Action Alert & Update! A Just Transition Away from Neonics

We are at a point at which we need to make some strategic decisions, and we need you to share your voice with lawmakers, about how to move forward with H.706 and a just transition away from neonicotinoid pesticides with the time we have left this biennium.  


There were several changes made to the bill in the Committee on Senate Agriculture that Rural VT and the greater coalition of organizations working on this bill (the Protect our Pollinators Coalition) oppose, however; there is little time in the legislative session remaining, and the coalition understands we need to move forward strategically in order to assure the bill’s passage while improving it to the degree we can.  We are now focused on amendments that can successfully be brought to the Senate floor vote later this week - and once the bill passes the Senate Floor vote, we will assess how to move forward in the House Committee on Agriculture and/or Committee of Conference.  


Here are the changes made to H.706 in the Senate Committee on Agriculture: 

  • The transition date for treated seeds was moved to 2031 from 2029.  The bill originally had the date for treated seeds in 2027, but it was moved to 2029 in the House to align with New York’s transition.  We feel that moving this date back to 2029 is low-hanging fruit and is a reasonable amendment to bring to the Senate floor.

  • The treated seeds prohibition will be tied to NY’s law after 2031.  This means, that if NY were to change its implementation date beyond 2031, VT’s date would change accordingly. Likewise, if NY repealed its requirement, VT’s would be repealed as well. The repeal of the NY law is not expected; the final bill passed with a diversity of support.

  • Neonic use on turf - such as commercial turf production and golf courses - will be exempt from the law.  Though this use of neonics is relatively small in the context of the overall use in VT, we feel it is unnecessary and problematic to exempt recreational use in the context of requiring food producers to transition.  

  • The exemption process is changed to mirror NY’s, which is a form of the “verification of need” program (variations of which are used in other jurisdictions, like Quebec).  There are advantages and disadvantages to this model, and to the process as written in the original bill.  The original bill allowed for geographical exemptions determined by the Agency of Agriculture, in consultation with the Sec. of the Agency of Natural Resources, based on a market analysis (are there sufficient supplies of non-neonic treated seeds, varietals, etc. available to farmers; is there undue financial hardship on producers to access them) and based on an assessment of the environmental impact of the use in the exempted area.  The “verification of need” process is a farm by farm-based approach, which requires farmers to implement a to-be-determined IPM protocol to determine if there is sufficient pest pressure to apply for an exemption due to the risk of an “agricultural or environmental emergency”.  A farm by farm-based approach is positive in the sense that it doesn’t allow for larger geographies to be exempted, it directly involves the farmers and land and crops in question, and it doesn’t rely on seed company narratives about what they can or cannot provide; however, it may leave farmers more vulnerable to potential market dynamics, and it leaves a lot of room for the metrics of an “agricultural or environmental emergency” to be determined by the Agency of Agriculture in a way which effectively undermines the effectiveness of the law.  

How do I CONTACT my representatives?

Find the contact information for your Senators here.

The contact information for the House Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, and Food Resiliency is here:

How can you act?

Contact your Senator and members of the House Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Food Resiliency to share your concerns and proposals for how to move forward; whether that be working to improve the bill on the Senate Floor, voting to pass the bill as is in order to provide the House Committee on Agriculture more time, etc..  For Rural VT, one of the primary amendments we feel is reasonable and likely to be successful on the Senate Floor is returning the implementation date for treated seeds to 2029 from 2031.  This follows the logic of the bill being so aligned with the NY bill, and is an action of solidarity with NY farmers who will benefit from VT being aligned in terms of a larger regional market and demand for non-neonic treated seed.   

Sample message

Dear  Senator / Representative/s _____________,

My name is ____________, I live in _[town]_.  [If you are a farmer or farm worker, you can identify that here].  I am writing to communicate my support for a just transition away from neonicotinoid pesticides, and to urge you to support amendments on the Senate floor to H.706 which bring the bill into greater alignment with the version passed by the House.  This is an important bill for the health and equity of our farming community and food systems, as well as for pollinators and the greater environment. 

Particular changes made in the Senate Committee on Agriculture are concerning and compromise the effectiveness of this legislation.  It’s important to work to restore the bill to its House-passed form while not compromising its passage.  Important changes that I’d like to see made on the Senate floor, and/or once the bill returns to the House, include:

  • Restoring the implementation date to 2029 in alignment with NY state

  • [include your other preferred changes here]

This bill is important to me because…. [add your own story and points here; eg:  This bill acknowledges and faces the significant negative environmental and biological impacts that neonics are having, their resilience and mobility in the environment, the need to provide time and support for those using the pesticide in transitioning, and the need to protect the vast majority of VT’s farmers and community members who are choosing not to use the pesticide from exposure and impact (these people are currently being non-consensually exposed given what we know about the spread of neonics in the environment away from the immediate location of use, and their far-reaching and systemic impacts)]

Work to limit the use of and exposure to neonics in VT has been ongoing for a number of years.  There is precedent for neonic phase-out and transition - very similar to this legislation - in the European Union, in Ontario, in Quebec, and now New York has passed legislation that will phase out treated seed and other uses by 2029.  Data and farmer testimony from those regions that have transitioned have shown little to no impact on crop yields or farm economics.  

Please support reasonable and important amendments to H.706 bringing it more in line with the House-passed version, and work to assure its passage on the Senate Floor.  Thank you for your attention and work.

Respectfully,

_____________

Rural VermontNeonics