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Proposal to tax California beekeepers stirs up swarm
Sacramento Bee ^ | March 30, 2011

Posted on 03/30/2011 6:47:07 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

FRESNO, Calif. -- A California proposal to tax beekeepers to pay for research on bees' health has stirred up a swarm, even though all agree more study is needed amid a widespread die-off.

The proposal to set up a California Apiary Research Commission with the power to tax comes as bees nationwide are perishing in great numbers from colony collapse disorder and other health problems. California is the nation's main producer of fruits and vegetables, and bees are essential pollinators of about a third of the United States' food supply.

Beekeepers already feel California is not friendly to the industry, Mendes said, because it instituted a 7 percent franchise tax last year, which out-of-state beekeepers must pay on their pollination income.

(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: beekeepers; bees; failure; socialism; taxes
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1 posted on 03/30/2011 6:47:13 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Colony Collapse Disorder Debunked: Pesticides Cause Bee Deaths

"The great mystery of bee deaths has been solved. Colony Collapse Disorder is poisoning with a known insect neurotoxin. Clothianidin, a pesticide manufactured by Bayer, has been clearly linked to die offs in Germany and France."

2 posted on 03/30/2011 6:51:34 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("...crush the bourgeoisie... between the millstones of taxation and inflation." --Vladimir Lenin)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Timeline of a Bee Massacre: EPA Still Allowing Hive-Killing Pesticide

Beekeepers across the U.S. are reporting record low honey crops as their bees fail to make it through the winter. One-third of American agriculture, which relies on bee pollination, is at stake. And the problem may be at least partially attributable to clothianidin, a Bayer-branded pesticide used on corn and other crops.

3 posted on 03/30/2011 6:55:13 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("...crush the bourgeoisie... between the millstones of taxation and inflation." --Vladimir Lenin)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

There may be a die-off in bees, but there is also a die-off of beekeepers.

How many young people do you know becoming beekeepers these days?


4 posted on 03/30/2011 6:59:49 AM PDT by PGR88 (I'm so open-minded my brains fell out)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Got that right.


5 posted on 03/30/2011 7:00:15 AM PDT by Vendome ("Don't take life so seriously... You'll never live through it anyway")
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Actually I think the Feds should consider this tax.
Wouldn’t you just LOVE watching the IRS trying to audit those bees?


6 posted on 03/30/2011 7:03:38 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I always wondered why it was called the Sacramento Bee.


7 posted on 03/30/2011 7:05:32 AM PDT by Second Amendment First ("Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not..." - Thomas Jefferson.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

So the fruits and vegetable industry relies upon bees and therefore beekeepers to be productive and profitable.

Beekeepers are facing financial challenges as many bee colonies are collapsing.

So what does California do? Not only do they increase the amount of tax that beekeepers must pay on their income from working in California, they are now being charged an additional tax to research why they are suffering from their financial challenge of colony collapse.

Yep, that fruits and vegetables industry won’t see additional pollination charges being passed on to them, will they?


8 posted on 03/30/2011 7:06:17 AM PDT by Anitius Severinus Boethius
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Go ahead your STUPID Californians TAX the pollonators. BeeKeepers will just go out of business and YOU will DIE. City People are SO STUPID sometimes.


9 posted on 03/30/2011 7:08:29 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
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To: US Navy Vet

They’re just trying to tax them into prosperity. /sarcasm


10 posted on 03/30/2011 7:16:03 AM PDT by mbynack (Retired USAF SMSgt)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

It would be my assumption that a group of college professors who’s experience with bees relates to spraying them with raid, transferred to a shiny new state bureaucracy for 100K plus a year... Know more about bees than the mere beekeeping peasantry who shall fund them in perpetuity.


11 posted on 03/30/2011 7:16:16 AM PDT by mmercier
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To: US Navy Vet

No Bees, No Almonds you CA morons! Go ahead and shoot your own foot off AGAIN.


12 posted on 03/30/2011 7:18:41 AM PDT by squeegee boy
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

And I wonder if there is any relationship between the bee’s demise and the plants that the bees pollinate that are produced from genetically modified seed?


13 posted on 03/30/2011 7:20:20 AM PDT by TurkeyLurkey
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To: Anitius Severinus Boethius
Ask the farmers who had their water shut off to save a frigging guppy how many bees they need.
14 posted on 03/30/2011 7:20:23 AM PDT by mmercier (slow motion train wreck)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Isn’t health care for bees covered under one of those secret paragraphs in Obamacare? We’ll have to ask Nancy about that.


15 posted on 03/30/2011 7:20:58 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: squeegee boy

Clothianidin it is a neonicotinoid, meaning made from the same bad stuff in cigarettes. It is though to be THE major culprit in second hand contact cancer (despite all the second hand smoke propoganda the government is pushing). Basically you are eating nicotine-treated produce but blaming it on Joe Pack a Day. Typical Government smoke and mirrors.


16 posted on 03/30/2011 7:24:50 AM PDT by squeegee boy
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To: squeegee boy

Clothianidin it is a neonicotinoid, meaning made from the same bad stuff in cigarettes. It is though to be THE major culprit in second hand contact cancer (despite all the second hand smoke propoganda the government is pushing). Basically you are eating nicotine-treated produce but blaming it on Joe Pack a Day. Typical Government smoke and mirrors.


17 posted on 03/30/2011 7:24:56 AM PDT by squeegee boy
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To: squeegee boy

Leaked Memo Shows EPA Doubts About Bee-Killing Pesticide

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/epa-clothianidin-controversy/


18 posted on 03/30/2011 7:28:43 AM PDT by squeegee boy
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To: TurkeyLurkey
Genetic modification is not a factor. The world genetically modifies all biological systems naturally. Humanity is just another character in the ongoing play.

It is highly likely that the biosphere is simply readjusting itself. Not necessarily a good thing for people, but a thing that shall reconcile with or without our consent.

19 posted on 03/30/2011 7:29:06 AM PDT by mmercier (the automatic Earth)
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To: PGR88
Anyone have any idea how much crap I got from my friends when I took up bees in 1980 at the age of 21? It was like I came out of the closet, had a sex change, took dancing lessons, and had knitting orgies with old folks, all at the same time.

It tends to be a very solitary hobby.

20 posted on 03/30/2011 7:39:20 AM PDT by blackdog (The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop)
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