Jon Entine, the author of the piece, is best profiled on a site named "the
propagandists"

http://propagandists.org/jon-entine/

I do not think that it would be wise to ever willingly participate in his
style of "journalism" in any way.

And despite the title of the piece, I do not think that either the USDA or
the EPA are "butt heads", nor do I imagine that they would allow themselves
to be drawn into disagreement over a clear policy directive from the top.


One point that is very much of interest has been cleared up by Michele
Colopy of the Pollinator Stewardship Council	(
http://www.pollinatorstewardship.org ).

I wondered which states had taken their responsibility to, at minimum,
enforce the laws on the books, namely FIFRA, which would imply that
pesticide misuse would be the subject of the occasional fine or at least
administrative hearing, and one would hear of a fine being imposed now and
again.  She explained:

"Civil fines have occurred... but at the federal level.  States rarely seem
to enforce (except for California).  Criminal charges I think would be filed
if someone used a pesticide intentionally as an explosive, or to
intentionally poison a spouse.  Fines have been imposed by EPA for misuse."

The list of enforcement actions is here:

http://archive.epa.gov/agriculture/ag-center-archive/web/html/lfraenf.html 
http://tinyurl.com/zzmxpwz

I think that the simple demand that states enforce the laws ALREADY on the
books is a powerful one is a very minimal component to demand as part of an
EPA-compliant pollinator protection plan. Each state wants to comply with
some sort of plan, and thus not lose access to the list of the "nastier"
pesticides the EPA will withhold if they fail to create a plan.  Here in NY,
we certainly don't need a "plan" that presumes to offer a skeleton of a
"best practices" list to blame the beekeeper for all bee losses, and imposes
a "move your bees on short notice" requirement as the only possible tool to
be used  in the "protection" of bees.

Michele identifies "tank mixes" of multiple chemicals as the big issue that
is behind most of the problems, rather that the incorrect or negligent
application of pesticides, so it will be a technically complex and
emotionally contentious road to implementing anything that would make a
tangible difference for the bees.  

As for myself, if a tank mix is causing a problem, that means that what is
being applied to crops is somehow being picked up by bees, and that sounds
like "applications on blooms" to me, no matter what the mix of chemicals
might be.  If my dog killed a neighboring farmer's sheep or cow, I would
certainly be called to account.  If I spread poisoned feed to kill turkey
buzzards (who will gang up and attack a newborn cow or lamb), and some of it
killed a neighbor's prized hunting falcon, I'd be expected to not just
replace the bird, but to hang my head in shame at killing a beloved pet for
the next few years.

I could go on, but I think you catch my (ahem) "drift".

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