>  It does not encourage farmers
> to use neonic-free seed when
> it costs the same as untreated.

Wow, I post some good news, I do some sailing, I turn the computer back on,
and the discussion has somehow turned into another neonic thread.

Is it any wonder that so many people blame systemic pesticides for all
pollinator problems, when a we fall into that same exact trap?

Speaking as someone who overseeded and limed 450 acres every year just for a
(really good!) crop of hay, and as someone who cares very deeply for all
God's creatures, not just the six-legged ones, I'd much rather have a guy in
a lab coat at Bayer Cropscience applying the pesticide to crops than the
alternative, a fellow from Tamaulipas who speaks less than 1000 words of
English, and reads about 100, has no ability to understand the pesticide
label, and would be fired if he refused to spray when told to do so during
the bloom, and during the foraging day.

If Bayer screws up, I can line up with other beekeepers, and sue them into
going back to making nothing but aspirin.  If some migrant farmworker screws
up, I am almost completely without recourse.

A modest proposal - EPA-mandated pesticide labels in English AND Spanish?
There are labels that are multi-layer, one removable-adhesive label peels
off to reveal the second language printed on the "backing", which has a
permanent adhesive.  Of course, most of the actual "labels" are paper
pamphlets anyway.

A second proposal - bee protective language that simply says "Don't ever
spray during daytime", and "Don't ever spray on or near blooms, or plants
ABOUT to bloom."  And to heck with lab results, broken promises, and lame
excuses, the warning goes on everything.  Pesticide spraying is a
night-shift job, and crop dusters will need instrument ratings, and the
ability to fly and work in the dark.

I'll call it - "The Precautionary Principle For Precautionary Language".


[The US is not at war today, the military is at war. The US is at the mall.
Non sibi sed patriae]

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