Author: Smart Pest Policy

Published by Empire Report on April 24, 2023 If you’ve ever wanted to see the expression “the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing” play out in real … Continue reading “The Birds and the Bees Protection Act” threatens climate-smart agricultural practices

Interview by WXXI News’s Connections on March 1, 2023 This hour, we discuss the use of neonic pesticides in agriculture with farmers on different sides of the issue. Our guests: … Continue reading Farmers on neonicotinoids and the proposed Birds and the Bees Protection Act

Published by the Albany Times Union on February 24, 2023 I’ve been growing grapes, cherries, and other crops for 45 years in western New York. I grew up on a … Continue reading Commentary: Neonicotinoid ban will lead to more pesticide spraying

A successful farm is dependent on multiple factors—weather, water, soil health, and agricultural techniques and tools that farmers employ—including having a healthy pollinator population nearby. Many of my farmer colleagues … Continue reading ‘Bee Day’ is every day for farmers

Published by Morning Ag Clips on April 28, 2022. ALBANY — Farmers and environmental advocates are clashing over legislation that would restrict the use of pesticide-coated seeds that some studies … Continue reading Ag organizations comment on legislation that prohibits use of neonicotinoids

Published by the Empire Report on January 5, 2022 Across the northeast this fall, we’ve seen unprecedented weather events.  Tornadoes in November, record rain, major temperature swings. Signs of climate … Continue reading Farmers need options to keep crops growing

For starters, there is an effort to ban neonicotinoid seed treatments, as well as the products’ use on ornamental trees and shrubs, and turf. These are valuable precision tools to fight pests used by many corn, soybean and wheat farmers.

New York crop farmers are pushing back against a bill that would ban a widely used form of pesticide-treated seeds they say are indispensable but which advocates say are harmful to bees and other beneficial insects.