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    One Third of US Bee Colonies Didn't Survive Winter

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    Post  TRANCOSO Mon May 03, 2010 12:49 pm

    One Third of US Bee Colonies did not Survive the Winter
    02-05-2010

    Fears for crops as shock figures from America show scale of bee catastrophe

    The world may be on the brink of biological disaster after news that a third of US bee colonies did not survive the winter.

    One Third of US Bee Colonies Didn't Survive Winter _40248377_beekeeper203

    Disturbing evidence that honeybees are in terminal decline has emerged from the United States where, for the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies have failed to survive the winter.

    The decline of the country's estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees worldwide have died and scientists are no nearer to knowing what is causing the catastrophic fall in numbers.

    The number of managed honeybee colonies in the US fell by 33.8% last winter, according to the annual survey by the Apiary Inspectors of America and the US government's Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

    The collapse in the global honeybee population is a major threat to crops. It is estimated that a third of everything we eat depends upon honeybee pollination, which means that bees contribute some £26bn to the global economy.

    Potential causes range from parasites, such as the bloodsucking varroa mite, to viral and bacterial infections, pesticides and poor nutrition stemming from intensive farming methods. The disappearance of so many colonies has also been dubbed 'Mary Celeste syndrome' due to the absence of dead bees in many of the empty hives.

    US scientists have found 121 different pesticides in samples of bees, wax and pollen, lending credence to the notion that pesticides are a key problem. "We believe that some subtle interactions between nutrition, pesticide exposure and other stressors are converging to kill colonies," said Jeffery Pettis, of the ARS's bee research laboratory.

    A global review of honeybee deaths by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) reported last week that there was no one single cause, but pointed the finger at the "irresponsible use" of pesticides that may damage bee health and make them more susceptible to diseases. Bernard Vallat, the OIE's director-general, warned: "Bees contribute to global food security, and their extinction would represent a terrible biological disaster."

    Dave Hackenberg of Hackenberg Apiaries, the Pennsylvania-based commercial beekeeper who first raised the alarm about CCD, said that last year had been the worst yet for bee losses, with 62% of his 2,600 hives dying between May 2009 and April 2010. "It's getting worse," he said. "The AIA survey doesn't give you the full picture because it is only measuring losses through the winter. In the summer the bees are exposed to lots of pesticides. Farmers mix them together and no one has any idea what the effects might be."

    Pettis agreed that losses in some commercial operations are running at 50% or greater. "Continued losses of this magnitude are not economically sustainable for commercial beekeepers," he said, adding that a solution may be years away. "Look at Aids, they have billions in research dollars and a causative agent and still no cure. Research takes time and beehives are complex organisms."

    In the UK it is still too early to judge how Britain's estimated 250,000 honeybee colonies have fared during the long winter. Tim Lovett, president of the British Beekeepers' Association, said: "Anecdotally, it is hugely variable. There are reports of some beekeepers losing almost a third of their hives and others losing none." Results from a survey of the association's 15,000 members are expected this month.

    John Chapple, chairman of the London Beekeepers' Association, put losses among his 150 members at between a fifth and a quarter. Eight of his 36 hives across the capital did not survive. "There are still a lot of mysterious disappearances," he said. "We are no nearer to knowing what is causing them."

    Bee farmers in Scotland have reported losses on the American scale for the past three years. Andrew Scarlett, a Perthshire-based bee farmer and honey packer, lost 80% of his 1,200 hives this winter. But he attributed the massive decline to a virulent bacterial infection that quickly spread because of a lack of bee inspectors, coupled with sustained poor weather that prevented honeybees
    from building up sufficient pollen and nectar stores.

    The government's National Bee Unit has always denied the existence of CCD in Britain, despite honeybee losses of 20% during the winter of 2008-09 and close to a third the previous year. It attributes the demise to the varroa mite – which is found in almost every UK hive – and rainy summers that stop bees foraging for food.

    In a hard-hitting report last year, the National Audit Office suggested that amateur beekeepers who failed to spot diseases in bees were a threat to honeybees' survival and called for the National Bee Unit to carry out more inspections and train more beekeepers. Last summer MPs on the influential cross-party public accounts committee called on the government to fund more research into what it called the "alarming" decline of honeybees.

    The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has contributed £2.5m towards a £10m fund for research on pollinators. The public accounts committee has called for a significant proportion of this funding to be "ring-fenced" for honeybees. Decisions on which research projects to back are expected this month.

