Steven Gaal Posted May 16, 2014 Share Posted May 16, 2014 (edited) 16 May 2014 Rate of honey bee losses in the US ‘economically unsustainable’=================== Losses of managed honey bee colonies in the US totalled 23.2% last winter, according to a report by the US Department of agriculture. The report, produced with industry group the Bee Informed Partnership, showed that the death rate for October 2013 to April of this year was better than the 30.5% losses for 2012 to 2013, but worse than the 21.9% in 2011 to 2012. Prior surveys found colony losses averaged 29.6% over the last eight-year span. Bee populations have been dying at a rate which the US government says is economically unsustainable. Honey bees pollinate plants that produce about a quarter of US consumer foods. Scientists, consumer groups, and bee keepers say the devastating rate of bee deaths is due at least in part to the growing use of pesticides sold by agri-chemical companies to boost yields of staple crops such as corn. They pointed to a study issued on May 9 by Harvard School of Public Health that found two widely used neonicotinoids — a class of insecticide — may significantly harm honey bee colonies over the winter. Read More:http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/rate-of-honey-bee-losses-in-the-us-lsquoeconomically-unsustainablersquo-268818.html Edited May 16, 2014 by Steven Gaal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted May 31, 2014 Share Posted May 31, 2014 (edited) EU Buys Bees A Breather With Neonicotinoid Ban. Bees’ Goose Still Cookin’ =================================== =================================== Posted by Pterrafractyl ⋅ February 3, 2014 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ In the quest to prevent a collapse in the global bee population, few approaches look more promising than simply banning the use of neonicotinoids in agriculture. To the EU’s credit, that’s exactly what was done last May when the EU passed a two-year ban on nicotinoid usage. For life on earth it was the bee’s knees, although the Life Sciences industry wasn’t entirely pleased: World On a PlateHosted By The GuardianLondon bee summit: pesticides or no pesticides?The decision to frame the argument over neonicotinoids as pro– or anti-pesticide ignores the myriad options Posted by Emma BryceTuesday 28 January 2014 05.38 EST In London last Friday, research scientists, chemical industry representatives, and journalists gathered for an open discussion session that concluded a three-day summit about the impact of neonicotinoid pesticides on honeybees. The result was a rich debate about the future use of these chemicals in agriculture, and implications for food production. But the efforts by some industry representatives to oversimplify the issue gave an otherwise intricate discussion the aura of a highly polarised one. Neonicotinoids, which are widely used in Europe and America, are applied as a coating on seeds of crops like oilseed rape, maize, and sunflowers before they are planted, in this way protecting the plant from the start. But since this class of chemicals was linked with a decline in honey– and bumblebee health in 2012, followed by The European Commission’s imposed restrictions on specific uses of neonicontinoids soon after, they have been recognised more for the controversy they are associated with than anything else. The science cannot definitively link neonicotinoid impact on individual pollinators to the widespread, overall decline of honeybee populations going on in Europe and America—the phenomenon labelled Colony Collapse Disorder. But a growing body of research on the subject is helping to cement the concerns of conservationists and scientists alike. Friday’s open discussion helped air those concerns, and yet, these were foregrounded against a controversial industry suggestion that if we stop using neonicotinoids, we essentially commit to a future of environmental ruin. Speaking during his presentation on behalf of Bayer CropScience—the company that makes imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid-based pesticide—environmental safety manager Richard Schmuck concluded his talk by stating that not only will food production dip dramatically if we stop using neonicotinoids, but that in an effort to make up for lowered production, countries will have to convert untouched wild land into crops and ‘import’ land from developing world countries. That will result in decreased biodiversity in Europe, America, and abroad, he said. This rather extreme argument gives us just two options: a world with pesticides, or one without. But it misrepresents the approach of scientists and several conservation groups, and also contradicts what the chemical industries themselves say. “I think it’s just an oversimplification by the industry to suit their message,” says Sandra Bell, nature campaigner at Friends of the Earth UK who was present at Friday’s meeting. “We’re not necessarily talking about banning every pesticide. We’re talking about minimising the use.” A speaker at the conference, University of Sussex Professor David Goulson, leader of one of the research groups that found neonicotinoid impacts on pollinators in 2012, agreed, adding that in order to grow enough food to feed an increasing world population, he recognised that chemicals would inevitably be part of the mix. But the binary pesticide/no pesticide scenario overwrites a third option: using pesticides together