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Popular Pesticides are Killing Birds, Too:
Neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides chemically related to nicotine, were first introduced to agriculture in the 1980s. They’re most commonly applied to seeds themselves and spread through the plants as they germinate and grow to protect against insects. But they’ve proven to be so harmful to bees and other insect populations that the EU banned their use in 2018. But in the U.S., thanks at least in part to a misinformation campaign on the part of the pesticide industry, there’s been a shift to use more and more of the dangerous chemicals even as the overall use of insecticides has been declining.
[...] Grassland birds (which rely on grassland habitats for nesting) and insectivorous birds (which eat insects, worms, and other invertebrates) saw the steepest impacts. The authors found that an increase of 220 pounds (100 kilograms) in neonicotinoid usage per county was associated with a 2.2% decline in populations of grassland birds and 1.6% in insectivorous birds. Khanna said this was due to birds feeding on both seeds treated with the pesticide as well as eating insects themselves who may have ingested it.
[...] To make matters worse, impacts of neonicotinoid pesticides accumulate, meaning that exposure over a longer period can have more severe implications. [...] For grassland birds, a 220 pound increase in neonicotinoid use per county in 2008 reduced the population of birds by almost 4% that year and cumulatively by 9.7% from 2008 to 2014.
[...] Birds help maintain sustainable population levels of different species, keeping ecosystems in harmony. Many also play an important [role] in plant reproduction because they serve as pollinators and seed dispersers.
Journal Reference:
Yijia Li, Ruiqing Miao, Madhu Khanna. Neonicotinoids and decline in bird biodiversity in the United States [$], Nature Sustainability (DOI: 10.1038/s41893-020-0582-x)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by MostCynical on Tuesday August 11 2020, @10:26AM (22 children)
"has it killed anyone?"
"yes"
"Can they prove it was us?"
"no"
"keep selling!!"
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2020, @10:39AM (1 child)
Where's my +Cynical mod when I need it?
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Tuesday August 11 2020, @10:34PM
These days maximum cynicism is about the only way to approach a realistic approximation of reality. Perhaps it was ever thus.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by BsAtHome on Tuesday August 11 2020, @10:42AM (14 children)
Well, yes, they can prove it, but we have been able to discredit both the research and the researchers that were able to prove it. Therefore, the proof is now in doubt and we are clean for now. So, yes, keep selling and let those bonuses flow. Everything else is not our problem, yay!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday August 11 2020, @12:51PM (12 children)
Thanks to disinformation about neonicotinoids, "Colony Collapse Disorder", of bee colonies, was a great big mystery a decade back.
Wonder what those bird killing pesticides do to people? Makes us fat, stupid, and short-lived? Too stupid to understand that we're kidding ourselves too? It's as if the pesticide is alive like a virus, hacking our brains to make us too stupid and gluttonous not to keep using it.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 11 2020, @02:58PM (10 children)
Sometimes, context.
This particular poison is embedded into the seed, from which the plant will grow. It is distributed throughout the plant, as the plant germinates, then grows, then matures and seeds. Every fiber of the plant carries the poison. Every fiber of the plant IS poison.
So, where is the disinformation, exactly?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday August 11 2020, @04:26PM (1 child)
Unclear on mechanism: is the pesticide injected in the seed and from there diffused throughout the growing plant, or does the poison reprogram the seed - like a virus - to make more of itself as the plant grows?
Also, is there any profit link whatsoever between the manufacture of these chemicals and the tobacco industry? Great scientists in the tobacco industry, as long as you don't value the sharing of knowledge.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 11 2020, @04:34PM
Interesting question - and I don't know the answer. If the quantity of the poison were restricted to whatever is injected into the seed, you really wouldn't have a lot of poison to be distributed throughout a plant that is hundreds of times the size of the seed. But, if the poison is potent enough, I guess that would work.
I wouldn't even know where to look for answers. All of that data is most certainly hidden inside intellectual property cathedrals.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2020, @05:07PM (3 children)
It isn't only used to treat seeds. It is literally poured by the gallon into the soil surrounding crops like citrus trees. And, then is incorporated into every cell of the plant, including the flowers (bees) and fruit (us). With half-lives in soil measured in years, this stuff will be around for quite a while even if it were finally outlawed. I have citrus trees in my yard, and to protect the state commercial ag because a single insect was discovered in a trap a mile away, the ag department came out to my home and pumped many 10s of gallons of neonicotinoid solution from a firehose into the soil around my trees-- I threw away the existing fruit, and tried to strip all the flowers before they opened for the next few years.
I read a study years ago (right after they raped my yard with that poison) that showed that ingesting a single treated seed was enough to kill a bird.