    WHY BEES MATTER
    Flowering plants require insects for pollination. The most effective is the honeybee, which pollinates 90 commercial crops worldwide. As well as most fruits and vegetables – including apples, oranges, strawberries, onions and carrots – they pollinate nuts, sunflowers and oil-seed rape. Coffee, soya beans, clovers – like alfafa, which is used for cattle feed – and even cotton are all dependent on honeybee pollination to increase yields.

    In the UK alone, honeybee pollination is valued at £200m. Mankind has been managing and transporting bees for centuries to pollinate food and produce honey, nature's natural sweetener and antiseptic. Their extinction would mean not only a colourless, meatless diet of cereals and rice, and cottonless clothes, but a landscape without orchards, allotments and meadows of wildflowers – and the collapse of the food chain that sustains wild birds and animals.

    Source: Guardian.co.uk

    Related article: Bees in more trouble than ever after bad winter
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    Post  Carol Mon May 03, 2010 8:43 pm

    This is tragic and will only continue to become more so.


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    Post  anomalous cowherd Thu May 06, 2010 5:45 am

    I know people who still deny this, or come up with daft excuses saying it isn't as stated, even beekeepers. Denial is a current and difficult trend to uproot.

    I was surprised to see a read out on the till display at a local convenience store displaying a BIG message on the disappearing bees.Wonder what they blame it on?

    You simply can not part people from their mobile phones, even though people know the masts are bad, they just don't /won't want to make the connection. That and the chemtrails. ok, no rant today.

    I love my friendly local bumble bees. Lots of corpses in the house this year and last, and not an apple on my tree last year. Why can't it be slugs?
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    Post  mudra Thu May 06, 2010 8:02 am

    Why are bees disappearing ?










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    Post  mudra Wed Sep 08, 2010 6:53 pm

    Bee decline already having dramatic effect on pollination of plants
    A decline in bees and global warming are having a damaging effect on the pollination of plants, new research claims.

    By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
    06 Sep 2010


    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7980954/Bee-decline-already-having-dramatic-effect-on-pollination-of-plants.html

    Researchers have found that pollination levels of some plants have dropped by up to 50 per cent in the last two decades.
    The "pollination deficit" could see a dramatic reduction in the yield from crops.

    The research, carried out in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, is the first to show that the effect is real and serves as a "warning" to Britain which if anything has seen an even greater decline in bees and pollinators.
    "This serves as a warning to other countries," said Professor James Thomson at the University of Toronto, who carried out the research.

    "For quite some time people have been suggesting that pollinators are in decline and that this could have an effect on pollination.
    "I believe that this is the first real demonstration that pollination levels are getting worse. I believe it is a significant decline. I believe the pollination levels have dropped by as much as 50 per cent.
    "Bee numbers may have declined at our research site, but we suspect that a climate-driven mismatch between the times when flowers open and when bees emerge from hibernation is a more important factor."

    According to a previous study, England's bees are vanishing faster than anywhere else in Europe, with more than half of hives dying out over the last 20 years.
    Butterflies and other insects are also in decline due to habitat loss and climate change.

    The situation is so serious that the government has launched a £10 million project to find out what is causing bees and other insects to disappear.
    It is estimated bees are responsible for one in three mouthfuls of our food, and that insect pollinators contribute £440 million to the British economy through their role in fertilising crops.

    For the latest study, Prof Thomson carried out a 17-year examination of the wild lily in the Rocky Mountains.
    It is one of the longest-term studies of pollination ever done.
    It reveals a progressive decline in pollination over the years, with particularly noteworthy pollination deficits early in the season.
    The study will be published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

    Three times each year, Prof Thomson compared the fruiting rate of unmanipulated flowers to that of flowers that are supplementally pollinated by hand.
    "Early in the year, when bumble bee queens are still hibernating, the fruiting rates are especially low," he says.

    "This is sobering because it suggests that pollination is vulnerable even in a relatively pristine environment that is free of pesticides and human disturbance but still subject to climate change."
    Prof Thomson began his long-term studies in the late 1980s after purchasing a remote plot of land and building a log cabin in the middle of a meadow full of glacier lilies.

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    Post  mudra Thu Sep 16, 2010 7:44 am

    Inbred bumblebees 'face extinction threat'
    By Mark Kinver Science and environment reporter, BBC News


    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11199779

    One Third of US Bee Colonies Didn't Survive Winter _48996889_musc12

    Some of the UK's rarest bumblebees are at risk of becoming extinct as a result of inbreeding, research suggests.

    The lack of genetic diversity is making the bees more vulnerable to a number of threats, including parasitic infection, say scientists in Scotland.

