Posted on 05/08/2007 4:25:15 PM PDT by dvan
Albert Einstein once said, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left.” Why? Because without bees, plants don’t get pollinated. Without pollination, say goodbye to fruit, nuts, and some vegetables. We also won’t have natural oils (such as olive oil, sunflower oil, hemp oil, etc.). And we don’t have many natural fibers, such as cotton.
You can see how important the bee is to our livelihood and existence. Some economists say the bee is worth about $14 billion to our economy.
That’s why I was so alarmed to read the latest statistics from the American Beekeeper Federation. According to their latest report, there’s been an unexplained collapse of beehives in the country, with entire colonies being wiped out.
“During the last three months of 2006, we began to receive reports from commercial beekeepers of an alarming number of honey bee colonies dying in the eastern United States,” says Maryann Frazier, apiculture extension associate at Penn State University. While the problem didn’t start last year – it’s been going on for several years – it is getting progressively worse. And it’s not limited to the East Coast any more.
“Since the beginning of the year,” she continued, “beekeepers from all over the country have been reporting unprecedented losses. The losses are staggering: one beekeeper lost 11,000 of his 13,000 colonies; another 700 of 900; another 2,500 of 3,500; another virtually all of his 10,000.” The problem is so large, beekeepers are starting to wonder if their industry can survive.
Frazier calls the die off “Colony Collapse Disorder” or CCD. What could be causing CCD? Dennis van Engelsdorp is acting state apiarist with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. He says, “Preliminary work has identified several likely factors that could be causing or contributing to [the die off]. Among them are mites and associated diseases, some unknown pathogenic disease and pesticide contamination or poisoning.”
In other words, they don’t know what’s killing the bees. There’s an “unknown” killer of honeybees that threatens the nation’s entire food supply. Yes, pesticides, disease, and mites probably play a role. But there’s an underlying cause of CCD that nobody’s willing to talk about. It can lead directly to the death of the bees. Or it can weaken the bees enough that they are more susceptible to the pesticides, disease, and mites. Let me explain.
We’ve see evidence of a die off here in California. We have some very nice, mature peach and plum trees in our backyard. When I first moved to California in 2001, these trees produced wonderful fruit every year.
But something strange began in my third year here. The larger of the two peach trees did not fruit at all. And the plums soon petered out as well. The trees looked healthy, but I was mystified. They had produced awesome displays of blossoms in the spring. “Why didn’t they fruit out?” I wondered.
As I write this, it’s early spring, and the trees are in full bloom. But something’s missing. I’ve gone out for hours each day and the bees that should be prancing in the pollen – just aren’t there! Last year, our mature olive tree produced only one olive, in contrast to buckets of olives two years before. My neighbor also has fruit trees. He told me he’s seeing the same thing. “We should have bees all over our property right now,” he told me. “This year, none.”
Afraid we would lose an entire year of fruit production, I went into the Santa Rosa farmer’s market to ask for some help from a local beekeeper and honey distributor. He said his bees had not suffered nearly as much as everyone else’s.
“What’s the difference?” I asked. He said, “most beekeepers feed their bees a ‘sugar water’ syrup, but I don’t feed mine that.”
Here’s the rub: “Sugar water” nowadays means high fructose corn syrup. And nearly 100% of non-organic corn is genetically modified (GM)!
Most genetically modified corn contains Bt genes. Bt is a pesticide. Its gene is inserted into corn DNA so the corn can produce Bt to kill bugs that eat the corn.
But this couldn’t explain the widespread loss of bees. Not all beekeepers feed their bees. And bees don’t pollinate corn. So all of them aren’t dying from genetically modified corn or corn sweetener.
What about flowering plants they do visit, such as cotton? The Bangkok Post on November 17, 1997 reported some worrisome news. Some 30% of bees in the vicinity of a trial of Bt cotton in Thailand died.
Picking up on this, a leading German zoologist conducted a four-year study on bees picking up pollen from genetically modified rapeseed (aka canola oil). Professor Hans-Hinrich Kaatz then examined the microorganisms in the intestinal tubes of the young bees. He found that when the bee ingested the alien gene, the gene that was in the pollen was transferred to bacteria living inside its gut.
His quote is alarming: “The results indicate that we must assume that changes take place in the intestinal tubes of people and animals. The crossover of microorganisms takes place and people’s make-up in terms of micro-organisms in their intestinal tract is changed. This can therefore have health consequences” (emphasis added).
