Lawsuit Filed Against Minnesota Department of Agriculture Over Failure to Regulate Toxic Neonic Pesticide Coatings on Crop Seeds
Neonic-treated seeds are leading to bee deaths and harmful water contamination.
MINNEAPOLIS - NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) and the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) have filed a lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) over its failure to regulate widespread and harmful use of toxic neonicotinoid pesticide coatings on crop seeds known as “seed treatments.”
The toxic coatings on these seeds leach into the environment, polluting water and soil, and harming wildlife ranging from bees and butterflies to trout and deer. The lawsuit argues that MDA’s failure to regulate treated crop seeds violates Minnesotans’ rights to the protection of the state’s water, land, and other natural resources under the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act.
“MDA has both the authority and the legal responsibility to regulate neonic-treated seeds the same way it does any other dangerous pesticide,” said Abigail Hencheck, staff attorney at MCEA. “Its unwillingness to act violates our state law and puts our environment, wildlife, and public health at risk.”
Neonicotinoid pesticides, or “neonics,” are potent neurotoxic insecticides applied on more than 11 million acres in Minnesota as seed treatments alone. Research connects neonics with the mass losses of honeybees, butterflies, birds, and other pollinators. And widespread use of these long-lasting and highly mobile pesticides has caused extensive contamination of Minnesota’s water, wildlife, and people, threatening the state’s ecosystems and public health.
“Neonic pesticides are decimating pollinators, hollowing out ecosystems, and threatening human health, and yet MDA has long refused to do anything about the number one source of widespread neonic contamination,” said Rebecca Riley, managing director of Food & Agriculture at NRDC. “Minnesotans have a legal right to protection from this toxic and environmentally destructive pollution, and that’s what we are going to court to enforce.”
The vast majority of neonic use—including most seed treatments on corn, soybean, and other grain crops—provides no economic benefits for farmers. Today’s filing follows an October 2024 rulemaking petition by the NRDC Action Fund, Minnesota Trout Unlimited, and the MCEA requesting MDA regulate and curb these harmful and unbeneficial neonic uses by adopting common-sense regulations, including successful approaches from other jurisdictions. MDA denied that petition in its entirety.
Background
Neonicotinoids, known as “neonics,” are insecticides regarded as among the most ecologically destructive pesticides since DDT. They are pervasive pollutants, found in waters across Minnesota and in the bodies of more than 90 percent of Minnesota’s white-tailed deer. Neonics are a leading cause of declines in bees and other pollinators and linked with mass bird population declines, the collapse of fisheries, and birth defects in white-tailed deer.
Neonics’ widespread use and neurotoxic makeup also pose substantial threats to human health. Neonic source water pollution often ends up in tap water, as chlorination treatment typically fails to remove neonics from water. Neonics were detected in the bodies of more than 95 percent of pregnant women in recent testing across the country, a particularly concerning statistic as prenatal exposure is linked with health harms, including birth defects of the heart and brain and autism-like symptoms.
Minnesota farmers plant corn and soybean seeds coated with neonic pesticides on upwards of 11 million acres each year. Soon after planting, more than 95 percent of this toxic seed coating can migrate to soil and water where it pollutes plants, animals, and drinking water resources.
Research consistently finds that these neonic coatings treat pest problems that largely do not exist, typically failing to provide economic benefits to farmers. Unnecessary prophylactic use can also hurt farmers by encouraging pest resistance; killing off pollinators, pest predators, earthworms, and other beneficial bugs; and harming soil health soil microbes that improve crop health, resiliency, and output.
MDA’s own data show that neonic-treated seeds are leading to bee deaths, and the neonics are showing at ecologically harmful levels in surface water, groundwater, and rainwater. Despite this, MDA has never directly regulated their use.
The petition filed in October is available by clicking here.
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).
MCEA (Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy) is Minnesota’s leading nonprofit environmental law and public policy organization working to protect our environment and the health of our people.