The Depth and Breadth of EPA Corruption

Earlier this month, The Intercept published the article The Department of Yes: How Pesticide Companies Corrupted the EPA and Poisoned America, by  Sharon Lerner. In our Board President Steve Ellis's words:

"Beekeepers have been working hard to get EPA to help us since mass bee die-offs first started to occur in 2006 with CCD.  This article sets the record straight and explains how this failure to protect bees and humans from poisonous chemistries like neonicotinoids occurred." 

As beekeepers, we’ve seen pesticide harms for so long, from carbaryl to dicamba, neonics to inerts. Sharon’s article is incredible in capturing not only the harm done, but how deliberate the harm has been. One quote we keep coming back to:

“In the most basic sense, the companies that make and sell dangerous pesticides have succeeded in dodging regulators and keeping their products on the market.  But if they have been able to waive, bury, and ignore the science that points to those dangers, pesticide manufacturers have not been able to outrun the harms that this science highlighted.”  

We're eager to use this article as the teaching tool it is to drive the necessary EPA reforms our hives, ecosystems and bodies need.