Article ID: CBB459611870

Ignorance loops: How non-knowledge about bee-toxic agrochemicals is iteratively produced (October 2020)

unapi

In this article, I examine the knowledge politics around pesticides in the United States and the role it plays in honey bee declines. Since 2006, US beekeepers have lost an average of one-third of their colonies each year. Though a number of factors influence bee health, beekeepers, researchers and policymakers cite pesticides as a primary contributor. In the US, pesticide registration is overseen by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with the required tests conducted by chemical companies applying for registration. Until 2016, the EPA only required chemical companies to measure acute toxicity for non-target species, which means that many pesticides with sublethal toxicities are not labeled bee-toxic, and farmers can apply them without penalty while bees are on their farms or orchards. In addition, California state and county regulators will typically only investigate a bee kill caused by a labeled bee-toxic pesticide, and so emergent data on non-labeled, sublethal pesticides goes uncollected. These gaps in data collection frustrate beekeepers and disincentivize them from reporting colony losses to regulatory agencies – thus reinforcing ignorance about which chemicals are toxic to bees. I term the iterative cycle of non-knowledge co-constituted by regulatory shortfalls and stakeholder regulatory disengagement an ‘ignorance loop’. I conclude with a discussion of what this dynamic can tell us about the politics of knowledge production and pesticide governance and the consequences of ‘ignorance loops’ for stakeholders and the environment.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB459611870/

Similar Citations

Article Suryanarayanan, Sainath; Daniel Lee Kleinman. Daniel Lee; (April 2013)
Be(e)coming experts: The controversy over insecticides in the honey bee colony collapse disorder (/isis/citation/CBB096871778/)

Article Becky Mansfield; (2021)
Deregulatory science: Chemical risk analysis in Trump’s EPA (/isis/citation/CBB234438851/)

Article Angela N. H. Creager; (September 2021)
To Test or Not to Test: Tools, Rules, and Corporate Data in US Chemicals Regulation (/isis/citation/CBB745420064/)

Article Langston, Nancy; (January 2018)
DOCUMERICA and the Power of Environmental History (/isis/citation/CBB114442000/)

Article Anne Jorunn Frøyen; (2019)
Influencing for Results: Bees, Beekeepers and Norwegian Pesticide Legislation (/isis/citation/CBB741842597/)

Book David Vogel; (2018)
California Greenin': How the Golden State Became an Environmental Leader (/isis/citation/CBB569183355/)

Article Judy Z Segal; (August 2018)
Sex, drugs, and rhetoric: The case of flibanserin for ‘female sexual dysfunction’ (/isis/citation/CBB311917478/)

Article Philip Olson; Christine Labuski; (August 2018)
‘There’s always a [white] man in the loop’: The gendered and racialized politics of civilian drones (/isis/citation/CBB568832607/)

Article Evan Hepler-Smith; (July 2019)
Molecular Bureaucracy: Toxicological Information and Environmental Protection (/isis/citation/CBB364814374/)

Book Brian Craig; (2020)
Stringfellow acid pits : The toxic and legal legacy (/isis/citation/CBB946609160/)

Book Michelle Mart; (2015)
Pesticides, A Love Story: America's Enduring Embrace of Dangerous Chemicals (/isis/citation/CBB036580158/)

Article Jennifer Bonnell; (January 2021)
Early Insecticide Controversies and Beekeeper Advocacy in the Great Lakes Region (/isis/citation/CBB042359495/)

Authors & Contributors
Suryanarayanan, Sainath
Guthman, Julie
Mart, Michelle
David Demortain
Andrey Vozyanov
Frøyen, Anne Jorunn
Concepts
Regulation
Technoscience; science and technology studies
Pesticides; insecticides
Science and politics
Agriculture
Environmental protection
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
20th century
20th century, early
19th century
Places
United States
California (U.S.)
Great Lakes (North America)
Ukraine
Romania
Norway
Institutions
United States. Environmental Protection Agency
United States. Food and Drug Administration
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment