7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2015 %HHUHVHDUFKHUWRXWVÀRZHUSRZHU Study: GMO labels don’t act as warnings By DON JENKINS Capital Press COUPEVILLE, Wash. — Researcher Tim Lawrence has been all around Washington state testing bee hives for neonicoti- noids, a class of pesticides banned by the European Commission for their purported harm to honey- bees. Neonicotinoids in pollen and beeswax were almost non-exis- tent in urban areas. More were detected in agricultural areas, but not enough to justify a ban, Law- rence said. The Washington State Univer- sity researchers expect to publish their ¿ndings soon in the -ournal of Economic Entomology, adding to the body of knowledge on an emotional debate. So emotional, it’s hindering an effective response to honeybee losses, Lawrence said. “I think the whole neonico- tinoid issue is a huge, unnecessary distraction when looking at what’s necessary for bees.” Neonicotinoids were intro- duced in the 1990s as alternatives to pesticides that were more harm- ful to birds and mammals. Critics say that because plants absorb ne- onicotinoids, bees in turn pick up the pesticide. The United King- dom recently relaxed Europe’s ban on neonicotinoids, sparking an angry backlash. Lawrence says the anger is misplaced. To help bees, he stress- es Àower power. “We need to plant lots of Àow- ers. I mean acres and acres of Àowers,” he said. Wrangled bees Lawrence, 64, has been think- ing about what bees need since he was 12 years old. He saw bees swarming a tree limb, cut it down and carried it home to show his mother and announce his career plans. As a young man, he wrangled bees in California and hammed it up by encouraging thousands of swarming bees to form a “beard” around his face. He also met his future wife, Susan Cobey, another young bee wrangler, who is now By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Don Jenkins/Capital Press Washington State University research scientist Tim Lawrence shows a bee hive July 30 in Coupeville on Whidbey Island. a Washington State researcher and an authority on honeybee breeding. Lawrence was a commercial beekeeper who later moved into academia, earning a Ph.D. in en- vironmental science in his 50s at Ohio Sate University. He took a post-doctorate job in Pullman as a bee researcher and seven months later, in 2010, was named director of the WSU Island County Extension Of¿ce, where he has continued his bee research. Mites, lack of forage bigger threats Last year, he served on a hon- eybee task force convened by the Washington State Department of Agriculture. The task force con- cluded that parasitic varroa mites and lack of forage are bigger threats to honeybees than neonic- otinoids. The conclusion put the task force in step with the U.S. De- partment of Agriculture, but out of step with European regulators and some local governments, such as Olympia, which have banned ne- onicotinoids on public property. Lawrence readily agrees that spraying neonicotinoids in the presence of bees is bad and that there can be an over-reliance on chemicals to control pests. He doesn’t rule out the possibility that evidence supporting bans will come out and said that researchers should continue looking for new classes of pesticides easy on bees. W A NTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A But he’s unpersuaded that ban- ning neonicotinoids is the answer for what ails honeybees, a position reinforced by his recent research. Mark Emrich, president of the Washington State Beekeepers As- sociation, read a draft of the soon- to-be-published paper. His hives in Thurston County were tested, and neonicotinoids were not found. Nevertheless, he remains concerned that widely used ne- onicotinoids are damaging bees’ ability to function and maintain healthy hives. “I’m more concerned about sub-lethal degradation of the bees as opposed to the bees actually dy- ing,” he said. Emrich notes that other re- search has concluded neonicoti- noids are harming bees. “Nobody has really given me a good synop- sis on why all the stuff done be- fore was wrong,” he said. Lawrence recalls shoveling piles of dead bees in the 1980s killed by ill-timed pesticide ap- plications before neonicotinoids were introduced. The mass die- offs of bees have stopped, he said. “If they ban neonicotinoids, what are