b'BeSure! About StewardshipGrowing Matters campaign celebrates continued success. Melissa ShipmanFARMERS, LANDSCAPERS, beekeepers and pesticide applicators can all be a little more sure they are doing their part to protect pollinators after the Growing Matters BeSure! campaign wraps up its fourth year. BeSure! is an industry collaboration dedicated to protecting pollinators and other wildlife through the stewardship of neonicotinoid insecticides and other pes-ticides. Between 2019 and 2021, Growing Matters reports reaching more than 200 million people with BeSure! messaging, and this year those numbers climbed even higher, providing the resources needed to apply seed treatment and foliar applications responsibly, including proper use, storage and disposal methods. In 2022, the campaign targeted states in the Midwest, mid-Atlantic, Northeast, as well as Florida, California, Texas and Arizona. We remind farmers, pesticide applicators, urban landscape applicators,Getting certified when working with pesticides can increase knowledge and education.agricultural supply retailers and other key audiences of best management practicescide safety education, as well as helpingIn addition, the Honey Bee Health when handling and planting seeds treatedprovide resources to the extension agentsCoalition has developed best practice with neonicotinoid insecticides duringthey work with at universities.guides for corn, soybeans, canola and planting season, helping protect pollinatorThose extension agents are workingapples, with more crops hopefully to be health, says Caydee Savinelli, Growingdirectly with applicators to properly trainreleased in the future. Matters spokesperson and Syngentathem to be certified, Smith says. Those guides follow the cycle of the Stewardship Team and Pollinator lead. The Honey Bee Health Coalitioncrop from planting to harvest and discuss As we move through the growingpartnered with NPSEC to develop a free,what farmers can do at each stage to season, keeping stewardship top-of-mindhour-long education module targetedprotect bees, as well as how to enhance is key to ensure success not only for yourspecifically for certified pesticide applica- their landscape forage, Mulica says. crops, but the environment around themtors, advisors and crop consultants. TheseIts about bringing together both inter-as well. The BeSure! campaign has a fewapplicator licenses must be renewedestsagricultural production and stew-suggestions on how to keep stewardshipevery few years and this module providesardship of our resources and pollinators. education at the forefront of agriculture. a training centered around safety as wellIt takes all stakeholders involved to as bee and pollinator stewardship.work on this issue, and farmers really do Certification Support These individuals can now take ourplay a really big role as one of the original The first stop in education: pesticideone-hour module when its time for themconservationists, Mulica says.safety. Ensuring safety during applicationto recertify. It goes over risks, challenges, and beyond helps to protect the environ- and how everyone can do their jobs andMedia Mattersment around fields across the U.S. help protect our bees and pollinators,The second stop in education? Ensuring Tom Smith, executive director of thesays Matthew Mulica, senior project direc- the stewardship message is spread National Pesticide Safety Educationtor, Keystone Policy Center and facilitatorthroughout during the entire season, Center (NPSEC) says their role is help- of the Honey Bee Health Coalition andfrom companies to applicators to grow-ing to promote the whole area of pesti- Farmers for Monarchs. ers, and appears on different media 4/ SEEDWORLD.COMOCTOBER 2022'