    They warn that some populations of bees are becoming increasingly isolated as a result of habitat loss.

    The findings are being presented at the British Ecological Society's annual meeting at the University of Leeds.

    Lead researcher Penelope Whitehorn, a PhD student from Stirling University, said the study of moss carder bumblebees (Bombus muscorum) on nine Hebridean islands, off the west coast of Scotland, offered an important insight into the possible consequences of inbreeding.

    "The genetic work had already been carried out on these bumblebees, so we knew that the smaller and more isolated populations were more inbred than the larger populations on the mainland," she told BBC News.
    Continue reading the main story
    Related stories

    * Top award for humble bee project
    * Loss of bees a blow to UK economy

    "And as it was an island system, it could work as a proxy for what could occur on the mainland if populations do become isolated from each other as a result of habitat fragmentation."

    The study is believed to be the first of its kind to investigate inbreeding and immunity in wild bees.

    Uncertain future

    Ms Whitehorn found that, although the inbreeding did not seem to affect the bees' immune system directly, it did make the insects more susceptible to parasitic infection.
    Habitat on a Hebridean island (Image: BCT) The ideal habitat on the Hebridean islands offers the resident bee populations a fighting chance

    "We found that isolated island populations of the moss carder bumblebee with lower genetic diversity have an increased prevalence of the gut parasite Crithidia bombi," she explained.

    "Our study suggests that as bumblebee populations lose genetic diversity the impact of parasitism will increase, which may increase the extinction risk of threatened populations."

    She added that the populations of the bees on the islands were "quite healthy because the habitat was so good", but inbreeding did have a range of other consequences, such as the production of infertile males.

    "If inbreeding occurs on mainland Britain, where the habitat is not so good, then species may well be threatened," Ms Whitehorn suggested.

    Other studies of invertebrates have found other costs as a result of inbreeding, such as a loss of general fitness in the species in question.

    Habitat loss is resulting in populations of bees becoming more and more isolated from their neighbours, effectively leaving them as island populations.

    Ms Whitehorn cited the example of the short-haired bumblebee (Bombus subterraneus), which finally became nationally extinct in the late 1980s when a parasitic infection placed increased pressure on the remaining populations, which were already vulnerable as a result of fragmented habitats.

    To date, recent attempts to re-introduce the population back into the UK from New Zealand - where it had been introduced from Britain in the late 19th Century, have not been successful.

    The Bumblebee Conservation Trust said efforts to conserve bumblebees were vital as the creatures played a key role as pollinators, especially when it came to wild flowers and commercial crops.

    The UK currently has 24 species of bumblebee, after seeing two species become nationally extinct in recent decades.

    Of the remaining species, one quarter have been identified as being in need of conservation to prevent them from disappearing from the British landscape.

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    Post  mudra Sun Oct 03, 2010 6:17 am

    Honey Bees & Other Pollinators

    Wealth of datas on this link on Agriculture Defense Coalition site : http://agriculturedefensecoalition.org/?q=honey-bees

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    Post  mudra Fri Oct 22, 2010 6:00 pm

    Will The Disappearance Of Honey Bees Cause Global Starvation

    Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) or sometimes honey bee depopulation syndrome (HBDS)[1] is a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or European honey bee colony abruptly disappear.

    While such disappearances have occurred throughout the history of apiculture, the term colony collapse disorder was first applied to a drastic rise in the number of disappearances of Western honey bee colonies in North America in late 2006.[2] Colony collapse is economically significant because many agricultural crops worldwide are pollinated by bees.

    European beekeepers observed similar phenomena in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain,[3] and initial reports have also come in from Switzerland and Germany, albeit to a lesser degree[4] while the Northern Ireland Assembly received reports of a decline greater than 50%.[5] Possible cases of CCD have also been reported in Taiwan since April 2007.[6]

    The cause or causes of the syndrome are not yet fully understood, although many authorities attribute the problem to biotic factors such as Varroa mites and insect diseases (i.e., pathogens[7] including Nosema apis and Israel acute paralysis virus).[8][9] Other proposed causes include environmental change-related stresses,[10] malnutrition and pesticides (e.g. neonicotinoids such as imidacloprid), and migratory beekeeping. More speculative possibilities have included both cell phone radiation (e.g.[11]) and genetically modified (GM) crops with pest control characteristics,[12][13] though no evidence exists for either assertion. It has also been suggested that it may be due to a combination of many factors and that no single factor is the cause

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmC_PlG2Zqs&feature=related



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    Post  Carol Fri Oct 22, 2010 8:04 pm

    I was just talking to one of the major bee keepers here and he said he has been struggling with the verona mite that has been attacking the bees. I'll probably get my system set up next spring.