with other controls. This is one aspect of integrated pest management (IPM), touted as a ‘common sense’ approach to farming. “IPM is not a system that doesn’t use pesticides at all,” says Goulson, “but you try and minimise the pesticides and only ever use them responsibly, and as a last resort.” This ideal contrasts starkly with the current reality of crops that receive up to 22 pesticides at a time. Rotation-cropping, organic farming, production of pest-resistant crops, and the use of state-funded agronomists to evaluate land and apply tailored pest control, were all raised as alternative management options during the open debate. Matthias Schott, a PhD student at the University of Giessen in Germany, who was there to present a poster about whether bees can sense neonicotinoids, suggested that in an ideal future, farmers would be given financial incentives for avoiding unnecessary pesticide use. Currently, he says, “there is no possibility for farmers to get pesticide-undressed seeds from the big companies. Therefore most agricultural land is exposed to insecticides.” Bayer CropScience notes that alternatives are part of its portfolio, too. “We are very open to finding the right synthesis between integrated pest management and pesticides,” said Bayer’s global pollinator safety manager, Dr. Christian Maus, adding that it is necessary to establish a pesticide’s compatibility with IPM before it goes on the market. (He spoke on behalf of Richard Schmuck who was traveling and not available for an interview.) The reality, of course, is that the pesticide/no pesticide split exists because there is no financial incentive right now to mould things differently. Alternative methods of pest control get little funding, and less research. “There’s no profit to be made for anyone who develops anything like that,” says Goulson. “So really, most research into how to farm is focused on high-tech solutions that can be sold by the people that manufacture them.” The UK government’s seemingly tight-knit relationship with major chemical company Syngenta has only intensified the frustrations felt by those seeking alternatives. Industry-funded studies that find no neonicotinoid impact are a target for critics, and researchers highlight the general scarcity of peer-reviewed science on the subject. Indeed, the confident conclusion in Schmuck’s presentation that a future without pesticides will amount to a loss of virgin land and biodiversity comes from an industry document that he cited in his talk. “It was a report by the agrochemical industry,” says Goulson. “I would strongly imagine it has no credibility whatsoever.” Yet, says Maus, everything Bayer CropScience publishes is independently regulated, whether it appears in a journal or not. “Our data are scrutinised,” he states. ... The binary argument over neonicotinoids, no matter how superficial, denies the role that creativity has to play in finding other solutions. It perpetuates a threatening rhetoric in which the obvious pressure exists to stick with the status quo. “It’s about a lack of investment in the right kind of research,” says Bell. “If several years ago more money had been directed towards [alternatives] we might not be in this situation now.“ The two-year EU ban on neonicotinoids is going to be a critical story to watch but it’s also a difficult story. As the attendees to the London Bee Summit often pointed out, bee colony collapse is an incredibly complicated phenomena and nicotinoids are just one piece of the puzzle. Another piece of the puzzle that adds uncertainty to the future of the neonicotinoid ban is the fact that Ettore Capri, the director of the Italy based OPERA Research Center — a pesticide industry-friendly think tank with a history of lobbying the EU for laxer neonicotinoid regulations — is also sitting on the EU’s pesticide panel. But it’s a big panel so we’ll see soon how the EU’s two year moratorium works out. Major nicotinoid manufacturers like Bayer and Syngenta may not like bans on neonicotinoids but the bees do. And in two years we’ll see who wins, Big Pesticide or the bees. Hint: It’s looking like it’s going to be a cliff-hanger/catastrophe sort of experience. It Isn’t Easy Being a BeeNeonicotinoids and lobbyists arent’t the only threats complicating the fate of the bees. If your a bee, mites might make for a really bad day. Or a new farm where your delicious prairie flowers used to be. Or both. It isn’t being a bee, and its getting harder: International Business TimesHow Can We Save Bees? 3 Possible Solutions To Combat Honeybee Decline By Roxanne Palmeron January 22 2014 11:38 PM The pleasant buzz of the honeybee is going silent across the nation, and the globe. But not everyone is planning on letting bees bumble gently into that good night. Since 2006, U.S. beekeepers have been seeing colony losses of an average of 33 percent a year, with a third of that attributed to colony collapse disorder, or CCD, the abrupt disappearance of worker bees from the hive. ... Since no one can quite pin down a singular cause for the drop in bee populations across the globe, a nest of different approaches to saving the honeybee is springing up. Here are just a few of the measures that are being taken to try and save the bees: Europe’s pesticide ban Last April, the European Union voted to ban a certain class of pesticides called neonicotinoids.... ... Nevertheless, the EU ban went into effect this past December and will last for two years. Some