Major court victory for beekeepers and the environment. Dow AgroSciences and EPA LOSE.

Last edited Fri Sep 11, 2015, 04:43 AM - Edit history (2)

The Court said the EPA relied on "flawed and limited data" in approving the insecticide. I wonder how often this happens.

Meanwhile, DOW AgroSciences is a major player in the GMO/GEO business. But of course they'd never be involved in marketing unsafe products based on sketchy research. We trust DOW completely because . . . science. Right?

Science is the only field in which everything is completely above-board and every practitioner is completely ethical and never motivated by profit.



http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/11/business/energy-environment/big-win-for-beekeepers-as-court-voids-insecticide.html

A United States appeals court ruled on Thursday that federal regulators erred in allowing an insecticide developed by Dow AgroSciences onto the market, canceling its approval and giving environmentalists a major victory.

The ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, is significant for commercial beekeepers and others who say a decline in bee colonies needed to pollinate key food crops is tied to the widespread use of a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids.

The lawsuit was filed in 2013 against the Environmental Protection Agency by a number of organizations representing the honey and beekeeping industries. The groups specifically challenged the E.P.A. approval of insecticides containing sulfoxaflor, saying studies have shown they are highly toxic to honeybees. Sulfoxaflor is a neonicotinoid subclass, according to the ruling.


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In its ruling, the court found that the E.P.A. relied on “flawed and limited data” to approve the unconditional registration of sulfoxaflor, and that approval was not supported by “substantial evidence.”

In vacating the agency’s approval, the court said that “given the precariousness of bee populations, leaving the E.P.A.’s registration of sulfoxaflor in place risks more potential environmental harm than vacating it.”


]http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/18/us-agriculture-dow-enlist-idUSKBN0HD29120140918

Dow AgroSciences, a unit of Dow Chemical Co, has spent nearly five years seeking U.S. regulatory approval for the new herbicide product and new herbicide-tolerant crops that together Dow calls the "Enlist Weed Control System," which Dow projects has a $1 billion value for the company. The company hopes Enlist can be on the market in time for the 2015 U.S. planting season.

"This regulatory process on Enlist... has been a lot of work. This has been very thoroughly tested," said Hassinger.

Farmers who plant Enlist crops can spray their fields with Enlist herbicide and kill weeds but not the crops. Dow, which had $7.1 billion in revenues in 2013, hopes Enlist will boost its share of the lucrative U.S. seed market, which now is dominated by Monsanto.

But threats of lawsuits by food safety and environmental groups who want to block Enlist could delay Dow's hopes to have farmers planting the new crops next spring. Critics have inundated regulators with predictions that Enlist herbicide, made with 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, (2-4D), will increase already severe weed resistance problems on farms and create safety issues for consumers.

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