WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate insecticide-coated seeds under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

“Neonicotinoids are powerful insecticides that have been linked to pollinator declines and harm to aquatic ecosystems and water quality,” wrote Sen. Booker in a letter to EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “Neonicotinoids pose an acute risk to bees and contribute to bees’ high mortality rates and collapsing populations. And by poisoning aquatic insects in water bodies, neonicotinoids eliminate food sources for fish, birds, and other wildlife.” 

One of the leading sources of neonicotinoids in the environment are pesticide-coated seeds that shed their insecticide into the surrounding air, soil, and water. As Booker highlights, “this planting season, almost every field corn seed, about half of soybeans, and nearly all cotton seeds planted will be coated with neonicotinoids. This means that at least 150 million acres of cropland in the United States will be planted with neonicotinoid insecticides.”  

Despite the widespread use of neonicotinoid coated seeds, the benefits to farmers are minimal. For example, “Neonicotinoid seed treatments offer soybean plants a maximum of three weeks of protection and do not protect against major pests that arise later in the bloom stages of the soybean….Additionally neonicotinoids can have a counter-productive effect by killing beneficial insects that prey on agricultural pests and overuse can lead to the rise of insecticide-resistant pests.”

The EPA currently has no regulations regarding the disposal of unused pesticide-treated seeds. “The lack of oversight by EPA on disposal of these toxic seeds has led to an ongoing environmental and public health disaster in Mead, Nebraska,” continues Booker.

Given the detrimental impact of neonicotinoid-coated seeds on the environment and their limited benefit, Booker ends by urging the “EPA to end the massive overuse and abuse of neonicotinoid coated seeds in the United States” and urges the EPA to grant a petition that would ensure pesticide-coated seeds are regulated like other insecticides.  

Full text of the letter can be found here.