    The bees disappearing also may have something to do with the queen in the hive or if she died before a new queen is created.


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    Post  TRANCOSO Wed Nov 24, 2010 4:28 pm

    Terrific article on the symbolism of bees in mythology & history.
    http://www.andrewgough.co.uk/bee1_1.html
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    Post  lindabaker Wed Nov 24, 2010 6:50 pm

    Transcoso, that article was very interesting! Did you see the sentence that there is a bee on the Rosetta Stone? I'm off to see if I can find it. Thank you.
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    Post  TRANCOSO Thu Nov 25, 2010 3:20 am

    lindabaker wrote:Transcoso, that article was very interesting! Did you see the sentence that there is a bee on the Rosetta Stone? I'm off to see if I can find it. Thank you.

    Glad you like the article, Linda.
    Actually I haven't read it at all, but I knew someone here would, that's why I posted it.

    Btw, it's To Bee & not To Be...
    Wink
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    Post  lindabaker Thu Nov 25, 2010 5:55 am

    That is the question. Hamlet. Best play ever written. Sorry to be off track here, folks. I did want to say, however, that there is success in beekeeping on the organic farms near where I live. The farmers have planted acres of organic wildflowers specifically for the bees, and the hives are producing. Perhaps the earth changes will spare these farmlands in the foothills, as we will probably need them more than most people realize. If you can picture Tuscany, that's what it looks like here, except it's way more forested. I'm visualizing the lands that our children will inherit, and I can "see" the results of doing it right...there is no need to spray chemicals. Nature is so intelligent and balances everything out. If humans would just step out of the way for a moment and let the natural intelligence work things out!
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    Post  lawlessline Thu Nov 25, 2010 6:22 am

    Was watching a programme the other night on the BBC and they were stating that the Bees did really well this year. The funny thing in the report was that although the number of bees had gone up, but the majority of Bees had made amazing progress in the cities. They say this we due to the mutlitude of flowers grown in peoples gardens, and the fact that people plant flowers all year round. In the countryside though, with mono culture systems and crop rotation, the bees have to work very hard for short periods of time and then have nothing left till next crop the month later. This is tirering our the bees??????????????

    Obviously have had the pestiside thing. But I will say, that the monsanto dungeons, sorry work laborities, have their own bees on site, especially in the crops where the pestisides are in question. They have not had the same death rates as the rest of Frnace. It was much lower.

    So I asked a bee keeper that I met at a market, local market, nothing fancy. He was talking about the poles and the shifting and weakening of the Magnetic field could have something to do with it???????

    Interesting times.

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    Post  Carol Thu Nov 25, 2010 8:02 am

    I took a bee-keeping course at the beginning of the year and have the full regalia to go out and work with them. This thread reminded me to get a couple of hives which I'll pick up on Saturday sans bees. Hopefully I can get some bees in spring when they swarm. I will add that bee keeping is fun and I like the idea of having them close by. With my apple tree in bloom now and the other fruit trees we have, a hive close by is good. And it will also give us some honey and bees wax for candles.


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    Post  Mercuriel Thu Nov 25, 2010 7:13 pm

    lindabaker wrote:That is the question. Hamlet. Best play ever written.

    "There are more things in Heaven and Earth My Dear Horatio than are dreamt of in Your philosophy..."

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    Post  lindabaker Thu Nov 25, 2010 7:19 pm

    Horatio? "What, ho, Horatio. Alas, I knew him well..." Or something like that... (That's the part where he is holding up the skull that he just pulled out of the soil.) Right? I shouldn't try to quote Shakespeare and I'm too lazy to look it up right now.

    Sorrrrry to be off track, everybody. Mercuriel, you are hilarious!
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    Post  TRANCOSO Mon Dec 20, 2010 1:36 pm

    The Great Honeybee Conspiracy - EPA Complicit in Colony Collapse Disorder?
    By Jimmy Mengel
    Thursday, December 16th, 2010

    The humble honey bee is getting its fair share of buzz this year — which doesn't bode particularly well for the species, or American agriculture as a whole.

    The most recent revelations involve leaked government documents, regulatory malfeasance, and scientific censorship. To mix an insect metaphor, it's quite a tangled web.

    Since 2006, serious decimation of the North American bee population has taken place. Termed “colony collapse disorder,” millions of worker bees have mysteriously disappeared from their colonies, largely confounding the scientific community.

