Protecting Bees from Pesticides: Why EPA Regulations Need to Change

Bug Banter with the Xerces Society

The United States Environmental Protection Agency, also known as the EPA, is tasked with regulating pesticides to protect people and the environment from their impacts. To test these impacts, the EPA uses honey bees. This might seem reasonable, but the honey bee is not native to North America and its social colony structure is unique and not representative of the thousands of native species of bees in the United States. The reliance on the honey bee for testing has profound implications for the safety of our native bees and other pollinators, given their vastly different life histories.

Joining us to cover this topic are Aimee Code from the Xerces Society and Sharmeen Morrison from Earthjustice. Aimee is Xerces’s pesticide program director. She and her staff evaluate the risks of pesticides, develop technical guidance, and advocate for actions that reduce reliance on and risks of pesticide use in both urban and agricultural settings. Sharmeen is a senior associate attorney with Earthjustice’s Biodiversity Defense Program, which engages in national litigation to confront the major drivers of biodiversity loss. In this role, she has worked to protect manatees in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon, golden-cheeked warblers in Texas Hill Country, and insect pollinators nationwide. Together, Aimee and Sharmeen are working to change how the EPA regulates pesticides.

Thank you for listening! For more information go to xerces.org/bugbanter.