Canadian government regulators colluded with the major biotech and pesticide company Bayer to stop a ban on neonicotinoid pesticides. Journalist Marc Fawcett-Atkinson at Canada鈥檚 National Observer has exposed how regulators helped Bayer undermine a study that shows high levels of neonicotinoid contamination in wetlands. The strategy was successful in stopping a proposed ban on three neonicotinoids. Read the full story: 鈥溾��
This latest revelation of government-corporate collusion to support the sale of dangerous pesticides follows the 2023 expos茅 that It also comes after the recent exposure of a global corporate public relations campaign that provided corporate and government employees with profiles of critics of pesticides and GMOs –
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Bayer (formerly Monsanto) is the world鈥檚 biggest biotechnology company, the biggest seed company, and the second-largest pesticide company. The company controls 23% of the global seed market and 16% of the agrochemicals market.
Neonicotinoids (neonics) are a group of insecticides that are widely used but have serious and often lethal impacts on and other beneficial insects, as well as . They are most commonly used in the form of coatings on seeds, and are . They are also persistent in the environment and soluble in water. (The term 鈥減esticides鈥� includes herbicides, insecticides and fungicides.)
, federal government officials from three departments actively worked to help Bayer undermine the findings of ecologist Christy Morrissey of the University of Saskatchewan. Dr. Morrissey sent her results to the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) at Health Canada but. Bayer then hired a team of researchers who wrote a 27-page report that selectively pared down Dr. Morrissey’s data, excluding 鈥減roblematic sites鈥� where wetland samples showed dangerous levels of neonicotinoids. In its final decision not to ban the pesticides, the PMRA repeated Bayer’s findings 鈥渘early word-for-word鈥�, concluding that the majority of Dr. Morrissey’s data was 鈥渘ot relevant鈥� to the risk assessment.
In 2023, Dr. Bruce Lanphear, the , saying, “I don’t have confidence because PMRA is relying on obsolete methods. They aren’t being transparent on how they’re regulating chemicals.”
Over twenty years ago, a parliamentary committee concluded that, “The PMRA is already a captive of the pesticide industry.” Read more in the article.鈥�
CBAN鈥檚 calculations find that herbicide sales in Canada have increased by 244% since GM crops have been introduced. Read our factsheet: