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Bayer is killing off all the bees

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X

xbhaskarx

Member
3 New Studies Link Bee Decline to Bayer Pesticide
—By Tom Philpott| Thu Mar. 29, 2012

It's springtime, and farmers throughout the Midwest and South are preparing to plant corn—and lots of it. The USDA projects this year's corn crop will cover 94 million acres, the most in 68 years. (By comparison, the state of California occupies a land mass of about 101 million acres.) Nearly all of that immense stand of corn will be planted with seeds treated with neonicotinoid pesticides produced by the German chemical giant Bayer.

And that may be very bad news for honey bees, which remain in a dire state of health, riddled by large annual die-offs that have become known as "colony collapse disorder" (CCD).

In the past months, three separate studies—two of them just out in the prestigious journal Science—have added to a substantial body of literature linking widespread use of neonicotinoids to CCD. The latest research will renew pressure on the EPA to reconsider its registration of Bayer's products. The EPA green-lighted Bayer's products based largely on a study funded by the chemical giant itself—which was later discredited by the EPA's own scientists, as this leaked memo shows.

When seeds are treated with neonics, the pesticides get absorbed by the plant's vascular system and then "expressed" in the pollen and nectar, where they attack the nervous systems of insects. Bayer targeted its treatments at the most prolific US crop—corn—and since the late 1990s, corn farmers have been blanketing millions of acres of farmland with neonic-treated seeds.

And it's not just corn. In addition to the vast corn crop mentioned above, Bayer's neonics have worked their way into substantial portions of the soy, wheat, cotton, sorghum, and peanut seed markets. In 2010, according to research by the Pesticide Action Network of North America, at least 142 million total acres were planted in neonic-treated seeds—a trend that will continue if not increase in the 2012 growing season. That represents a landmass equal to the footprints of California and Washington State.

But even that's not all. As I showed in this January post, Bayer's neonics are also common in home-garden and landscaping products.

The ubiquitous pesticides appear to affect bees in two ways: in big lethal doses that occur at the time of seed planting, when neonic-infused dust wafts around in growing areas; and in tiny doses that happen when bees bring neonic-infused pollen into hives, which don't kill them immediately but appears to damage their immune systems and homing abilities.
Click to expand...

Bees, not beads.
 
K

Kinyou

Member
That would be insane. A fucking pharmacist might be responsible for the end of the world as we know it.


...no, wait, that makes perfectly sense.
 
Z

Zzoram

Member
The EPA green-lighted Bayer's products based largely on a study funded by the chemical giant itself—which was later discredited by the EPA's own scientists, as this leaked memo shows.
Click to expand...

This is the problem. EPA and FDA basically just take a corporations word when it comes to product approvals.
 
I

Ithil

Member
Davros.jpg


That's just what we wanted you to think.
 
N

navanman

Crown Prince of Custom Firmware
Makes perfect sense.
There was an excellent nature documentary on UK BBC last night about honey bees and how they are dying off in country areas but thriving in cities.
None of these treated seeds and contaminated pollen as the honey bees would be foraging in small planted gardens and city parks.
 
E

evil solrac v3.0

Member
sad. we plant enough corn to blanket California to shove corn in any hole we can and kill whatever else stands in our way. it's just not normal nor natural....
 
K

K701

Banned
it's OK. We can use a high fructose corn syrup and sugar based substitute for honey, and two kernels stuck together with a needle for the bees.

Just as good!
 
T

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
The Germans are back in the genocide business?
 
P

Psychotext

Member
My bees seem to have survived the winter OK, thankfully in part I guess because my plot isn't near any heavy duty farming.

Really sucks as a general situation though. :(
 
T

teh_pwn

"Saturated fat causes heart disease as much as Brawndo is what plants crave."
Yet another reason to end corn subsidies. Bad for health, bad for the economy (no bees makes tons of food more expensive to grow).
 
R

Red

Member
I have a honey bee colony in the siding of my house. There were hundreds of them last year and they're coming out again. If I spray them am I part of the problem?
 
I

IAmtheFMan

Member
Shakala said:
Oh boy
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Fun fact time!

- Bayer and 5 other companies merged to make IG Farben in 1925, Bayer being the largest portion of the company.
- IG Farben patented Zyklon B, and was the major shareholder of Degesch that manufactured it.
- Some of their largest facilities used slave labor (particulary at Dwory.)
- After WWII, IG Farben was broken back up to its original companies, Bayer being one of them and existing as it does now.
- The invention of pure aspirin as we know it may have been discovered by a Jew (Arthur Eichengrun) but the official Bayer story is that it was a different (non-Jewish) guy.

... And now they're killing bees.
 
W

Wthermans

Banned
Crunched said:
I have a honey bee colony in the siding of my house. There were hundreds of them last year and they're coming out again. If I spray them am I part of the problem?
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Call someone to remove them. I'm sure you can find some local beekeepers that would love to have another colony. You don't have to kill the bees to take care of the problem (and you're far more likely to solve it by relocating the hive than attempting to destroy it).
 
P

Psychotext

Member
Wthermans said:
Call someone to remove them. I'm sure you can find some local beekeepers that would love to have another colony. You don't have to kill the bees to take care of the problem (and you're far more likely to solve it by relocating the hive than attempting to destroy it).
Click to expand...
Yeah, most beekeepers will happily take a colony away.
 
R

Red

Member
Wthermans said:
Call someone to remove them. I'm sure you can find some local beekeepers that would love to have another colony. You don't have to kill the bees to take care of the problem (and you're far more likely to solve it by relocating the hive than attempting to destroy it).
Click to expand...
Would that require removing a section of siding though? It looks like they've worked their way into the wood. I don't mind that they're there. I have a garden in the back and they've been great for pollinating. My only concern is that they'd chew their way through or cause damage to the house.
 
W

Wthermans

Banned
Crunched said:
Would that require removing a section of siding though? It looks like they've worked their way into the wood. I don't mind that they're there. I have a garden in the back and they've been great for pollinating. My only concern is that they'd chew their way through or cause damage to the house.
Click to expand...

Probably. Shouldn't be that difficult to remove a section and repair it.
 
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