Sulfoxaflor (Transform), Federal Courts and The March of Folly
Sometimes a regional decision with national implications can have dire unexpected consequences half a nation away. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California handed out a ruling in early September that EPA should withdraw the Federal registration for sulfoxaflor insecticide. The logic for the decision was that sulfoxaflor was a neonicotinoid insecticide (according to press coverage) and EPA should not have registered it without more honeybee safety studies. Indeed, EPA did ask the Registrant, Dow AgroSciences, for additional bee safety data but registered the insecticide for national use without those additional studies. (Neonicotinoids are getting some of the blame for the decline in honeybee numbers, but the science on the issue shows it is a very complicated problem and insecticides might only play a minor part. The companies that manufacture and sell neonicotioids are making enormous (and expensive) strides in limiting bee exposure when valid science says there is a real risk...