: Experts Question EPA's Commitment to Bees [FEATURE]

This funding, she says, remains unaccounted for in many states. Meanwhile, states like Massachusetts are turning to a consortia of agricultural industry experts to head their planning, largely ignoring the concerns of citizen bee keepers.

"The seven county beekeeping organizations, comprising over 80 percent of state beekeepers, were never informed this consortia existed and when discovered were initially banned from their meetings," MA beekeeper, Richard Callahan complained. "The EPA should be aware that the agri-chemical industry is attempting to hijack the entire pollinator program in order to protect neonics... This is a cynical enterprise."

A FOIA Fight

And Callahan is not alone in his suspicions. Last August, FoE even submitted a Freedom of Information Act to the Environmental Protection Agency requesting meeting minutes and communications between the EPA planners and representatives of the pesticide industry.

"Friends of the Earth submitted this FOIA due to concerns raised by beekeepers around undue pesticide industry influence on the development of the EPA's pollinator and pesticide policies," the group explained.

On September 1, that request was denied, but not before the EPA approved a different FOIA made by CropLife America, one of the companies named in the FoE request. (Scroll to read on...)

The nature of their request, CropLife representatives quickly pointed out, was very different than the FoE request, as it asked for "documents, records and materials from EPA relating to adverse incident reports relating to honey bees/other pollinators and pesticide products from 1995 through the present" - all to help the company comment on the 2015 New Plan.

The FoE request, on the other hand, simply "serves as a public relations stunt," according to CropLife America President and CEO Jay Vroom.

"I personally reject FoE statements implying that somehow I, my colleagues at CLA and the members of our association have some secretive, undue influence with regulators at the [EPA]," he said in a statement, adding that he is "disappointed" in FoE's decision to waste the EPA's time.

"CropLife America can't have it both ways. They can't use FOIA when it benefits them, but claim that other groups should refrain from uncovering information regarding their industry," FoE's Finck-Haynes quickly lashed back. "If CropLife America is serious about protecting bees, not burdening the EPA, and doesn't have anything to hide, it should make public its communications."

"It is unjust that the EPA would quickly grant requests made by the pesticide industry, but delay requests made by a public interest, not-for profit organization," she added. "The EPA must stand for the interests of bees, the public, beekeepers, our food security and the environment over those of the pesticide industry."

These values, of course, are what EPA representatives continue to say are the agency's top priorities. Whether their words have weight, however, remains in dispute.

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