But it’s not just vague “health consequences.” It can have deadly consequences, as we’re seeing with the bees.
And the problem is only going to get worse. I was talking to a local beekeeper named Glenn, who came over to help my neighbor and us pollinate our trees. Glenn told me of the bitter fight the local beekeepers had with the agribusiness interests over genetically modified organisms (GMO). The Big Agri company Monsanto had bamboozled the farm owners into believing that they couldn’t compete without GMO. The beekeepers told the farmers that their farms might go under if the bees were wiped out. Monsanto still won.
The split was divisive between the sides. The bad blood caused the beekeepers to vacate their business offices that they had previously shared with the farm owners. In a subsequent election, I was shocked when conscientious Sonoma County voted to permit GM crops. We were deluged with mailings from Monsanto interests.
Glenn believes it’s a combination of new things that are weakening the gene pool of the bees. Bees never had experienced pesticides and GM-associated substances before. Feral (wild) bees tend to be very hardy creatures. But we’re now seeing them disappear as well.
Glenn referred me to fellow beekeeper and former Sonoma Beekeeper Association President Kathy Cox. She echoed the same message. Commercial beekeepers use chemicals in their hives. As a result, bees are facing a threat they have never seen before. Kathy told me, “My associate, Scott Nelson reported, ‘In the four county area (Napa, Mendocino, Marin, and Sonoma), Mendocino beekeepers have reported the fewest problems with their hives.’” Mendocino County voted for a GMO ban in 2004. The county actually defeated Monsanto, which spent megabucks to try to defeat the proposition.
Kathy says that bees require a protein-rich diet, as found in pollen. GMO can derange their immune systems with a cascade of proteins they’ve never before encountered. The changes can wreak havoc on their bodies — and the hives.
All I’ve discussed in this issue is the pesticide Bt. But there are other GMO agents in pollen that are foreign to the bees. Any one of them could weaken their immune systems. They could become vulnerable to almost anything, including the mites researchers know are ravaging some hives.
Are we facing a collapse of our food production thanks to the destruction of our friendly pollinators? I can’t tell you for sure that GM crops are killing all of the honey bees. It’s possible there are other factors. But I can tell you the GM crops are a major contributor to the problem. And we just don’t know how widespread it will become. Seeing the problem firsthand and knowing it’s happening around the country has me downright scared.
If it’s half as bad as it sounds, it’s not just our backyard that will be barren. Your supermarket and refrigerator will be barren as well. I predict that GMO will make the Vioxx scandal seem puny. (Merck deliberately allowed tens of thousands to die by Vioxx knowing its harm to the circulation system.)
I believe that GM crops are the greatest threat to our planet that we have ever seen. I fear a calamity of Biblical proportions may be in its early stages. I hope that I am wrong. But I hope you see how important this is.
Years ago, scientists from all over the world urged all governments to suspend all environmental releases of GM crops and to ban patents on organisms, seeds, and cell lines. If you still have doubts of the crisis, please visit the website www.i-sis.org.uk/list.php. Also see www.seedsofdeception.com. You won’t have any more doubts.
I urge you to contact your elected officials and demand an immediate moratorium on planting GM crops until it can be proven that friendly insect populations aren’t disrupted by GMO. Demand that all GM crops be so labeled on store shelves. Please buy organic only. Tell Monsanto how you feel by withholding your dollars from all their products. DO NOT consume any non-organic corn products (chips, tortillas, etc.) or processed items made with corn sweetener (high fructose corn syrup). You could ingest the transforming Bt gene. I eat out less and less. And when I do, I attempt to frequent only organic restaurants.
I also think legislation must be passed holding corporations and their stockholders financially and legally responsible for all damages that result from escape of their “patented” genes. After all, if they can receive the benefit of riches from a patent for their deeds, they should also have the duty to pay the piper when problems come up.
If I were to inadvertently poison you, I would be held criminally responsible. And so should they! If my dog were to escape and bite you, I would be responsible. When their pollen “escapes” and/or “bites” my field or kills my bees, should not their patented gene profits pay for it? If Monsanto stockholders knew that they could be personally responsible for your death when you become a Bt factory, we will suddenly see a newfound consciousness.
I do assure you problems are coming, whether it’s the end of honeybees or a parallel GMO calamity. (I wish Albert Einstein were alive today. I have no doubt he would travel to Washington to warn of the impending calamity, as he did regarding Nazi atomic research.)