    Blame has volleyed from viruses to fungi to cell phone radiation.

    But a suspect has emerged as enemy number one: Bayer's pesticide clothianidin.

    Clothianidin is widely used on America's corn crops in addition to other ubiquitous crops like canola, soy, and sugar beets.

    Leaked EPA documents have detailed the regulatory agency's allowance of clothianidin to maneuver its way through regulatory channels in the face of scientists' warning and flawed studies. honeybee

    According to these documents provided to beekeeper Tom Theobald, the EPA was aware of the pesticide's dangers way back in 2003; but the EPA granted Bayer a "conditional" approval that allowed them to start using the pesticide.

    This conditional approval was contingent on a field study of the pesticide to be carried out in the future. When that study was finally undertaken, many scientists agreed that it was flawed and quite stacked in Bayer's favor.

    Here's the EPA's timeline, courtesy of the Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA).*

    *The italicized portions are from the EPA memos:

    February 2003: EPA calls for life cycle study prior to registration & for strong labeling language.

    Considering the toxicity profile and reported incidents of other neonicotinoids, the proposed seed treatment with clothianidin has the potential for toxic risk to honey bees, as well as other pollinators. As a result of this concern, EFED is asking for additional chronic testing on bee hive activity...

    There doesn't seem to be any confusion there; the EPA's scientists had specific toxicity concerns and requested a study to address them.

    But just a few months later, they had a change of heart...

    April 2003: EPA allows “conditional registration” contingent upon the field study.

    Ok, so instead of waiting to see whether the study demonstrated the toxic effects that EPA scientists were worried about, they gave Bayer a conditional approval to go ahead and start selling the pesticide to farmers — who were then free to use it despite the safety concerns.

    But the agency did suggest Bayer include the following warning label:

    This compound is toxic to honey bees. The persistence of residues and the expression of clothianidin in nectar and pollen suggests the possibility of chronic toxic risk to honey bee larvae and the eventual stability of the hive.

    A warning label?

    Somehow I don't think the bees get a chance to read that label before slurping poisonous nectar from the corn fields...

    In any case, the EPA still requests the field study be completed.

    March 2004: Bayer gets an extension, EPA agrees to study design changes.

    The EPA grants the extension so Bayer can finally conduct the study, though Bayer requests a few key changes:

    * The study will be done in Canada, not the United States; and
    * The study will focus on canola, not the corn EPA scientists had initially demanded.

    These changes are what really damage the study's credibility among critics. Because according to Grist, there are three major issues here:

    1. Corn produces much more pollen than does canola;
    2. Its pollen is more attractive to honey bees; and
    3. Canola is a minor crop in the United States, while corn is the single most widely planted crop.

    Add to that the fact that the study's control fields were only 250 meters from the pesticide field — making it likely that bees foraged on both fields, skewing data.

    November 2007: EPA finally reviews the field study, finds it “acceptable.”

    The EPA had indeed found Bayer's flawed study acceptable and went so far as to call it "scientifically sound"; but oddly enough, the organization did not release the study for public scrutiny...

    Only after the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a Freedom of Information Act request — and eventually sued — was it made publicly available.

    Despite the aforementioned problems with the study, the EPA decided to promote clothianidin from conditional to full approval. That distinction prompted Bayer to seek approval for clothianidin's use on both cotton and mustard.

    It was during this attempt that EPA's Environmental Fate and Effects Division voiced concerns about the field study in the memo that was made available to beekeeper Theobald. Here's a piece of what they had to say:

    Clothianidin’s major risk concern is to nontarget insects (that is, honey bees). Acute toxicity studies to honey bees show that clothianidin is highly toxic on both a contact and an oral basis.

    Information from standard tests and field studies, as well as incident reports involving other neonicotinoids insecticides suggest the potential for long term toxic risk to honey bees and other beneficial insects.

    The memo goes on to cite the problems with the Bayer study, which brings us up to date.

    November 2010: EPA downgrades the field study upon which the conditional registration was granted from “acceptable” to “supplemental”; a new study is needed.

    So now that the EPA recognizes the need for a new study, they'll be revoking the original approval and stopping clothianidin use, right?

    Fat chance. The EPA has said clothianidin will indeed keep its approval rating and continue to blanket corn crops all across the U.S. this spring.

    And there's little wonder why. The pesticide is a cash cow.

    Bayer raked in over $250 million from it last year alone. The EPA is helping them maintain that profit margin despite the risks.

    Considering bees are absolutely crucial to our agriculture, allowing Bayer to continue selling clothianidin in the face of these warnings is simply irresponsible.

