Shortly after
50,000 bees were found dead in an Oregon parking lot, a staggering 37 million
bees were found dead in Elmwood, Ontario, Canada. Dave Schuit, who runs a honey
operation in Elmwood has lost 600 hives.
He is pointing the finger at the insecticides known as
neonicotinoids, which are manufactured by Bayer CropScience Inc. This also
comes after a recent report released by the British Beekeepers Association
(BBKA) that recorded its largest loss of honeybees ever. You can read more
about that here. The European
Union has stepped forward, having banned multiple pesticides that have been
linked to killing millions of bees. You can view the studies and read more
about that here.
The
loss comes after the planting of corn. Neonicotinoid pesticides are used to
coat corn seed with air seeders. This results in having the pesticide dust
blown into the air when planted. The death of millions of pollinators was
studied by Purdue University. They discovered that Bees exhibited neurotoxic
symptoms. They analyzed dead bees and found that traces of
thiamethoxam/clothiandin were present in each case. The only major source of
these compounds are seed treatments of field crops.
Bee deaths are increasing exponentially.
An international team of scientists led by Holland’s Utrecht University has
concluded that, “large scale prophylaxic use in agriculture, their high
persistence in soil and water, and their uptake by plants and translocation to
flowers, neonicotinoids put pollinators at risk. This is some of the research
that led to the European Unions ban of the pesticides, as mentioned and
referenced earlier.
Can we really debate this much longer? The
evidence linking pesticides to bee deaths is overwhelming. It’s not only bees,
but an array of other insects as well. The last thing we need is for Monsanto
and other corporations to use another
reason to manufacture and develop fake food! One reason that has been used for
justification of GMO’s is a food shortage, and we all know how critical bees
are to our food supply. There is a huge conflict of interest here, the
pesticides used to spray the crops that are killing the bees are developed by
biotech corporations like Monsanto.
Friends, it is time to make the
connections, time to speak up!
Sources:
(1)
http://extension.entm.purdue.edu/publications/E-53.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment