Sulfoxaflor
Center for Food Safety works to stop the EPA’s approval of sulfoxaflor, a bee-toxic insecticide linked to harms to pollinators and endangered species, securing major legal victories to protect ecosystems and biodiversity.
What Is Sulfoxaflor?
Sulfoxaflor is a systemic insecticide used on a variety of agricultural crops. Scientific studies have shown that it can harm honeybees and other pollinators, which play a critical role in food production, biodiversity, and ecosystem health.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s review of sulfoxaflor found that the chemical poses a extinction risk to 63 species, and that it is likely to harm another 462 endangered species. That’s 4% of all endangered plants and animals.
Sulfoxaflor Litigation
Center for Food Safety has worked to challenge EPA’s approval of sulfoxaflor due to risks posed to pollinators, endangered species, and the environment.
Sulfoxaflor was originally approved by the EPA in 2013. In 2015, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated EPA’s registration of sulfoxaflor after finding the agency lacked sufficient evidence to support its approval and failed to adequately assess impacts on honeybees. Center for Food Safety submitted an amicus curie brief in this case.
After EPA reapproved sulfoxaflor in 2016 with some mitigation measures, and then expanded its use on pollinator-attractive crops in 2019, Center for Food Safety and allies intervened to challenge the agency’s decision. The lawsuit argued EPA failed to evaluate harms to endangered species and unlawfully approved expanded uses despite ongoing concerns about impacts to bees and other pollinators.
In 2022, a Federal Court found that the EPA’s decision to allow new uses of sulfoxaflor on more than 200 million acres of pollinator-attractive crops was a violation of the Endangered Species Act and ordered the EPA to protect endangered species from the bee-killing insecticide. In a strongly worded decision, the court stated, “When an agency deliberately ignores Congress’s legislative command, it undermines the will of the people and ultimately our constitutional structure of government.”
The litigation continues CFS’s long-standing work to ensure pesticide approvals comply with federal environmental laws and adequately protect vulnerable species.
Pollinators and Our Work
Pollinators such as bees play a critical role in agriculture and natural ecosystems. Many crops depend on pollinators for successful fruit and seed production.
Declines in pollinator populations threaten biodiversity, food production, and ecosystem health.
Sulfoxaflor is a systemic insecticide that can expose pollinators through treated plants and flowering crops.
EPA’s own scientists identified concerns regarding risks to honeybees and other pollinator species. In their assessment of the insecticide, they found that sulfoxaflor use is potentially putting 24 species of insects in jeopardy of extinction.
Federal law requires EPA to evaluate pesticide impacts on endangered species before approving their use.
CFS’s legal strategy seeks to ensure EPA complies with these obligations and protects imperiled wildlife from pesticide-related harms. We have supported and pursued litigation challenging EPA’s approval of sulfoxaflor for more than a decade.
These efforts have resulted in significant court victories and increased scrutiny of the pesticide’s environmental impacts.
