The Buzz on bees

[grassfarmer]

Some developments on the bee front that don't seem
to make it to the mainstream media:

Monsanto's Mon810 corn, genetically engineered to
produce a mutant version of the insecticide Bt, has
been banned in Poland (April 2012) following protests
by beekeepers who showed the corn was killing
honeybees. Poland is the first country to formally
acknowledge the link between Monsanto's genetically
engineered corn and the Colony Collapse Disorder
(CCD) that's been devastating bees around the world.
Many analysts believe that Monsanto has known the
danger their GMOs posed to bees all along.
The biotech giant recently (Nov 2011) purchased a
CCD research firm, Beeologics, that government
agencies, including the US Department of Agriculture,
have been relying on for help unraveling the mystery
behind the disappearance of the bees.

The Monsanto press release "Monsanto is committed
to sustainable agriculture. That’s why they have
chosen to use their time, talents and resources to
contribute positively to honey bee health."

You decide what's going on here.

[kato]

Apparently the seed treatments clothianidin (Poncho) and thiamethoxam (Cruiser) carries into the corn plant as well, and is highly toxic to bees. It gets in the soil, and it gets in the plant, including the pollen.

[wilagro]

Monsanto is concerned about "sustainable profits" as much as agriculture IMHO.

[Orly]

It's becoming a major problem all over North America - we need those like buzzers!

[kato]

Exactly. We never use BT corn. The seed treatment, however, is impossible to avoid. It's literally on pretty much all commercial corn seed. Maybe other crops too? I think the only way to avoid it is to grow open pollinated stuff that's outside the big corporate world. If you can find it.

[grassfarmer]

Probably compounding the problem, even in areas
that don't necessarily grow corn - guess what modern
commercial bee keepers feed their bees instead of
honey? yep, high fructose corn syrup !!

[brian99]

It would be nice if it were that easy. Scientists have been looking for the cause to CCD for years. It is not a simple problem. Bees spend very little time in corn fields, they forage for provisions mainly on alfalfa, clover, and canola. Right now they are all over the dandylions. I'm not a Monsanto supporter, far from it. I think they are all about their own profitibility and any advertising suggesting they care about agriculture is just that.
I'm neighbours with the biggest honey bee pollinator in Canada, and corn is a very large crop here. He has not had that big of a problem with CCD.
Europe is known for reactionary policy and I think this is another chapter in a long book of trade barriers.

[kato]

True enough, but have you ever driven through Iowa? Corn. Soybeans. Nothing else. Is ccd an issue there? I don't know. I wonder if anyone has done a survey of the crops grown around the areas where colony collapse is most prevalent? It doesn't seem to be an issue around here, but then again the crops are rotated more than a lot of places in the U.S.

Anybody doing a Phd in agriculture? It would make a good thesis.

[grassfarmer]

The answer may lie in the "neonic" class of herbicides
according to the research cited in this article.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-
schiffman/the-fox-monsanto-buys-
the_b_1470878.html

[kato]

That's what I've been reading also.

Scary stuff!