Are pesticides stinging bees?

PUHI — When it comes to feeding the world and making sure plants get pollinated, bees are key. Albert Einstein once said if the bees were gone from Earth, man would have only four years left to live.

“We all do know, I think it’s accepted, that the bee population is in decline,” said Felicia Cowden, moderator of the “Pollinators, Pesticides and Policies” forum that was part of the Earth Day schedule at Kaua‘i Community College in Puhi Monday .

Kaua‘i Beekeepers Association Chair Jimmy Trujillo said local folks are “concerned about the health of bees,” as well as the dependency on chemical farming. He said he hoped the event was the start of an ongoing conversation within the community, aimed at tackling what he described as a “conundrum.”

Five panelists — beekeeper and veteran journalist Joan Conrow; Kekaha’s BASF Plant Sciences research manager Kirby Kester; Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau President and farmer Jerry Ornellas; biologist and ‘Ohana o Kaua‘i founder Fern Rosenstiel; and Kaua‘i County Councilman Gary Hooser — sat through a spirited and at times contentious meeting that was not to be video-taped at the request of two panelists, each on a different side of the fence.

Conrow said she began working with bees a year ago. She discussed a combination of factors she believes is leading to their population decline, including habitat loss, habitat segmentation, commercial beekeeping practices, stress and a pair of pests — the varroa mite and small hive beetle.

“I think the primary reason for the decline is the same reason why we have things like Earth Day,” she said. “That’s because people have so deeply disconnected from the Earth, and our world, as a part and a piece of that web … It’s not something that’s just one cause, but sort of how we have evolved as a species that’s contributing to this.”

While she believes in a link between bee death and pesticide use, Conrow said this link is still being determined.

“One thing that I’ve found that science is not very good at — or government or anybody else — is sort of looking at how things work interactively,” she said. “We don’t really have a good understanding of how a lot of these chemicals react with one another.”

Kester said he is “really familiar with the seed industry” and its practices. He has worked in the biotech seed industry on Kaua‘i for the last 18 years, previously with Pioneer Hi-Bred, and held a pesticide application license for approximately 12 years.

“I fully realize the level of concern about my industry’s practices, and especially about the relationship between pesticides and bees,” he said. “Of course, pesticides can kill bees if they are applied not according to label or handled improperly.”

Kester said he hopes to learn more about the challenges facing local beekeepers and where the seed industry might play a role.

“As a community member, I’m really worried about the level of concern,” he said. “I think that my industry has done a poor job at engaging the community and trying to help them understand what we’re doing.”

Ornellas, an orchard farmer in Kapa‘a and a member of the state Board of Agriculture, said he understands the critical role bees play in pollination. In fact, 50 percent of the world’s food plants are pollinated by bees, he said.

Ornellas said it is “very interesting” that Hawai‘i once led the nation in honey production, despite the “long history of intense pesticide use” on the islands.

“It’s food for thought,” he said.

While he agrees that bees are under tremendous pressure, and something is wrong with local hives, Ornellas said he isn’t convinced pesticides are to blame.

“The jury is still out,” he said.

Rosenstiel said that for the last six years she has researched the biotech industry and its pesticide use.

“My concern when it comes down to the honey bee health extends back to colony collapse disorder and the fact that over five million hives, valued at over $1.6 billion, have fallen ill to this disorder,” she said.

Rosenstiel said she is troubled by “the corruption that’s evident” within the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the overall process of approval of chemicals and the “conflict of interest” between decision makers and chemical manufacturers.

“Bees are our No. 1 pollinator around the world, but they’re also an indicator of what’s happening in the ecosystem,” she said. “I think that the lack of precautionary principal assessment in determining which pesticides are used (and) where is shocking and needs to be changed.”

Hooser, former head of the state Office of Environmental Quality Control, had concerns with disclosure of pesticide use.

He said he put in a disclosure request to the four major agricultural businesses on Kaua‘i. After a long period without a response, he paid $500 to the state Department of Agriculture for a list of Restricted Use Pesticide purchases.

With a few exceptions, Hooser said the companies using those products were the four major seed companies and Kaua‘i Coffee.

In terms of policy moving forward, Hooser believes the community — beekeepers and everyone else — is entitled to know what’s being sprayed and what the impacts are. But right now, that information is not available, he said.

“You are not entitled by law to get that information, and I believe that is wrong,” Hooser said.

Round table

“Do you believe in a pesticide-free Kaua‘i?” Ornellas asked Rosenstiel.

“Ideally,” she said she does. While she believes an immediate jump to a pesticide-free island would require further education, Rosenstiel said she believes “anything is possible.”

She questioned Kester about his faith in the biotech industry’s approval process and “self-regulation.”

“How is it that you are able to sleep at night comfortably, knowing that these chemicals are being sprayed in a community that you’re a part of, that you love?” Rosenstiel asked Kester.

It was a question Kester said he has anticipated for a long time.

He said the approval process involves rigorous testing and scientific studies by the EPA.

“I can sleep at night because you balance the positives to the potential consequences,” he said. “And I believe that properly trained people can apply pesticides correctly.”

Kester added that he has faith that the people making the laws have done their homework. Though lawmakers are not perfect, and there have been failures, chemistry is evolving and products are getting more sophisticated, he said.

Rosenstiel said she finds Kester’s faith “inspiring.”

When asked by Hooser whether the public is entitled to know what’s being sprayed in their community, Ornellas responded to the former Senate Majority Leader by asking if a convenient store should have to disclose how much alcohol and cigarettes — “known killers” — it sells and when.

“All I am saying is this,” Ornellas said. “Agriculture needs to be treated as fairly as any other industry.”

While Ornellas said he has no problem with disclosure, he said he fears disclosing that information would open farmers up to harassment.

Moving forward

Ornellas said much of the discussion at the panel was “based on the premise” that pesticides are killing bees.

“The label is the law,” Ornellas said regarding pesticide application. “You have to follow the label to the letter of the law. Otherwise you are in violation and you will be possibly arrested.”

A simple solution, he said, would be to look at the bee colonies in Waimea and whether there are declines in those hives, then compare that information to colonies on Ni‘ihau.

“The assumption is that we accept this premise that, in fact, these pesticides are killing bees,” he said. “But let’s establish that fact first.”

Rosenstiel said she feels “the exact opposite,” and that the precautionary principal — risk assessment — is the ultimate boundary of science.

“You cannot spray high dose pesticides and not expect there to one day be an impact,” she said. “And if there is, you don’t wait until it’s so undeniable that lives have been ruined, ecosystems destroyed or environments destroyed, before you say, ‘Oops.’”

Rosenstiel added that “we cannot keep going forward with money and efficiency as the No. 1 goal and health and safety as the second.”

Hooser said “disclosure is the very first step.” He had concerns about the 22 RUP being used here, which he described as “the worst of the worst, the strongest of the strong.”

A disclosure, he said, is a “reasonable” request for the government and the community to make.

Conrow said she would like to see signage indicating what has been recently sprayed in certain areas.

It is important, she said, for everyone — from seed companies and golf courses to the common gardener — to look at ways of reducing pesticide use.

“I would also like to see the activist community kind of get a little bit of a grip,” she said. “I hear so often anecdotal information presented as fact.”

People need to get educated and not just rely on what others are telling them, she said.

Kester agreed with Conrow that there needs to be better dialogue and education between his industry and the community.

“I just want you guys to know that we weren’t blindly trying to hide something,” he said in response to Hooser’s request for disclosure. “We checked the law. We do follow the law, especially with pesticides. We know how vulnerable and sensitive this is. We will not do things that would jeopardize our industry.”

Ornellas said the EPA stated in 2012 that it was not aware of any data suggesting honey bee decline or colony collapse disorder is correlated with pesticide use, which he described as “a last resort” for farmers.

Feeding a world population expected to reach 9.5 billion by 2050 is not going to be done with pre-industrial agriculture, he said.

“If we could live in a world without any pesticides, I would be a happy guy,” he said. “These are tools that we need at this time, in this place.”