    France, Italy and Germany have all banned its use. It's time we do the same.

    "This is the critical winter for the beekeeping industry. I don't think we can survive," Theobald said in a recent interview.

    He also noted the honey crop this year is the smallest he's ever seen...

    "If the beekeeping industry collapses, it jeopardizes a third of American agriculture."

    And that would sting more than just the beekeepers.

    SOURCE: http://www.greenchipstocks.com/articles/the-great-honeybee-conspiracy/1196
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    Post  TRANCOSO Thu Jan 13, 2011 11:18 pm

    Beekeepers Fume at Association's Endorsement of Fatal Insecticides
    by Michael McCarthy
    Global Research, January 13, 2011
    The Independent

    Britain's beekeepers are at war over their association's endorsement for money of four insecticides, all of them fatal to bees, made by major chemical companies.

    The British Beekeepers' Association has been selling its logo to four European pesticide producers and is believed to have received about £175,000 in return.

    The active ingredient chemicals in the four pesticides the beekeepers endorsed are synthetic pyrethroids, which are among the most powerful of modern insect-killers.

    Michael McCarthy: BBKA oligarchy has buried the truth in its cosy relationship with the pesticide lobby. The deal was struck in secret by the beekeepers' association executive without the knowledge of the overwhelming majority of its members. After news of the deal emerged, some members expressed outrage and others resigned.

    The beekeepers have now said they will end their pesticide endorsements – but have left the door open to future deals with agrochemical companies.

    The battling beekeepers will have a showdown this weekend at the National Beekeeping Centre at Stoneleigh in Warwickshire.

    An open letter signed by prominent figures in the world of the environment and agriculture condemns the British Beekeepers' Association for its commercial relationship with the German chemicals giants Bayer and BASF, the Swiss-based Syngenta and the Belgian firm Belchim – and demands that it permanently sever commercial links with agrochemical companies.

    "A charity that claims to have the interests of bees and beekeeping at heart should never put itself in a position where it is under the influence of corporations whose purpose is to sell insecticides which are able to kill bees," said Philip Chandler, a Devon beekeeper and one of the organisers of the open letter, which has been signed by the botanist David Bellamy, the author and television wildlife presenter Chris Packham and Lord Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association, the organic farming body. "It is the equivalent of a cancer research charity being controlled by a tobacco company," Mr Chandler added.

    The beekeepers' executive, which effectively controls all the association's affairs, has thus far fended off attempts by its membership at getting the policy reversed.

    The beekeepers' association's deal with the chemical companies had been running since 2001, and it received £17,500 a year for endorsing four pesticides: Bayer's Decis, BASF's Contest (also known as Fastac), Syngenta's Hallmark and Belchim's Fury.

    The British Beekeepers' Association referred to the pesticides on several occasions in the newsletter BBKA News as "bee friendly" or "bee safe". Yet a 2003 study in the Bulletin of Insectology on modelling the acute toxicity of pesticides to honey bees found that cypermethrin, the active ingredient of Fury and Contest, and deltamethrin, the active ingredient of Decis, were in the top four most toxic to bees of all the 100 substances evaluated. Cypermethrin was second most toxic, and deltamethrin was fourth. (The active ingredient of Hallmark, lambda-cyhalothrin, was not included in the test.) Other studies confirm these conclusions.

    Protests have mounted as the revelations came out. Such has been the anger of grass-roots beekeepers that the executive announced a strategic review of its links with "the plant protection industry", which concluded that endorsement and "related product specific payments" would cease "as soon as practically possible".

    Yesterday the British Beekeepers' Association president, Martin Smith, confirmed the pesticide endorsements had finished, although he said there might still be some pesticide packaging in circulation bearing the BBKA logo. "We would expect that to be withdrawn within three months," he said.

    Mr Smith said that the deals had been originally done as a means of developing good practice in relation to bees with the pesticides when they had been introduced, but that this aim had been achieved – so they were no longer necessary.

    His announcement left the door open to future deals by insisting that "the trustees do not preclude accepting funds in the future from either the crop protection industry... or individual companies". Some beekeepers feel this is insufficient and want all links to be broken.

    At this weekend's meeting a motion put down by the Twickenham and Thames Valley Beekeeping Association stipulates that "the BBKA cease any commercial relationships with agrochemical or associated companies, including all endorsement of pesticides".

    One of the drafters of the motion, Kate Canning, said last night: "They're leaving the door open for future agro-chemical relationships. Our bees deserve better than this. It's time for a clean, green break."

