August, 26 2016, 02:15pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Media Director, (415) 981-1771
With New Rules, Minnesota Leads the Country in Protecting Pollinators from Pesticides
Due to state & federal loophole, bee-harming seed coatings unaffected by state’s decision
St. Paul
This morning at the State Fair, Governor Mark Dayton and Commissioner of Agriculture Dave Frederickson announced Minnesota's comprehensive new plans to limit the use of bee-harming pesticides across the state. Today's decision concludes a nearly 3-year review of the impact of neonicotinoid insecticides on pollinators, conducted by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA). The executive order announced today makes Minnesota a national leader in pollinator protection -- and the first state to tackle neonicotinoid use in farm fields and on public lands.
"Today, Minnesota set the strongest rules in the nation to protect pollinators from pesticides," said Lex Horan of Pesticide Action Network. "The plan will help ensure that bee-harming pesticides won't be used unnecessarily, and it lays the groundwork for reducing the use of neonicotinoid seed coatings. This decision is rooted in the resounding scientific evidence that neonicotinoids are harmful to pollinators. It's past time for state and federal decisionmakers to take action to restrict the use of bee-harming pesticides, and today Minnesota did just that."
Minnesota's comprehensive plan to protect the state's honey bees, native bees, butterflies and other pollinators includes pledges from multiple state agencies to reduce pesticide use and increase critical habitat. The most significant policy change is MDA's new commitment to ensuring that neonicotinoids are used as a last resort. Growers who want to apply neonicotinoids to their crops or plants must provide a "verification of need" to the department of agriculture. MDA has also pledged to review pesticides currently registered in the state and potentially restrict those known to be harmful to pollinators.
Unfortunately, MDA's restriction on neonicotinoids does not apply to all uses of the insecticides in the state, thanks to a federal loophole that exempts seed coatings from being classified as a "pesticide application" by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In his announcement today, Governor Dayton called on the state legislature to close the loophole on seed coatings by authorizing MDA to provide much-needed oversight.
"This morning's announcement is very welcome news to beekeepers," said Steve Ellis, a commercial beekeeper and owner of Old Mill Honey Company. "It's especially refreshing to hear the Governor's commitment to tackling the issue of seed coatings. Widespread use of pesticide seed coatings has serious impacts on bees, from pesticide dust and the lingering persistence of the pesticides in air and water. U.S. EPA should step up and provide oversight of these coatings, and Minnesota state officials should look to fill the vacuum until then, starting with legislative action."
Nationwide, about 94 percent of corn seed, and 33-50 percent of soybean seed, is coated with neonicotinoids before being planted. Though corn and soy are major Minnesota crops, neonicotinoid-coated seeds grown in the state will be excluded from the state's new policies unless the legislature takes action. In January 2016, beekeepers, farmers and advocacy groups filed a lawsuit against EPA for failing to adequately oversee the widespread use of neonicotinoid seed coatings -- the most common application of these bee-harming pesticides.
"As Minnesotans, we care deeply about bees and we've pushed for state officials to do the same," said Erin Rupp, beekeeper and executive director of Pollinate Minnesota. "With this comprehensive plan, Minnesota is taking statewide action that matches the individual and collective action of its residents. It's a huge step toward protecting our pollinators, and one that sets amazing precedent for what other states should do to protect bees, our food and our ecosystems."
PANNA (Pesticide Action Network North America) works to replace pesticide use with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives. As one of five autonomous PAN Regional Centers worldwide, we link local and international consumer, labor, health, environment and agriculture groups into an international citizens' action network. This network challenges the global proliferation of pesticides, defends basic rights to health and environmental quality, and works to ensure the transition to a just and viable society.
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Big Pharma Drug Patent Abuses Cost Medicare Billions: Report
"As CMS negotiates the prices Medicare will pay for top-selling drugs, it should take into account the billions we've already lost due to these patenting tactics," said one researcher.
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When the Inflation Reduction Act became law in 2022, it included a historic provision that gave the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) the ability to negotiate maximum fair prices for select drugs. This means that CMS now has an important tool to resist high prices imposed by pharmaceutical companies and lower the cost that Medicare recipients pay for their drugs. So far, Medicare has negotiated the maximum fair prices for 10 drugs, which will go into effect January 1, 2026.
But according to a report released Wednesday by the watchdog group Public Citizen, the manufacturers behind these drugs are able to rely on another method to protect their profits: patent abuses and evergreening tactics.
The report defines "evergreening tactics" as the practice of "patenting trivial and/or obvious modifications of existing medications to lengthen exclusivity on branded medicines."
The makers of the drugs Eliquis, Imbruvica, Jardiance, Farxiga, and Entresto, for example, obtained patents on what constitute trivial or minor changes to earlier patent claims, "such as crystalline forms of drug compounds which would be discovered and managed during routine testing that is part of the drug approval process," according to Public Citizen. These new patents allow the manufacturers to extend their monopoly on these drugs.
"Big Pharma patent abuse is cheating Medicare enrollees of more affordable drugs and costing taxpayers billions," said Public Citizen Access to Medicines program researcher Jishian Ravinthiran in a statement.
"Patent abuses enable Big Pharma companies to unfairly extend their monopolies and keep prices artificially high. As CMS negotiates the prices Medicare will pay for top-selling drugs, it should take into account the billions we've already lost due to these patenting tactics," he added.
The report makes this same point, arguing that the agency's initial offers on pharmaceuticals should take into account how long-monopoly drugs have been able to obtain longtime exclusivities on medicines by manipulating patents.
This is paramount, Public Citizen argues, given the scope of lost savings. The group estimates that Medicare will lose somewhere between $4.9 and $5.4 billion in savings that should have accrued to taxpayers if four out of the 10 drugs did not take advantage of patenting tactics, and therefore would have faced greater competition prior to negotiation.
"These lost savings are nearly as much as what Medicare is expected to save if negotiated prices go into effect on all of the selected drugs in the first year of the program ($6 billion)," according to the report.
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"I am infinitely saddened and angered" by such statements, said Tanaka.
He described his experience as a 13-year-old when the U.S. bombed Nagasaki, just a couple of miles away from his family's house, which was crushed by the impact.
He said he later found the charred body of one of his aunts and saw his grandfather close to death from the burns that covered his body.
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"Hunger is a man-made tragedy that you helped make in Gaza."
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"She is on a shamelessness tour in her final weeks as U.S. ambassador to the U.N.," journalist Jeremy Scahill wrote Wednesday in response to Thomas-Greenfield's speech. "She presided over numerous cease-fire vetoes as part of an administration that facilitated Israel's starvation policy against the Palestinians of Gaza. Listen to her remarks on 'hunger' in that context."
Yesterday, @USUN brought together humanitarian leaders to discuss solutions to the global food insecurity crisis.
Hunger is a man-made tragedy. But if it caused by man, that means it can be stopped by us, too.
Every human being, everywhere, has the right to food. pic.twitter.com/zczlerRHEc
— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) December 10, 2024
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