Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) announced on June 29 that they have commenced legal proceedings against the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC). The action is in response to the ministry’s announcement on June 9 regarding new neonicotinoid-treated seed regulations, which came into effect on July 1.
GFO filed a request to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to provide an interpretation of the regulations and a respite of the implementation.
“We are asking for a legal interpretation of the regulations and how we as producers have the ability to even follow the rules,” said GFO chair Mark Brock, who is hoping to postpone implimentation of the regulations until May 2016.
“We are struggling to understand the regulations and how we are going to implement them on our farms as producers,” he added.
Under the new regulations, a four-part system will be in place to restrict the sale and use of neonicotinoid-treated seeds in Ontario.
Neonicotinoid insecticides are neurotoxins that kill insects through attacking the central nervous system and are generally applied to seeds before they are planted.
The regulations require training on integrated pest management methods for farmers, establishing methods that farmers can use to assess whether pest problems require the use of neonicotinoid-treated seeds, setting out requirements for the sale and use of neonicotinoid-treated seeds and tracking the sale of neonicotinoid-treated seeds.
The government is phasing in the restrictions by letting farmers plant 50 per cent of their acreage with the treated seed in the 2016 planting season. Farmers who wish to plant more than 50 per cent will need to conduct
a pest assessment to show they have a pest problem in their fields.
In 2017, farmers will have to provide proof of certification of integrated pest management training, a written declaration that integrated pest management principles were considered and a pest assessment report.
“We are phasing in these new rules to give farmers and seed vendors some time to adapt,” said Lucas Malinowski, a spokesperson for the MOECC. “It’s important to know that we’re not banning the treated seed, we’re just looking to reduce and manage the use of it.”
However, GFO is arguing that farmers cannot follow these regulations. The timing of the regulations does not coincide with the timing of pest life cycles and planning timeline, explained Brock.
“We can’t really follow the rules very well because of pest life cycles that we are going to have a struggle adhering to the regulations now that they are in effect for the coming planting season because we can’t really scout and determine pest levels very well in the fall,” said Brock. “We’ve used the chemicals this past spring so we’ve already reduced the pest pressure already so it’s not a true indication of pest thresholds,” said Brock, explaining why the pest assessments will not be an accurate depiction of pest problems.
While MOECC said they could not comment on the specifics of the legal proceeding, the spokesperson for MOECC explained they are phasing in the regulations to help farmers through the process.
“This is a phased-in regulation. Yes it becomes effective July 1, because that’s generally when regulations in Ontario come into effect. So, we wanted to make sure that farmers had a clear understanding of what the regulations would be in time for them to make their decisions for the upcoming planting season. To address some of those concerns, we are phasing it in,” said Malinowski.
But, GFO also said they felt their concerns with the process were not heard. “It’s the whole process. The timeline wasn’t very typical of any regulation coming into effect. We just didn’t feel our concerns were heard, we didn’t feel there was a catastrophe out there that warrant the rushed timelines,” said Brock.
GFO has developed an alternative to the regulations called the Pollinator Health Blueprint, because bees are beneficial to farmers too.
“It’s a pretty extensive document with all the steps we were willing to take from a voluntary standpoint of what we could do to help mitigate risk and improve pollinator health. That was our alternative that we were providing government in lieu of a regulation,” said Brock.
“We issued a discussion paper and we had province-wide consultations in person consultations hosted jointly by MOECC and OMAFRA with various stakeholders, including farmers and farmer groups,” said Malinowski. “We posted a draft regulation for public comment and we actually made changes to the final [regulation] from the draft regulation as a result of some things we heard from stakeholder consultations and public comments.”
Brock said GFO feels neonicotinoids are the most effective way to control pests because they are a precise insecticide.
“It allows us to control [pests] early in the season without letting them build of populations and we’re not having to go out in the fields later on, like now and spraying foliar insecticides which tend to effect non-targeted pests so they could kill things we aren’t trying to kill that’s actually beneficial to us,” said Brock.
“For me, I have to change the way I farm… I basically have to assume a lower yield,” said Brock.
“I feel like I’m going backwards in my farming practices and undoing some of the good stuff I did.”
The ministry said they are moving forward with reducing pollinator health.
“They’re have been a number of studies across the world showing the environmental impacts of nenicotinoid treated seeds and also their impacts on pollinators,” said Malinowski. “This regulation that will reduce the use of neonicotinoid treated seeds its really part of a broader pollinator health strategy because there are a number of factors affecting bee health.”
“We feel in Ontario this is the right approach for Ontario to take and it’s fair and balanced and we will continue to talk with farmers going forward,” he added.
Ontario is trying to reduce the number of acres planted with neonicotinoid-treated corn and soybean seed by 80 per cent by 2017.
