August 19, 2016
CapitalPress.com
3
Neonics pose low risk for honeybees, WSU says
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
RICHLAND, Wash. — A
class of pesticides that has
been linked to colony collapse
disorder of honeybees may
not be as much of a culprit as
thought.
Neonicotinoid pesticides,
sometimes called neonics,
are neuro-active insecticides
chemically similar to nico-
tine. One of them, imidaclo-
prid, is the most widely used
insecticide in the world.
Compared to organophos-
phates and carbamates, neon-
ics cause less toxicity in birds
and mammals than in insects.
While neonics can harm
honeybees, a new study by
Washington State University
researchers shows they pose
little risk to bees in real-world
settings.
A team of WSU entomol-
ogists studied apiaries, col-
lections of beehives, in urban,
rural and agricultural areas in
Washington looking for po-
tential honeybee colony ex-
posure to neonics from bees
foraging for pollen.
After calculating the risk
based on a “dietary no observ-
able adverse effect concentra-
tion” — the highest experi-
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Crew members at Hiatt Honey Co. near Ephrata, Wash., split honeybee hives March 28, 2012, in
preparation for bee pollenization in tree fruit orchards that spring. A 2016 WSU study says pesticide
risk to honeybees is low.
mental point before there is an
adverse effect on a species —
of ive parts per billion, study
results suggest low potential
for neonics to harm bee be-
havior or colony health.
“Calculating risk, which is
the likelihood that bad things
will happen to a species based
on a speciic hazard or dose,
is very different from calcu-
lating hazard, which is the po-
tential to cause harm under a
speciic set of circumstances,”
said co-author Allan Felsot,
WSU Tri-Cities professor of
entomology and environmen-
tal toxicology.
“Most of what has domi-
nated the literature recently
regarding neonicotinoids and
honeybees has been hazard
identiication,” he said. “But
hazardous exposures are not
likely to occur in a real-life
setting.”
Felsot said the study shows
that the risk of bee exposure
to neonicotinoids is small
because bees aren’t exposed
to enough of the pesticide
to cause much harm in a re-
al-world scenario.
Lead author Timothy Law-
rence, assistant professor
and director of WSU Island
County Extension, said many
sublethal toxicity studies,
whether at the organism level
or colony level, have not done
formal dose-response analy-
ses.
“The question we posed fo-
cused on the risk of exposure
to actively managed honey-
bee colonies in different land-
scapes,” he said.
With the cooperation of 92
Washington beekeepers, the
team collected samples of bee-
bread, or stored pollen, from
149 apiaries across the state.
Throughout the one-year
trial, neonics residue was de-
tected in fewer than ive per-
cent of apiaries in rural and
urban landscapes. Two neon-
ics, clothianidin and thiame-
thoxam, were found in about
50 percent of apiaries in agri-
cultural landscapes.
Although neonics insecti-
cide residues were detectable,
the amounts were substantial-
ly smaller than levels shown
in other studies to not have
effects on honeybee colonies.
The WSU researchers refer-
enced 13 studies to identify
no observable adverse effect
concentrations for bee pop-
ulations, which they used to
perform a risk assessment
based on detected residues.
“Based on residues we
found in apiaries around
Washington state, our results
suggest no risk of harmful ef-
fects in rural and urban land-
scapes and arguably very low
risks from exposure in agri-
cultural landscapes,” Felsot
said.
While exposure levels
were found to be small, Law-
rence said it is still important
to be careful with use of neon-
icotinoid insecticides and fol-
low product label directions.
For example, insecticides
should not be used during
plant lowering stages when
bees are likely to be foraging.
“While we found that bees
did not have chronic exposure
to adverse concentrations of
neonicotinoids, we are not
saying that they are not harm-
ful to bees — they are,” he
said. “People need to be care-
ful with pesticide use to avoid
acute exposure.”
Other researchers on the
study included Elizabeth Cul-
bert, WSU Food and Environ-
mental Quality Lab (GEQL)
research technician; Vincent
Hebert, WSU associate pro-
fessor of entomology and lab-
oratory research director; and
Steven Sheppard, WSU pro-
fessor and department chair-
man of entomology.
Two wolves shot in NE
Merger sparks organic milk competition worries
Washington; operation continues Danone plans to
Two females shot
from helicopter
buy Whitewave
Foods for $12.5 billion
By DON JENKINS
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Capital Press
Two female wolves in the
Profanity Peak pack in north-
eastern Washington have been
killed by the state Department
of Fish and Wildlife to stop
depredations on livestock, the
department said Aug. 11.
WDFW is continuing to
hunt for more wolves in the
pack and has not revealed
how many it plans to shoot.
WDFW says it does not plan
to eliminate the pack entirely.
The two wolves, which
included the pack’s breeding
female, were shot from a he-
licopter on Aug. 5. The de-
partment maintained a news
blackout on the wolf killings
until Aug. 11.
Before the shootings, the
pack had six adults and ive
pups. The pups are old enough
to have been weaned, so the
shooting of their mother should
not affect their survival, accord-
ing to WDFW wolf policy co-
ordinator Donny Martorello.
The surviving adults should
provide food for the pups, he
stated in an email.
Shooters are unable to dis-
tinguish different members of
the pack, he said.
WDFW declined to disclose
more details while the hunt for
wolves continues.