scientists fear that European farmers may turn to more toxic pesticides in the wake of the ban, while others fear that crop pests may seize their advantage in the coming years. Only time will tell what the ban has wrought. Combating the varroa mite One of the other prime suspects in CCD is the varroa mite, a tiny arachnid that can hitch a ride back to beehives on the backs of foraging worker bees. Once it invades the hive, the mite lays its eggs in honeycombs alongside young bees. The mite brings its own hitchhikers into the colony as well: bacteria, viruses and other pathogens that can sweep through the bees. Bayer scientists and bee researchers from Frankfurt University have come up with a way to nip the varroa mite right at the entrance of the hive, using a specially designed entryway for commercial hives. When bees pass through this varroa gate through small entry holes, they brush up against a coating of poison that targets the mite (it’s based on the same principle as a flea collar for dogs or cats). In Australia, where the mite has yet to gain a foothold, scientist Denis Anderson has been searching for a chemical switch that would allow him to turn off the mite’s breeding cycle. But, Anderson says his work has been hampered by a lack of funds, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Filling empty bee bellies Any hungry creature is vulnerable to illness and calamity, and bees are no exception. And the spread of modern agriculture, coupled with skyrocketing demand for biofuels, may be chewing up the bees’ sources of food. American grasslands are rich in wildflowers, which provide food for a host of pollinating insects, including honeybees. But these grasslands are being destroyed as a study published last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found. The study found that 1.3 million acres of grassland and wetland were converted to cropland in the Dakotas, Nebraska and parts of Minnesota and Iowa between 2006 and 2011, at a rate not seen since before the Dust Bowl. ... So even when neonicotinoids are banned, the farmers might just use something even worse, mites might infest your colony with bacteria and viruses, and, in the US, native bee habitat loss from 2006–2011 was at a rate not seen since the Dust Bowl! It’s sure not easy being bee, neonicotinoids or not. Edited May 31, 2014 by Steven Gaal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted June 22, 2014 Share Posted June 22, 2014 (edited) U.S. Sets Plan to Save Honey Bees and Other Pollinators Jun 20, 2014 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Friday announced a federal strategy to reverse a rapid decline in the number of honey bees and other pollinators in the United States that threatens the development of billions of dollars in crops. As part of the plan, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced $8 million in funding for farmers and ranchers in five states who establish new habitats for honey bee populations. "Honey bee pollination alone adds more than $15 billion in value to agricultural crops each year in the United States," the White House said in a statement announcing the establishment of a multi-agency task force and other measures. The contribution of native wild pollinators such as bumble bees were valued at $9 billion in 2009. In May, an annual report from USDA and the "Bee Informed Partnership," an industry group, estimated that total losses of managed honey bee colonies was 23 percent percent over the winter of 2013-14, just the latest in a series of declines. Over recent years, bees have been dying at a rate the U.S. government says is economically unsustainable. Honey bees pollinate plants that produce about a quarter of the food consumed by Americans, including apples, watermelons and beans. Crops such as almonds are almost exclusively pollinated by honey bees. "The problem is serious, and poses a significant challenge that needs to be addressed to ensure the sustainability of our food production systems," the White House said. The recent increased loss of honey bee colonies is thought to be caused by factors including a loss of natural forage and inadequate diets, mite infestations and diseases, loss of genetic diversity, and exposure to certain pesticides. (Reporting by Ros Krasny; Editing by Richard Chang) ***************************************PLEASE NOTE MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION (REAL REASON FOR BEE DEPOPULATION IS PLACED AT END OF ARTICLE,GAAL) Edited June 22, 2014 by Steven Gaal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 (edited) GMO Corn Really Kill All Those Bees in Canada? Scientists Say Corn Seed Coating Possible Bee-Killing Culprit February 27th, 2015 == http://investmentwatchblog.com/did-gmo-corn-really-kill-all-those-bees-in-canada-scientists-say-corn-seed-coating-possible-bee-killing-culprit/ ==Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/did-gmo-corn-really-kill-all-those-bees-in-canada-scientists-say-corn-seed-coating-possible-bee-killing-culprit/#io6JXBSrlyw6ybJ0.99 Edited March 2, 2015 by Steven Gaal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 (edited) Wild bee decline a sign of Europe’s ‘ecological disaster’: Study (link) = Nearly 10 percent of wild bee species in Europe face extinction, according to new study Edited March 21, 2015 by Steven Gaal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 Wild bee decline a sign of Europe’s ‘ecological disaster’: Study March 