Please join me in this fight for our food. Call your Congressman, Senator, and state representatives today! The easiest way to contact your representatives is to visit the websites www.house.gov/writerep/ (for the House) and www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/ senators_cfm.cfm (for the Senate). Both allow you to search (by zip code in the case of the House) for your representatives. They give phone numbers and addresses for both DC and local offices. They have web forms you can fill out and send for easy contact. And you can even schedule an appointment with some. If you don’t have a computer, please borrow a friend’s or visit your local library. The librarian can help you find these web pages. It’s vital you do this today!
Ref: American Beekeeping Federation online, February 2007.
neither am I. As a matter of fact, I ahve noticed a sharp decrease in the number of bees in my gardens over the alst few years.
I have a question for you, how far will bees normally go if left alone?
Like your use of the link to Snopes as proof?? After all, that is just a 'story'. And to believe that every single person that testifies before congress is not telling the truth as you seem to is just immature and also gullible. I guess when members of the NRA testify before congress defending our gun rights, well, we should not believe them either. Or those that testify against abortion. Doing it in front of a congressional subcommittee? No need to listen.
There are others that say the bee population swings up and down. So people report all time bee highs.
This is true. But, using your own logic again, their are 'others saying' this die off is much worse. Your deciding who to believe only by their words. My citrus was full of bees.
With all due respect, that is not proof of anything. No one has said all bees everywhere are dying off. But, this die off seems to be much larger than previous ones. Using your reasoning, there has not been a murder in my little town in over 50 years therefore murder no longer exists.
I never said hoax, I said hysteria.
You implied it by using Snopes as your source to debunk the bee die off. Snopes deals in hoaxes. Oh, and you used a link as your proof, but no one else can?? As you said, links are NEVER proof.
People living in glass houses should not through stones.
You do not know how right you are.
Look SunnyFlorida, this die off is real, it is affecting certain areas of the country and is spreading (now in 27 states), and if it gets worse, it could have serious consequences. If it is just the worst die off in a natural cycle, great. I would rather see that. But to just blow it off as hysteria without researching both sides is, well, hysterical.
There is plenty of detailed, scientific information on the web you can research.........oh wait, you would need to use links. Sorry.
Have a nice day.
Thank you for your question. I believe those first verses in Genesis tell us that.
Gen.1:11 And God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth:" and it was so.
He created this world and our bodies so He knows what is best for us. Perhaps this "mysterious bee disapperance" is a repercussion of not following His instructions.
...Ping
I would agree.
I’m in Montana
They probably are undernourished (if they can’t get good food) but we had natural hives here. By natural, I mean hives in the hollows of trees. They’re gone.
......Ping
Anyone that ever got more than a B in biology knows that plant evolve over time as God designed. Plants change all the time. All current plants on earth are hybrids - ALL.
Anyone that ever got more than a B in biology knows that plant evolve over time as God designed. Plants change all the time. All current plants on earth are hybrids - ALL.
You SEEM TO TRY to read my mind...STOP IT.
I use snopes to question the cred of the story writer. His poor research is not a good sign.
THERE IS NO PROOF THAT THE PERCEIVED “BEE DIE OFF” IS REAL OR NOT A NORMAL RECURRING EVENT.
THERE IS N-O PROOF AND THE WEB PROVES NOTHING, EVER.
Follow the money!!
Then why are you on FR??
I see your just having fun now or are in denial.
Have a nice day.
“Then why are you on FR??”
Good source of news and SOME smart people...not all by any means. Some pretty good humor...some common sense about Rudy...downside = amazing lack of economics and constitutional law (from time to time - i.e. smoker threads) and science.
But FR never PROVES anything. The weird ones are those that have a direct line to GOD. Having faith is one thing but certain knowlegde of what GOD is thinking or thought is just too funny.
” I believe those first verses in Genesis tell us that.”
I 100% support your right to believe that. Hopefully you support my right to NOT believe that is what is intended by Gen. 1:11. They way I look at it is that GOD gave plants the ability to hybridize for a reason, food for one thing.
If you expose a hive to certain phernomes they will begin laying eggs quickly. This would allow a hive to go from a few bees to a population that can quickly pollinate a very large orchard. This also would eliminate the need to move so many bees around. This works in the short term and then the colony collapses. It is not being a good steward of the enviroment to do this to a hive.
What did I say to make you so angry and rude? Did you move to sunny Florida from New York?