We are poisoning ourselves and our world. Ag universities are promoting, spraying carcinogenic glyphosate herbicide (aka Roundup) on grain and legume crops just prior to harvest so the crop is uniformly dead and dry and ready for harvest. And, recently, this has become a widespread practice in non-organic agriculture. This eliminates the labor to cut the plant stalks and wait for the plants to dry a bit before harvesting (and the associated risk of losing part of the crop to e.g., unexpected rain after cutting). It also ensures that the consumer eats freshly sprayed full-strength carcinogenic herbicides. Glyphosate is also known to have antibiotic properties, which causes severe health issues for bees due to death of their gut biome. There is much greater prevalence of gut disorders in humans lately, including folks without Celiac who have made associations between eating grains and GI flare ups. It would be interesting to see if some cases of "gluten intolerance" is really glyphosate intolerance.
https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/cpr/plant-science/glyphosate-as-a-pre-harvest-aid-in-small-grains-07-17-14 [ndsu.edu]
https://extension.umn.edu/small-grains-harvest-and-storage/managing-wheat-harvest [umn.edu]
https://abcbirds.org/neonics [abcbirds.org]
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/09/widely-used-pesticide-makes-birds-lose-weight/ [nationalgeographic.com]
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/new-study-shows-roundup-kills-bees [sierraclub.org]
https://www.pnas.org/content/115/41/10305 [pnas.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2020, @06:07PM
thanks for the info.
"I have citrus trees in my yard, and to protect the state commercial ag because a single insect was discovered in a trap a mile away, the ag department came out to my home and pumped many 10s of gallons of neonicotinoid solution from a firehose into the soil around my trees"
i will exercise my 2a rights if anyone comes to my yard with poison.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Wednesday August 12 2020, @12:46AM (1 child)
When I lived in California, 20-40 years ago, airborne spraying of malathion was used for fruit fly infestations. My recollection is that malathion is one of the less harmful insecticides, although it does damage acrylic car paint. What state are you in, that they engaged in neonicotinoid abuse?
Nicotine is a nasty poison, I assume that neonicotinoids are no better. This stuff should be banned.
(Score: 2) by dry on Wednesday August 12 2020, @05:29AM
Even Malathion is poisonous to a few people. It's an organophosphate like all nerve gases and many insecticides that most people have an enzyme in their liver that beaks it down really quick, except a small number of people missing that enzyme.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Tuesday August 11 2020, @06:26PM (2 children)
The thing I think you're missing, in a very big way, is dosage.
Let's say your hypothetical plant has 0.05g of poison in the seed (that's about half of the mass of 1 bean, which is one of the heavier seeds out there). Unless that poison is causing the plant to produce more of itself, or the farmer is adding more of the poison to the plant and/or soil as it grows, that 0.05g of poison is going to be distributed to, say, 5,000g of plant matter, so now each gram of plant matter has only 0.00001g of the poison in it. Which is a lot more manageable for your own biological filtration system.
That's also why one thing survivalist types tell you to do if you're forced to eat something you're not 100% sure about is to basically try a nibble, wait a good long while and see if anything bad happens, try a bite and wait some more, and only then chow down. Because in small dosages, your liver can work through and remove poisons. In large dosages, it can't, and those poisons will cause problems. That's why there's a huge difference in your reactions to 1 beer versus 10 beers.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2020, @08:20PM (1 child)
10 is better?
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday August 12 2020, @05:31PM
10 is better if you or the person you woke up next to took precautions to ensure you aren't paying for that night for the next 19 years.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2020, @10:41PM
More wrongness from the redneck who heard it from a guy at the bar whose brother works with an orchard farmer that was inspected by his 2nd cousin.
Yeehaw thems good learnin!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2020, @10:53PM
Colony collapse has been a problem since beekeepers started using the modern style of hives - the issue is not solely pesticides.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2020, @02:20PM
FTFY
(Score: 3, Touché) by Thexalon on Tuesday August 11 2020, @06:04PM (4 children)
I can out-cynical "Most-Cynical" here, with this version:
---------------------------
"Has it killed anyone?"
"yes"
"Can they prove it was us?"
"yes"
"Is the lawsuit payout and/or bribes to public officials going to be less than we make from it?"
"yes"
"Keep selling!!"
---------------------------
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Tuesday August 11 2020, @07:30PM (3 children)
No, to be truly cynical (and the most correct unfortunately)
---------------------------
"Has it killed anyone?"
"yes"
"Can they prove it was us?"
"yes"
"Does anyone care enough to vote against us?"
"no"
"Keep selling!!"
---------------------------
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2020, @08:20PM
Profit!!!
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday August 11 2020, @11:25PM (1 child)
Hah, that's naive, thinking you can vote your way out of this system. You have the politicians arrange it so only 2 parties have a chance of winning, bribe both of those, and you're guaranteed to get out of any annoying legal consequences.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday August 12 2020, @12:15AM
:-) Told ya it was the most cynical...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..