21, 2015 12:00 am EDT============ https://www.intellihub.com/wild-bee-decline-sign-europes-ecological-disaster-study/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Portland bans insecticide in light of massive bee deaths (link) Portland, Oregon has joined at least seven other cities in banning the usage of neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides that many scientists think is behind colony collapse disorder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Knight Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32399907 Bees 'get a buzz' from pesticides By Helen Briggs BBC Environment Correspondent 23 April 2015 From the section Science & Environment Bees prefer food containing neonicotinoid pesticides, research suggests. They may "get a buzz" from the nicotine-like chemicals in the same way smokers crave cigarettes, according to scientists at Newcastle University. The experiments raise the question of whether bees can be exposed to harmful doses of pesticides because they are attracted to the chemicals. Another study found neonicotinoids had a negative effect on bees in the wild. The Crop Protection Association, which represents pesticide producers, questioned the findings of the studies, published in the journal, Nature. Scientific controversyBees are in decline in Europe and North America due to a number of factors, including pesticides, habitat loss and diseases. In 2013, the EU imposed a two-year ban on using three neonicotinoid pesticides on flowering crops amid concern about their effects on bees. Neonicotinoids contain synthetic chemicals similar to nicotine, which as a plant toxin is damaging to insects. Neuroscientists at Newcastle University tested whether honeybees and bumblebees preferred food containing neonicotinoids over untreated food in the laboratory. They were surprised to find that sugar solution containing two of three neonicotinoid pesticides appeared to be attractive to bees and "may act like a drug" targeting the brain. "Bees can't taste neonicotinoids in their food and therefore do not avoid these pesticides," said lead researcher Prof Geraldine Wright. "This is putting them at risk of poisoning when they eat contaminated nectar. "Even worse, we now have evidence that bees prefer to eat pesticide-contaminated food. Neonicotinoids target the same mechanisms in the bee brain that are affected by nicotine in the human brain." The next step is to study whether bees can become addicted to the substances, Prof Wright added. "As soon as it gets into their blood they're getting a little buzz, as it were, and they're responding to that... We don't have any evidence that it's addictive, but it could be." Commenting on the research, Dr Christopher Connolly of the University of Dundee said it would be interesting to find out if insects "become addicted to neonicotinoids over time as humans become addicted to nicotine". "Given that the neonicotinoids are commonly found in our farmed environment at these levels, this may have already occurred." EU moratoriumScientific evidence over the impact of neonicotinoids has proved controversial, with debate over the relevance of laboratory studies and whether there is strong enough evidence to justify a ban. There have been few field trials on wild bees and the results of these are disputed. In an attempt to resolve the arguments, Dr Maj Rundlof from Lund University looked at the effects of neonicotinoids on wild bees and honeybees foraging on farmland in Sweden. Half of oilseed rape fields were sown with seeds coated in neonicotinoids; while the other half were left untreated. Half the number of wild bumblebees and solitary bees were found in oilseed rape fields treated with pesticides. Bumblebee colonies stopped growing where the chemicals were present, with reduced reproduction observed in solitary bees and bumblebees. Significant effects were not found in honeybees. Renewed debateProf Simon Potts of the University of Reading said the research suggests an interim ban on the use of neonicotinoids is justified but leaves regulators with a "huge conundrum". "A return to old-fashioned products sprayed against pests could be disastrous for pollinators, but the other options available to European agriculture, such as natural pest management, would lead to lower yields in the short term and a big increase in food prices." Nick von Westenholz, CEO of the Crop Protection Association, which represents neonicotinoid producers, questioned the latest research. "The latest studies in Nature must be seen in the context of ongoing campaign to discredit neonicotinoid pesticides, regardless of what the real evidence shows," he said. The UK government enforces the moratorium but has publicly stated it does not support it. A spokesperson from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "The EU will be reviewing the evidence on the effects of neonicotinoids on pollinators. Until this work is complete, the current restrictions remain in place." Both research studies are published in the journal, Nature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 (edited) Front Groups Exposed—50 Industry Groups Form a New Alliance to Manipulate Public Opinion About Junk Food, GMOs, and Harmful Additives =================== http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/05/29/codex-front-groups.aspx ========================================== Front Man Steven Milloy, and Other Non-Profit Front Organizations with Ties