    The beekeepers executive is trying to head off the move by inserting its own motion ahead of the Twickenham and Thames Valley one, which asks delegates to support them in the way in which it "should manage its intellectual property". It goes on: "This includes the use of its logo and maximises the benefits which can be gained from these assets and its reputation."

    Mr Smith said the logo would not be used on pesticides in the future.

    SOURCE: http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=22769
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    Post  TRANCOSO Sun Jan 23, 2011 8:06 am

    Top USDA bee researcher also found Bayer pesticide harmful to honeybees
    by Tom Philpott
    21 Jan 2011

    Remember the case of the leaked document showing that the EPA’s own scientists are concerned about a pesticide it approved that might harm fragile honeybee populations?

    Well, it turns that the EPA isn’t the only government agency whose researchers are worried about neonicotinoid pesticides. USDA researchers also have good evidence that these nicotine-derived chemicals, marketed by German agrichemical giant Bayer, could be playing a part in Colony Collapse Disorder — the mysterious massive honeybee die-offs that United States and Europe have been experiencing in recent years. So why on earth are they still in use on million of acres of American farmland?

    Independent film blockbuster
    According to a report by Mike McCarthy, environment editor of the U.K.-based Independent, the lead researcher at the USDA’s very own Bee Research Laboratory completed research two years ago suggesting that even extremely low levels of exposure to neonicotinoids makes bees more vulnerable to harm from common pathogens.

    For reasons not specified in the Independent article, the USDA’s Jeffrey Pettis has so far not published his research. “[It] was completed almost two years ago but it has been too long in getting out,” he told the newspaper. “I have submitted my manuscript to a new journal but cannot give a publication date or share more of this with you at this time.” (I was not able to speak to Pettis for this post as he is in meetings all day today; but he’s agreed to an interview Monday.)

    Pettis’s study focused on imidacloprid, which like clothianidin is a neonicotinoid pesticide marketed by Bayer as a seed treatment. The findings are pretty damning for these nicotine-derived pesticides, according to McCarthy. He summarizes the study like this: 'The American study ... has demonstrated that the insects’ vulnerability to infection is increased by the presence of imidacloprid, even at the most microscopic doses. Dr. Pettis and his team found that increased disease infection happened even when the levels of the insecticide were so tiny that they could not subsequently be detected in the bees, although the researchers knew that they had been dosed with it.'

    To my knowledge, Pettis hasn’t spoken to U.S. journalists about his unpublished neonicotinoid research. But he did appear in a 2010 documentary called The Strange Disappearance of the Honeybees by U.S. filmmaker Mike Daniels, which has been screened widely in Europe but not yet in the United States, McCarthy reports. Pettis’ remarks in the film are what alerted the European press to his findings on neonicotinoids.

    I have not been able to view the film, but I have obtained a copy of the transcript [PDF] of the portion in which Pettis appears. The filmmaker caught up with Pettis at an international conference of bee scientists known as Apimondia in Montpellier, France, in September 2009. Apparently attendees had been buzzing (sorry) about research by Pettis showing that low levels of neonicotinoid pesticide interacted with common pathogens in a damaging way for bees. Pettis and his research collaborator, Penn State University entomologist Dennis Van Engelsdorp, spoke frankly about their findings for the film.

    In the transcript, Pettis says he and his research team exposed two sets of honey bees to Nosema, a fungal pathogen toxic to honey bees. One set was also exposed to a neonicotinoid pesticide; the other not. “And we saw an increase, even if we fed the pesticide at very low levels — an increase in Nosema levels — in direct response to the low level feeding of neonicotinoids, as compared with the ones which were fed normal protein,” Pettis says in the film, according to the transcript.

    Van Engelsdorp stressed that the changes occurred even at levels of neonicotinoid exposure “below the limit of detection.” He adds:“The only reason we knew the bees had exposure [to neonicotinoid pesticides] is because we exposed them.”

    Neonicotinoid patch
    This is potentially game-changing research for understanding Colony Collapse Disorder. Scientists have been focusing on the interaction between the Nosema fungus and a virus called Iridoviridae as the culprit. Pettis’ research seems to suggest that neonicotinoids play a role, too — and at levels so low that researchers may be overlooking them.

    So, let’s get this straight. The chief scientist at the top U.S. government bee-science institute completed research two years ago implicating a widely used, EPA-approved pesticide in what can plausibly be called an ecological catastrophe — the possible extinction of honeybees, which pollinate a huge portion of U.S. crops. Why are we just now hearing about this — and why are we only hearing about it through an obscure documentary filtered through a British newspaper?

