Excerpt: In a civilized society there should be no chemical warfareanywhere, particularly in raising food.
 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Laurel Hopwood <[log in to unmask]>
To: CONS-SPST-BIOTECH-FORUM <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tue, Nov 26, 2013 3:25 pm
Subject: *** Honeybees on the Verge of Extinction



THIS IS THE MOST INCREDIBLE ARTICLE I'VE READABOUT THE HONEYBEE DEMISE.
Laurel Hopwood, Coordinator, Sierra ClubPollinator Protection Campaign
<[log in to unmask]>


*** Help is needed for our lawsuit against the EPA. ***
If you are a Sierra Club member and have visited the DetroitLakes Wetland Management (in MN) or Cypress Creek NWR (in IL) - pleasecontact me at my email above.
 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evaggelos-vallianatos/honeybees-on-the-verge-of_b_4326226.html
Honeybees on the Verge of Extinction
by Evaggelos Vallainatos, professor and author
11/15/2013

In my 25-year experience at the US EPA, nothing illustrated thedeleterious nature of "pesticides" and "regulation"better than the plight of honeybees.

Here is a beneficial insect pollinating a third of America's crops,especially fruits and vegetables, and we thank it with stupefyingkilling.

Poisoning of honeybees became routine in the mid-1970s with the EPA'sapproval of neurotoxins encapsulated in dust-size particles that tookdays to release their deadly gas.

Some of my EPA colleagues denounced such misuse of science and publictrust. They told their bosses those encapsulated neurotoxins wereweapon-like biocides that should have no standing in agriculture andpest management.


Indeed, one of those EPA ecologists discovered the neurotoxicplastic spheres in the honeybee queens' gut.

EPA acted with fury. It forced the scientist out of his laboratory andinto paper pushing in Washington. Approval of the industry'sneurotoxins expanded to cover most major crops. This meant honeybeeshad less and less space to search for food without dying.

The blowback of this almost criminal policy is the massive death ofhoneybees all over the country. Government officials and industryexecutives cooked up an obscure name, "colony collapse disorder,"to cover up the pesticide killers of the honeybees.

Meanwhile, the mission of EPA of protecting public health and theenvironment almost disappeared. I don't mean that EPA acted on its ownout of callousness or indifference for honeybees. No. Industry usedCongress and the White House in perverting EPA, making it alien to itsnoble purpose.

That's why EPA had no trouble in adding more neurotoxins againsthoneybees. It "registered" the German neurotoxins known asneonicotinoids.

Just like in the mid-1970s EPA said yes to known deadly substances forthe convenience of farmers and for the profit of a handful of chemicalcompanies, EPA repeated its misguided policy in the early 2000s. Nowthe neonicotinoids are spreading death to honeybees all over Americaand the world.

I have known about this tragedy for some years, but I always hopedhoneybee keepers and reasonable farmers would minimize the harm. I waswrong.


A few days ago I called up a beekeeper inviting him to anenvironmental conference planned for June 2015. He declined because,he said, there would be no honeybees left in another year ortwo.

I was stunned. I asked him to explain.

"Scientific evidence mounts almost daily confirming thedecades-long observations of beekeepers that pesticides are playing amajor role in the dramatic decline of honeybees and otherpollinators," he said to me.

"Singled out for special condemnation is the neonicotinoid familyof pesticides, systemic neurotoxins which are the companion technologyof genetically modified crops and which have contaminated hundreds ofmillions of acres. Characterized by some as 'The Plutonium ofPesticides,' they are pervasive and pernicious; persistent in theenvironment with half lives of years.

"These products," he continued, "are water soluble andmigrate readily with ground and surface water to be taken up bynon-target plants [weeds, crops] at toxic levels, and if the researchof some [scientists] is accurate, the effects on insects' nervesynapses are cumulative and irreversible, which means that there is nosafe dose, however small.

"Exposure," he concluded, "as low as one tenth of apart per billion can be fatal to honey bees."

A part per billion is like pouring an ounce of chocolate syrup in1,000 tank cars of milk. Yet such miniscule amounts of certainchemicals kill organisms like the honeybee.

The beekeeper, who prefers anonymity, is right on the deadly effectsof neonicotinoids. He was angry and eloquent in describing thepesticide calamity all around him. He remembered the encapsulatedneurotoxins and said he used to find "piles" of deadhoneybees. "But," he said, "my honeybees recoveredthen. Now there's no place for them. I resent taking care of myhoneybees only to discover they disappear or to see themdead."


"I speak to the state and federal elected officials and theypat me on the head and do nothing. As for EPA, only the word"agency" is true in its name," he said.

Talking to this deeply wounded beekeeper, I relived countless memoriesfrom my work. Listening to my colleagues citing data, cases of deadlyresults from allowing farmers to spray their crops with neurotoxicchemicals.
Yes, honeybees are insects. But they give us honey, a divine-likefood. Honeybees are also extremely valuable because they make some ofour food possible. Moreover, they are behind those gorgeouswildflowers.

A world without honeybees would be unpleasant and sterile. Add to thatrising temperatures and you have a nightmare world. Not only such aworld will have less food. It will surely be more toxic for all life,including us.
The tragedy of my beekeeper friend is American tragedy written large.Time has come to say no to the poisoning of our world.


In a civilized society there should be no chemical warfareanywhere, particularly in raising food.
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