to Industry = Steven Milloy, author of Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them, and owner and operator of Junkscience.com8 — a site dedicated to denying environmental and health concerns related to pollutants and chemicals, including those used in agriculture and food production — appears to have been registered as a lobbyist with The EOP Group, a lobbying firm based in Washington, DC. Clients of the firm have included the American Crop Protection Association, the Chlorine Chemistry Council, and Edison Electric Institute.9 Milloy’s clients10 included both Monsanto and the International Food Additives Council (IFAC). Milloy has denied ever being a lobbyist, claiming that he was “a technical consultant" for the lobbying firm. “However, Milloy shows up in federal lobbyist registration data for 1997 as having lobbying expenditures on his behalf, indicating his firm, the EOP Group, believed him to be an active lobbyist, 'technical' or otherwise,” TRWNews11 states in its expose of the industry front man. Milloy also headed up the now defunct corporate front group, The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC). According to TRWNews,12 TASSC and the Junkscience.com site were one and the same. Integrity in Science,13 which lists non-profit organizations with close ties to industry, reports that TASSC received financial support from hundreds of corporations, including the likes of Procter & Gamble, Exxon, Dow Chemical, and Philip Morris. I’ll leave it up to you to guess what kind of ‘sound science’ was advanced by those sources... “Its objective is to act as a speakers bureau to deliver the corporate message that environmental public policy is not currently based on 'sound science,' and to counter excessive regulations that are based on what it considers 'junk' science,” Integrity in Science states. [Emphasis mine] Other non-profit organizations that are in actuality doing the bidding of various industry giants include:•Air Quality Standards Coalition, “created specifically to battle the clean air proposals, the coalition operates out of the offices of the National Association of Manufacturers, a Washington-based trade group. Its leadership includes top managers of petroleum, automotive and utility companies”•Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics, while sounding like it would work for your benefit, actually gets “unrestricted grants” from a long list of pharmaceutical companies• Alliance to Save Energy, which “supports energy efficiency as a cost-effective energy resource under existing market conditions and advocates energy-efficiency policies that minimize costs to society and individual consumers,” was founded by, among others: BP...•American Academy of Pediatrics receives $1 million annually from infant formula manufacturers. Other donors include (but is not limited to) the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products, both Wyeth’s and Merck’s vaccine divisions, the Food Marketing Institute, the Sugar Association, and the International Food Information Council (IFIC) — which you will see below, is not only a front group for the glutamate industry; it’s also the coordinating agent for a new alliance of over 50 industry groups aimed at directing the dialogue and altering public opinion about large-scale, genetically engineered and chemical-based food production•American Council for Fitness and Nutrition. This one takes the cake with a member list that includes the American Bakers Association, the American Meat Institute, the Biscuit & Cracker Manufacturers Association, Chocolate Manufacturers Association, Coca-Cola, Hershey’s, National Confectioners Association and many others that are FAR from suited to devise appropriate “comprehensive, long-term strategies and constructive public policies for improving the health and wellness of all Americans” =============== American Crop Protection Association PAID HACKS ,GAAL ======================================================= 37 Million Bees Dropped Dead After Farms In Ontario, Canada Sprayed Neonictinoids On Their GMO Crops— April 24, 2015 By Steve deadbees Bees’ importance to the planet cannot be overstated. The tiny, bumbling bee is responsible for pollinating one-sixth of flowering plants in the world, and also about 400 different types of agricultural plants. In fact, it is estimated that just last year, the honey-producing pollinators helped provide over $19 billion worth of agricultural crops with their pollination services. Globally, they are responsible for helping to create a $300 billion revenue. Just based on those facts alone, it’s pretty clear that bees are important and need to be preserved: not just because they help keep the food chain flowering and producing food, but because they are a hard-working, selfless species that are incremental to the sustainability and the future of this earth. But as has been shown multiple times in recent years – and in Ontario, Canada – certain agricultural methods which are far from sustainable are causing bee populations to decrease. [more…] Visit Site http://alternative-news-network.net/37-million-bees-dropped-dead-after-farms-in-ontario-canada-sprayed-neonictinoids-on-their-gmo-crops/ Edited April 25, 2015 by Steven Gaal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Pesticides alter bees' brains, making them unable to live and reproduce adequately Thursday, April 30, 2015 = http://www.naturalblaze.com/2015/04/pesticides-alter-bees-brains-making.html = New research in The FASEB Journal suggests that the neonicotinoid class of pesticides do not kill bees but impair their brain function to disturb learning, blunt food gathering skills and harm reproduction In research report published in the May 2015 issue of The FASEB Journal, scientists report that a particular class of pesticides called "neonicotinoids" wreaks havoc on the bee populations, ultimately putting some crops that rely on pollination in jeopardy. Specifically, these pesticides kill bee brain cells, rendering them unable to learn, gather food and reproduce. The report, however, also suggests that the effects of these pesticides on bee colonies may be reversible by decreasing or eliminating the use of these pesticides on plants pollenated by bees and increasing the availability of "bee-friendly" plants available to the insects. "Our study shows that the neonicotinoid pesticides are a risk to our bees and we should stop using them on plants that bees visit," said Christopher N. Connolly, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Medical Research Institute at the Ninewells Medical School at the University of Dundee in Dundee, UK. "Neonicotinoids are just a few examples of hundreds of pesticides we use on our crops and in our gardens. Stop using all pesticides in your garden and see insect damage as a success. You are providing for your native wildlife. Nasty caterpillars grow into beautiful butterflies." To make their discovery, Connolly and colleagues fed bees a sugar solution with very low neonicotinoid pesticide levels typically found in flowers (2.5 parts per billion) and tracked the toxins to the bee brain. They found that pesticide levels in the bees' brains were sufficient to cause the learning cells to run out of energy. Additionally, the brain cells were even vulnerable to this effect at just one tenth of the level present. When the ability of the bee's brain to learn is limited, the bee is unable to master key skills such as recognizing the presence of nectar and pollen from the smell emitted from flowers. In addition, scientists fed bumblebee colonies this same very low level of pesticide in a remote site in the Scottish Highlands where they were unlikely to be exposed to any other pesticides. They found that just a few of the exposed colonies performed well, colonies were smaller, and nests were in poor condition with fungus taking over. This further suggests that bumblebees exposed to this type of pesticide become poor learners, become unable to properly gather food, and become unable to properly nurture the next generation of bees. "It is ironic that neonicotinoids, pesticides developed to preserve the health of plants, ultimately inflict tremendous damage on plant life," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "These chemicals destroy the insect communities required by plants for their own reproduction." ==- See more at: http://www.naturalblaze.com/2015/04/pesticides-alter-bees-brains-making.html#sthash.P0Su2c8Y.dpuf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evan Burton Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 Bee topic merged with existing threads of bees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 You Asked Health Research You Asked: Are the Honeybees Still Disappearing? Markham Heid @markhamh April 15, 2015 You Asked: Are Honeybees Still Disappearing? Beekeepers continue to grapple with historically high death rates. And now something’s up with the queens. From almonds to cherries, dozens of food crops are partially or totally dependent on honeybee pollination. And while media attention has waned, there’s still reason to worry about the country’s smallest and most indispensable farm workers. Bee researchers first reported massive die-offs back in the 1990s. But the plight of the honeybee didn’t truly buzz into the national consciousness until the spring of 2013, when data revealed the average beekeeper had lost 45% of her colonies the previous winter. A mysterious phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (CCD) further stoked the fires of public interest. Jump to 2015. While last winter’s bee death data won’t be published for a few more weeks, things appear to be “status quo,” says Dr. Greg Hunt, a honeybee expert at Purdue University. Unfortunately, the status quo is grim. “We’ve been seeing about 30% loss in an average winter,” Hunt says. “The winter before last was particularly bad and got a lot of attention, but things have been bad for a while.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 Bee hotels: One way to help native bees http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/15/bee-hotels-one-way-to-help-native-bees/ ================================== a positive bee story / native aka wild bees can pollinate crops ,Gaal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 WEB SITE TO KEEP UP ON BEE INFO SEE NEWS SECTION IN LINK http://www.americanbeejournal.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Gaal Posted June 18, 2015 Share Posted June 18, 2015 (edited) see above post for good bee info link ------------------------------------------------------------ 100,000 German Beekeepers Call for GMO Cultivation Ban = http://www.globalresearch.ca/100000-german-beekeepers-call-for-gmo-cultivation-ban/5456622 Edited June 18, 2015 by Steven Gaal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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