I think God placed something within each living thing to allow it to adapt to it's world around it. He did not allow one thing to become another, or I should say, want it to. They stay within their species. You may cross one with another but it will not produce more on it's own.
You'll have to find out on your own I'm afraid as I have no idea what mitochondria is. Also, I'm not giving my "interpretation" - I gave you a scripture I feel is applicable to the discussion. You are welcome to take it or leave it. If you will remember, it was brought up earlier that perhaps one of the reasons of the bee die off could be alteration of the plants.
How would I, in Alabama, maintain a hive within a 100 acre area. That 100 acres has about 20 fruit trees, a 1 acrea vegtable garden and a 60 by 40 foot flower garden and the rest is trees, swamp and meadows.
Honey Bee Die-Off Alarms Beekeepers, Crop Growers, Researchers
An alarming die-off of honey bees has beekeepers fighting for commercial survival and crop growers wondering whether bees will be available to pollinate their crops this spring and summer.
Researchers are scrambling to find answers to what’s causing the affliction– recently named Colony Collapse Disorder — which has decimated commercial beekeeping operations across the country. As more beekeepers in cold wintering locations get into their colonies, the number of states affected is expected to grow.
"During the last three months of 2006, we began to receive reports from commercial beekeepers of an alarming number of honey bee colonies dying in the eastern United States," says Maryann Frazier, apiculture extension associate at Penn State University. "Since the beginning of the year, beekeepers from all over the country have been reporting unprecedented losses.
"This has become a highly significant yet poorly understood problem that threatens the pollination industry and the production of commercial honey in the United States," she says. "Because the number of managed honey bee colonies is less than half of what it was 25 years ago, states such as Pennsylvania can ill afford these heavy losses."
Reports on their losses coming from beekeepers vary widely. Some commercial beekeepers are reporting their losses as about the same as the last several years. Others report losing thousands of colonies: one lost 11,000 of his 13,000 colonies; another 700 of 900; another 2500 of 3500; another virtually all of his 10,000.
A working group of university and federal researchers, state regulatory officials, cooperative extension educators, and industry representatives is working to identify the cause or causes of Colony Collapse Disorder and to develop management strategies and recommendations for beekeepers. Participating organizations include Penn State, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agriculture departments in Pennsylvania and Florida, and Bee Alert Technology Inc., a technology transfer company affiliated with the University of Montana.
"Preliminary work has identified several likely factors that could be causing or contributing to CCD," says Dennis vanEngelsdorp, acting state apiarist with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. "Among them are mites and associated diseases, some unknown pathogenic disease and pesticide contamination or poisoning."
Initial studies of dying colonies revealed a large number of disease organisms present, with no one disease being identified as the culprit, vanEngelsdorp explains. Ongoing case studies and surveys of beekeepers experiencing CCD have found a few common management factors, but no common environmental agents or chemicals have been identified.
The beekeeping industry has been quick to respond to the crisis. The National Honey Board has pledged $13,000 of emergency funding to the CCD working group. Other organizations, such as the Florida State Beekeepers Association, are working with their membership to commit additional funds. The Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees is hosting a workshop to bring together the researchers investigating the malady, other researchers, and affected beekeepers. The American Beekeeping Federation revamped its January Convention program in progress to accommodate a hastily arranged session on the situation.
Frazier says, “Beekeepers overwintering in the north many not know the status of their colonies until they are able to make early spring inspections. This should occur in late February or early March but is dependent on weather conditions. Regardless, there is little doubt that honey bees are going to be in short supply this spring and possibly into the summer."
A detailed, up-to-date report on Colony Collapse Disorder can be found on the Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium Web site at http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/index.html.
Great, we agree that the best we can do is interpret GOD's word (we NEVER know for sure)...my interpretation is that GOD would never be so cruel as to not allow for evolution and be straight up with those that wrote down the Bible. I think he gave man a brain and said, “here is one approach (the seven day thing) and here are some other facts (the fossil record) and just to show you what a kind and loving GOD I am, none of it makes sense...but I gave you a brain to figure it it out...If it was easy to figure out why bother with the brain.” In some way, I think GOD, is the best darn mystery writer ever. Understanding evolution is just discovering the complexity of creation. Denying evolution is denying the creative of GOD.
and with the last post, i’m off the the political threads and NASCAR - until this whole Bee thingee becomes another democrat subsidy program.
C’ya.
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