they going to replace them with? What are the consequences of that?” A new study concludes that shoppers aren’t scared off by labels on food containing genet- ically modi¿ed organisms, but labeling opponents are skeptical of the ¿ndings. The study by University of Vermont economics professor -ane Kolodinsky found that support for mandatory GMO labeling didn’t measurably cor- respond with opposition to bio- technology. “A label doesn’t seem to change people’s opinion of ge- netic engineering,” she said. The results were released at a time when GMO labels are in the public spotlight. A proposal to ban state and local governments from requir- ing labels for GMOs is currently pending in Congress and Ver- mont’s labeling law is being challenged before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 6WURQJVXSSRUW for labeling An average of 89 percent of Vermont residents, who were surveyed ¿ve times between 2003 and 2015 as part of the study, favored mandatory GMO labeling. About 60 percent of survey respondents said they opposed GMOs being used in commer- cial food products. Among people who want labeling, those without college educations, those in single-par- ent households and those with the highest incomes tended not to oppose GMOs. Support for labeling tended to increase GMO opposition among men and people with median incomes, but the overall impact of backing labels was Aug ust 27 th 1 PM o r 6 PM CON CEAL CONCEAL CARRY CARRY PERM IT PERMIT CLASS CLASS Oregon – O rego n 34 - U States tah Utah - Valid Valid 35 States Best W estern : 5 5 5 Ha m b urg Ave, Asto ria O OR/Utah–valid R/U ta h— va lid in in WA W A $80 $80 or o r Oregon O reg o n only o n ly $4 5 $45 | Firea rm Tra in in gN W @ gm a il.com w w shauncurtain.com w .Firea rm Tra in in gN W .com ~ shauncurtain@gmail.com 36 0-921-2071 360-921-2071 Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500 Coa st River Bu sin ess Jou rn a l is n ow in clu d ed w ith you r Da ily Astoria n negligible to non-existent, the study found. Kolodinsky said she was surprised by the results because opponents claim that GMO la- bels will act as warnings to con- sumers and reduce consumption of products containing biotech ingredients. Given the study’s ¿ndings, however, such fears are un- founded, she said. 6FLHQWLVWVSXEOLFDWRGGV The Coalition for Safe and Affordable Food, which rep- resents food manufacturers and farm groups opposed to GMO labeling, believes the study “conveniently overlooks” state- ments by anti-GMO advocates who tout labels as the ¿rst step in convincing the public to avoid biotech products. The coalition pointed to a re- cent survey by the Pew Research Service that found the majority of scientists view GMOs as safe while the majority of the public does not. “This is the result of a cam- paign of deception anti-GMO activists have been waging for years,” the coalition said in statement. “A mandatory label will only serve to deepen this divide between perception and reality.” Liberal-leaning state Somin also questioned whether the survey sample was representative of the U.S. as a whole, since it was conducted in a liberal-leaning state that tends to be more skeptical of GMOs. “Vermont is atypical in a number of well-known ways,” he said. While some people who support labels may not oppose GMOs, the labeling movement is generally embraced by peo- ple who oppose biotechnology, Somin said. The Center for Food Safety, a nonpro¿t group that’s critical of GMOs, believes labels will be useful for people who want to avoid them without unneces- sarily alarming consumers. “It doesn’t come with an enor- mous stigma for the industry,” said Colin O’Neil, the group’s di- rector of government affairs. It’s more likely that food manufacturers who have spent millions of dollars ¿ghting GMO label campaigns in sev- eral states will cause fear of GMOs, he said. Such efforts reinforce the idea that companies that rely on biotech ingredients have something to hide, O’Neil said. “What are these companies so afraid of?” ,19,6$/,*1p '$< :HGQHVGD\ 6HSWHPEHU SPSP -())5(OV! You (walker or runner) >OH[! 5K walk/run or 10K run, followed by a bonfire on the beach >OLU! 5:30 p.m., Sept. 12, 2015 >OLYL! Peter Iredale Shipwreck at Fort Stevens State Park, Warrenton, Oregon /V^! 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