Killed bees
The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico might not even be this year's greatest environmental disaster.
By
Bill Berry
post a letter about this article »
I think that there is a maxim that we might give some seriosly thought.
Mega Systems = Mega Failures
We have mega systems in energy, food production, energy distribution, etc. and each of these has exhibited serious failures from time to time.
Nature does not operate that way. Even the millions of square miles of "virgin" land (it really wasn't) that the original white colonists and settlers found was in, fact, quite varied from place to place.
Schumacher had it right. Small is Beautiful.
Don't know about anyone else but I can remember farmers cultivating corn with horses. It was a boring job but done right it usually worked. Using a horse saved fuel and the equipment was fairly light to pull. I even have a neighbor who did that from time time clear into the mid 1980's. Of course this was for your average dairy farm and corn was not the dominant crop for these guys that it has become. A good deal of energy went into alfalfa and small grains like oats.
We have lost it folks. Time to restore some sanity here.
-Griebnotz Doerkpfester | Egg Harbor, WI. | May 11, 2010
Seems like they are actually trying to kill us all off.
-Lil Bob | Madison WI | May 17, 2010
This IS the same NYT that brought you Judith Miller and yellow cake... remember? So this article states that Roundup is good cuz we use less pesticides... what it fails to mention is thats because RoundUp-Ready Seeds HAVE RoundUP in their DNA!
And how is it that a poison is woven into a seed without killing the seed? Ask Bayer Crop Scientists who discovered that Nicotine is the perfect transfer gene to splice the poison into. Yes like an envelope protects a letter in the mail, Nicotine DNA can attach to the seed without killing it, and have the RoundUp spliced into it without killing the nicotine. So the Roundup grows into every part of the plant (as does the nicotine)-- hence "less pesticides are used" cuz if a bug eats even the leaf, it dies. Gee so therefore if a bee drinks the nectar and consumes the pollen... nothing happens??? Yeah right--and who sponsors these studies?
In school years ago we did experiments with mice where we shaved a small spot on their backs and dropped two drops of pure nicotine on them... within five minutes they were wildly pacing in circles and dead in less than ten.
Now tell me that bees consuming nicotine-laced pollen and nectar at an order magnitude more than 5 years ago (before GM seeds)... aren't getting wired out and unable to find their way back home. Especially when home keeps moving every two or three weeks when trucking bees throughout the country providing pollination services!
So why is the truth being obscured? Well if Bayer and Monsanto admitted they were the cause of species extinction on Earth, how would their shareholders feel? It would be Corporate Suicide... and in today's Corporate Citizen Society, suicide is immoral, heck some religious leaders, like Ralphie Reed, might start preaching to save their souls!
But seriously, the corporate persons are desperately seeking a solution... the next nicotine "envelope"- and using their for-profit university system connections to help, and help provide "cover" through misleading findings til its found... but not necessarily because its the right thing to do, perhaps more so because its the smart business thing to do... and then once they have it, headlines worldwide will be how Monsanto or Bayer discovered Nicotine is linked to CCD... and their new XYZ drug is designed to fix that problem... win-win... American Style! cept meantime human citizens are the biggest losers.
Don't believe me, look up Neonicinatoids and see how round the rest of the world where Corporations don't have the rights of people... like Germany, the UK, France and elsewhere, they are banning the use of these products. Hear me now, listen to me later...
I'm a beekeeper, and I endorse this statement.
-CharBee | Mequon, WI | May 18, 2010
Char's comments about Neo nics are accurate on their effect, as far as my research and experience go. Bayer is the world leader of Neo nic production.
These critical items need to be added. "Neonicotinoids must be classified as highly toxic to honey bees." (Integrated Crop Management - Iowa State U 3 May 2004).
I believe there is significant resistance and denial by Wisconsin beekeepers and orchardists to the effects of Neo nics. First, several older chemistries are no longer effective for orchard pest insect control. Second consumer demand is driving the use of "softer" chemistry in orchards. Third, although major chemical companies fund significant research at midwest universities, there is almost no investigation of or support for alternative strategies.
Orchardists and beekeepers are smart people. They don't appear to be suicidal. However, I'll bet that without significant public pressure, legislators will be reluctant to turn their backs on chemical industry leaders whose campaign funds are derived from neurotoxin production -- somewhat, my orchard and bee friends might say, like bonding those toxins to DNA.
-James Lindemann` | McFarland, WI | May 21, 2010
