A Last (Chemical) Gasp for Bees?

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:



A Last (Chemical) Gasp for Bees?
Colony collapse disorder threatens food crops valued at $15 billion a year. New research says farm chemicals put our food system at risk.

by Shannan Stoll
posted May 24, 2012


Newly published scientific evidence is bolstering calls for greater regulation of some of the world’s most widely used pesticides and genetically modified crops.

Earlier this year, three independent studies linked agricultural insecticides to colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon that leads honeybees to abandon their hives.

Beekeepers have reported alarming losses in their hives over the last six years. The USDA reports the loss in the United States was about 30 percent in the winter of 2010-2011.

Bees are crucial pollinators in the ecosystem. Their loss also impacts the estimated $15 billion worth of fruit and vegetable crops that are pollinated by bees in the United States. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/making-it-home/bee-decline-blamed-on-pesticides

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Too bad Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" was ignored many years ago.

Turns out she was very prescient.

[chervilant]

3. Silent Spring

is the reason I chose to remain childless (I felt we were already on the fast track to over-population even then), and to become a life-long activist.

In my 40+ years of activism, I feel like I've most often been spitting in the wind. My family has routinely denigrated my activism, and I've seldom felt that I've made a difference, since the Corporate Megalomaniacs have uniformly scotched any efforts to step off our hedonistic path of self-destruction. Still, my respect for this planet is undiminished, and I watch with no small measure of astonishment as we hurtle toward our species' almost certain obliteration.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. My 2 sons have also chosen to be childless, for the same reason.

A remarkable decision made independent of each other.

I support their their choices,
and I applaud your drive to be true to yourself.

[stuntcat]

2. k

:kick:

[Doremus]

4. No prob! Monsanto will just whip us up some self-pollinating crops.

We can always depend on oligarchs and their companies to take care of us.

[chervilant]

5. Just FYI,

I'm relocated to the Ozarks, and can count on ONE HAND the number of honeybees I've seen thus far. The friend I'm living with has a peach tree and a pear tree in her yard. Typically, honeybees would be abundant around these trees, but we've not seen any.

I remember from my childhood watching a distant neighbor stride purposefully out of the woods south of our farmhouse. My father admonished us to let him alone, as he was following a honeybee in order to harvest some honey from a wild hive. I still think that was an amazing way to put honey on the table. I reckon that's a thing of the past...