WDFW Director Jim Un-
sworth authorized lethal re-
moval Aug. 3 after the depart-
ment conirmed the pack was
responsible for killing three
calves and one cow this sum-
mer. Later that day, WDFW in-
vestigators conirmed the pack
had killed a fourth calf.
State policy calls for WDFW
to consider lethal removal af-
ter a pack kills or injures four
livestock, despite efforts by the
rancher to stop the depredations
by non-lethal measures, such
as increasing human presence
around the herd.
According to Martorel-
lo, livestock producers in the
pack’s range in Ferry County
are continuing to prevent wolf
attacks by using range riders.
WDFW has received no report
of depredations since the oper-
ation to cull the pack began, he
stated.
This is the third time the state
A proposed merger be-
tween two major dairy pro-
cessors has sparked concerns
of reduced competition for
organic milk, potentially re-
ducing prices paid to farmers.
The planned takeover of
Colorado-based Whitewave
Foods for $12.5 billion by
Danone, a global corpora-
tion based in France, would
likely shrink the number of
buyers for organic milk in
many markets, according to
the Cornucopia Institute, an
organic industry watchdog
group.
“It could have a profound
impact on the options that
organic dairy producers
have,” said Mark Kastel, the
nonprofit’s co-founder.
Danone and Whitewave
are currently competing in
the organic dairy industry
with CROPP, a farmers’
cooperative that owns the
Organic Valley line of prod-
ucts.
Significantly,
CROPP
supplies milk for the Stony-
field Farm brand of yogurts,
which is owned by Danone,
and licenses to sell fluid
milk under the Stonyfield
Farm label.
With the proposed merg-
er, however, Danone would
have Whitewave’s milk pro-
duction under its control,
probably eliminating its
Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service
The Washington Department of
Fish and Wildlife has killed to
members of the Profanity Peak
wolf pack.
has shot wolves to stop depreda-
tions on livestock.
One wolf was shot in the
Huckleberry pack in 2014 and
seven in the Wedge Pack in
2012. The wolf shot in 2014 was
the pack’s breeding female, in-
tensifying the criticism directed
at the department by some wolf
advocates.
WDFW, with the counsel
of its Wolf Advisory Group, re-
cently revised it lethal-removal
policy, hoping to clarify what
ranchers are expected to do to
prevent depredations and what
the department will do if those
measures fail.
The new policy also states
WDFW will give only weekly
reports during lethal-removal
operations.
Martorello said the depart-
ment doesn’t expect to give an-
other report until Aug. 17.
WDFW says the policy pro-
tects the safety of the public,
ranchers and department em-
ployees.
WDFW enlisted the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s
Wildlife Services in 2012 and
2014 to shoot wolves.
This time, WDFW is carry-
ing out the operation. A federal
judge ruled the federal agency
can’t lethally remove wolves
without a more thorough review
of the environmental impact.
Wolves are not a federally
protected species in the eastern
one-third of Washington, where
the Profanity Peak wolves were
shot. Wolves are a state-protect-
ed species throughout Washing-
ton, but the state’s wolf man-
agement policy allows for lethal
removal to stop depredations.
Washington’s wolf popula-
tion, estimated at 90 at the end
of 2015, is mostly concentrated
in the northeastern corner of the
state.
Grass
Expertise.
Capital Press File
Holstein cows are seen in this ile photo.The proposed merger of two large dairy companies has some
on the organic dairy industry worried.
need to buy from CROPP,
said Kastel.
“It would be counterintu-
itive that those relationships
would continue,” he said.
Capital Press was unable
to reach representatives of
Danone or Whitewave as of
press time.
Organic Valley said that
the organic dairy industry
remains robust, which is un-
derscored by Danone’s in-
vestment in Whitewave.
“We are a favored vendor
of Stonyfield and we have
pioneered the organic indus-
try together,” Organic Valley
said in a statement. “We plan
to continue our collabora-
tion and to serve their organ-
ic fluid milk needs.”
Whitewave traditionally
buys from large “concen-
trated animal feeding oper-
ations,” or CAFOs, while
Organic Valley is oriented
toward family-scale farms,
said Kastel.
With a bigger economy
of scale, the combined Da-
none-Whitewave could de-
press organic milk premiums
and possibly weaken Organ-
ic Valley’s position in the
market, he said.
“If we end up with an im-
balance of power, it could bring
the wholesale price down for
everybody,” Kastel said.
Cornucopia Institute has
asked the U.S. Department
of Justice and the Federal
Trade Commission to in-
vestigate the merger for an-
ti-competitive effects.
Peter Carstensen, a law
professor specializing in ag-
ricultural antitrust at the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin, said the
group’s request has merit.
“It’s the kind of transac-
tion that ought to be looked
at very seriously,” he said.
It’s possible that Da-
none-Whitewave wouldn’t
mind reducing milk prices
and putting dairy farmers
out of business in the short
term, because over the long
term, a smaller milk supply
could justify higher prices,
Carstensen said.
“There’s an opportunity
here for strategic behavior,”
he said.
A representative of the
Federal Trade Commission
said the agency “does not
confirm the existence of or
comment on investigations”
but would make any find-
ings public if a lawsuit was
brought to block the merger.
Capital Press was unable
to reach a representative of
the Department of Justice as
of press time.
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