    I’ll be digging into these questions next week.

    In the meantime, consider this. As I wrote in my December piece on this topic, Bayer’s neonicotinoid pesticides are taken up by millions of acres of corn plants every year and expressed in pollen fed on by countless honeybees. It’s time for the EPA and USDA to be absolutely open about their scientists’ concerns about these poisons — open about it, and willing to act on it.

    SOURCE: http://www.grist.org/article/2011-01-21-top-USDA-bee-researcher-also-found-Bayer-pesticide-harmful
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    Post  Carol Sun Jan 23, 2011 10:21 am

    TRANCOSO, unfortunately some people are completely insane and seem to think their behavior by allowing a product that kiils bees won't affect them as long as they get their money from selling lethal pesticides and can go somewhere else. The globe is shrinking and somewhere else is here, everywhere. Being responsible, taking personal responsibility as a steward to the planet is a gigantic mental and emotional leap for many.


    _________________
    What is life?
    It is the flash of a firefly in the night, the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

    With deepest respect ~ Aloha & Mahalo, Carol
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    Post  Simplicity Sat Apr 28, 2012 6:05 pm

    This is old news, last September. I did a search but I didn't see it posted, so . . . .

    Monsanto buys leading bee research firm after being implicated in bee colony collapse


    Thursday, April 26, 2012 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer


    Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035688_Monsanto_honey_bees_colony_collapse.html#ixzz1tNZm9yc0


    Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035688_Monsanto_honey_bees_colony_collapse.html#ixzz1tNYabZfa

    (NaturalNews) Amid all the controversy over genetically-modified (GM)
    crops and their pesticides and herbicides decimating bee populations all
    around the world, biotechnology behemoth Monsanto has decided to buy
    out one of the major international firms devoted to studying and
    protecting bees. According to a company announcement, Beeologics handed
    over the reins to Monsanto back on September 28, 2011, which means the
    gene-manipulating giant will now be able to control the flow of
    information and products coming from Beeologics for colony collapse
    disorder (CCD).

    Since 2007, Beeologics has been studying CCD, as
    well as Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV), for the purpose of coming
    up with intervention-based ways to mitigate these conditions. And based
    on the way the company describes both CCD and IAPV on its website,
    Beeologics has largely taken the approach that intervention, rather than
    prevention, is the key to solving the global bee crisis.

    Now
    that Beeologics is owned and controlled by Monsanto, the company is sure
    to completely avoid dealing with the true causes of CCD and IAPV as
    they pertain to Monsanto's crop technologies -- GMOs and their chemical
    counterparts. So going into the future, it seems expected that
    Beeologics will come up with "scientific breakthroughs" that deny any
    link between CCD and GMO technologies, and instead blame mystery
    pathogens and other factors that require more chemicals to eliminate.

    Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035688_Monsanto_honey_bees_colony_collapse.html#ixzz1tNYsjVbj

    Verification:

    http://www.beeologics.com/breaking_news.asp

    Monsanto Acquires Targeted-Pest Control Technology Start-Up


    Sep 28, 2011
    7:00am

    ST. LOUIS, Sept. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Monsanto Company
    (NYSE: MON) today announced it has acquired Beeologics, which researches
    and develops biological tools to provide targeted control of pests and
    diseases. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

    Beeologics is focused on biological research. Current
    projects in its pipeline – including a product candidate being developed
    to help protect bee health – use a naturally-occurring process to
    provide targeted pest and disease control.

    (more . . . . ) http://www.beeologics.com/breaking_news.asp



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    Post  mudra Sat Apr 28, 2012 6:11 pm


    Thank You Simplicity .
    I meant to post this but could'nt find Trancoso's thread at the time.
    But You did Cheerful

    Love for You
    mudra

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    Post  Simplicity Sat Apr 28, 2012 10:46 pm

    You're welcome Mudra. I love you

    How could they just sell out like that, knowing what they do?

    I suppose maybe they really didn't have a choice
    One Third of US Bee Colonies Didn't Survive Winter 808451
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    Post  mudra Sat Jun 30, 2012 12:14 pm

    Vanishing of the Bees

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SxyecHWDAs


    Filming across the US, in Europe, Australia and Asia, this documentary examines the alarming disappearance of honeybees and the greater meaning it holds about the relationship between mankind and mother earth. As scientists puzzle over the cause, organic beekeepers indicate alternative reasons for this tragic loss. Conflicting options abound and after years of research, a definitive answer has not been found to this harrowing mystery.

    Love Always
    mudra

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