Protecting our ecosystems from pesticide treated seeds

Neonicotinoid pesticides, or “neonics,” are potent neurotoxic insecticides applied on more than 11 million acres in Minnesota as seed treatments alone. Research connects neonics with the mass losses of honeybees, butterflies, birds, and other pollinators. Their widespread use has led to extensive contamination in the state, threatening Minnesota’s wildlife, water, and people. 

One typically coated corn seed can contain enough active ingredient to kill a quarter-million bees or more.

These insecticides are regarded as some of the most ecologically destructive pesticides since DDT. They are pervasive pollutants, found in waters across Minnesota and in the bodies of more than 90 percent of Minnesota’s white-tailed deer. Neonics are both long-lasting in our environment and can easily spread throughout it. 

Neonics’ widespread use and neurotoxic makeup also pose substantial threats to human health. Neonic source water pollution often ends up in tap water, as chlorination treatment typically fails to remove neonics from water. Neonics were detected in the bodies of more than 95 percent of pregnant people in recent testing across the country.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has known for years how harmful these pesticides are and they’ve requested federal action to regulate them. But MDA doesn’t need the federal government to step in. Not only do they have the authority to limit the use of these pesticides, they also have the duty to do so.

This is why MCEA and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) are going to court. We hope this lawsuit will lead to the MDA using its power to regulate the widespread and harmful use of these toxic pesticides.