Beekeepers in Canada's Ontario province are suing global chemical producers Syngenta and Bayer for $450 million, alleging that their neonicotinoid-based (neonic) pesticides are responsible for the phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder.
The lawsuit claims the companies were negligent in the design, sale manufacture and distribution of the pesticides used on corn, soybeans and many other crops.
Neonic pesticide manufacturers contend that rather than the chemical crop protection agents, other factors, such as viruses, adverse weather conditions and loss of habitat, are responsible. Bayer is currently conducting research to support this argument.
Tibor Szabo, vice president of the Ontario Beekeepers' Association, told the Canadian press that beekeepers learned long ago to cope with viruses, and the bee deaths that are gripping his industry are due to the consumption of pollen poisoned by neonicotinoids.
The pesticides have been temporarily banned in the EU. The moratorium that went into effect in December 2013 applies to all crops except winter cereals and plants not attractive to bees, such as sugar beets.
Canada is also planning legislation and as a first move is proposing to require commercial growers to apply for permits to use neonicotinoid pesticides. News reports say that all corn and canola and half the soybean seeds planted across the country are coated by the manufacturers with neonicotinoids to make them resistant against grubs, worms and other insects.
According to the Toronto newspaper Globe and Mail, farmers organized in the association Grain Farmers of Ontario are rejecting plans to restrict the use of neonics, saying this will hurt them financially and could lead to increased spraying of pesticides that are more damaging to the environment and humans.
The organization said the proposal to require commercial growers to apply for permits should be put on hold until various research projects, including a three-year field test of new planting methods adopted last spring, are completed.
Over the past six years, honeybee losses in Canada are said to have averaged 30% annually. The Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists, which tracks bee mortality rates, calculates normal winter losses at 15%.
