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Wik-Bee Leaks: EPA Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Honey Bees
- JanezStupar 16y agoThere is corporate "ethos" and "greed is good" etc... But what I find disturbing is that these wankers (corporate and government) are stupid/greedy enough to fuck over honeybees. The same honeybees that are providing us with 1 in 3 meals every single friggin day! Maybe big-pharma is confident that it can feed the humanity - but I see it as an incredibly shortsighted strategy that WILL cause us our lives - before global warming or nukes - since we're apparently trying extremely hard to exterminate the little critters.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- InclinedPlane 16y ago"The same honeybees that are providing us with 1 in 3 meals every single friggin day!" citation needed
- JanezStupar 16y agoCitation: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1702377/figure/fig2/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1702377/figure/f... In old days every farmer in our village had a beehive - the honey and pollination services were both much appreciated. My father has always taught me that killing a bee is a horrible crime.
- stellar678 16y agoForget old days - in modern days there are entire businesses dedicated to renting out and delivering mass quantities of beehives to pollinate fields for farmers.
- JanezStupar 16y agoThe technology and industry has changed indeed. I wanted to emphasize how man used to treat bee as a companion - nowadays however we seem to disregard its share in getting us to where we are. We used to fight to keep them alive.
- InclinedPlane 16y agoThis describes the important of pollinators, but honey bees are not the only pollinators. I don't see enough evidence supporting the case that honey bees exclusively are responsible for pollinating 1/3 of all food, nor that the absence of honey bees would reduce food production by the same amount (which seem to be the positions you have put forth). Can you support those claims?
- JanezStupar 16y agoCan you support a contra position? That bees are not significant pollinators? Please do not forget other Apidae family members - they probably don't benefit from pesticides either. Oh... Another reference: http://www.pnas.org/content/99/26/16812.full http://www.pnas.org/content/99/26/16812.full - you can check references [6,7] yourself. Edit: I apologize - since I did limit my rant to honeybees initially.
- jcromartie 16y agoHoneybees are not native to the US. It would be odd to rely on a non-native species for our food supply.
- WiseWeasel 16y agoTo be clear, there were bees in North America before the European Honeybee was introduced, and they did the pollinating and still do today to a small extent, but the European variety is simply more productive and domesticated. That's not to say that native bee species still around are anymore resistant to this systemic pesticide. You're splitting hairs here.
- JanezStupar 16y agoNot everybody here is from US :) My ancestors managed to create arguably the best bee btw :) [http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Apis_mellifera_carnica http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Apis_mellifera_carnica]
- btilly 16y ago
- alecco 16y agoI don't understand how politicians are allowed to campaign with corporate money.
- nitrogen 16y agoCitizens United v. Federal Election Commission http://www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/2010/01/court_ruling_on_citizens_unite.html http://www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/2010/01/court_rulin...
- alecco 16y agoMy condolences.
- lotusleaf1987 16y agobecause the SCOTUS believes money = free speech.
- sp332 16y ago(I know this is naive, but) Corporations are made of people. All that money belongs to someone. So if those people decide to give that money to politicians, why does that make problems?
- kbutler 16y agoCorporations are not "made of people". Legally, corporations have individual free speech rights like people (in the U.S.). People individually deciding to give money to politicians is different from the corporation giving money to politicians, but both acts are considered free speech in the U.S. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Elec... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood kb
- alecco 16y agoIn general, publicly traded corporations are run by people aiming to get bonuses by maximizing shareholder value. Those shareholders could be very indirect, in particular for pension funds. With this level of abstraction, the final shareholders usually are not (or don't want to be) aware of things done in their name. The situation makes it very easy to look the other way. IMHO, Adam Smith would be disgusted about this.
- Alex3917 16y agoConsidering the EPA's past lies about the air quality at ground zero, the mercury levels in fresh water fish, etc., let's just say that if you believe anything they say then I've got a boat load of perfectly safe shrimp from the gulf to sell you.
- jonprins 16y agoNot to mention their stance on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing .
- qeorge 16y agoRelated? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1774592 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1774592 The timing seems incredible.
- maukdaddy 16y agoFYI the ORIGINAL Grist article much better and full of detail: http://www.grist.org/article/food-2010-12-10-leaked-documents-show-epa-allowed-bee-toxic-pesticide- http://www.grist.org/article/food-2010-12-10-leaked-document...
- BrandonM 16y agoIs there any reason these beekeepers can't sue Bayer and the EPA for the side effects of the pesticides? Couldn't such a suit call for an injunction preventing its use pending the results of the lawsuit?
- DrHankPym 16y agoMy only guess is that the evidence provided was not legally obtained.
- extension 16y agoThey did sue Bayer in 2003, though for a different drug. The suit was thrown out by a judge in 2008. Info in this article: http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/08/news/honey_bees_ny_times.fortune/index.htm http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/08/news/honey_bees_ny_times.for... Bayer gets sued all the time and they are probably pretty good at working the legal system.
- julian37 16y agoThis article has additional history: http://www.thenhf.com/article.php?id=598 http://www.thenhf.com/article.php?id=598
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- pigbucket 16y agoThe story appears to be misleading (and to a lesser degree so does the original article). "The document, which was leaked to a Colorado beekeeper, shows that the EPA has ignored warnings about the use of clothianidin, a pesticide produced by Bayer that mainly is used to pre-treat corn seeds. The pesticide scooped up $262 million in sales in 2009 by farmers, who also use the substance on canola, soy, sugar beets, sunflowers, and wheat, according to Grist." The document is dated November 2nd, 2010, and relates to an application by Bayer to use clothianidin on mustard and cotton seeds. So it wasn't something that the EPA ignored before the pesticides use in the past few years. The document also implies that clothianidin could be safe if used properly. It only recommends a label warning: "EFED expects adverse effects to bees if clothianidin is allowed to drift from seed planting equipment. Because of this and the uncertainty surrounding the exposure and potential toxicity through contaminated pollen and nectar, EFED is recommending bee precautionary labeling." That said, it's not as if the EPA did not know about the threat to honeybees long before the writing of this report. In 2008, Bayer compensated beekeepers in Germany for losses related to the use of the pesticide. Bayer's position is that the pesticide is safe to bees if used properly, and that it's the only way to contain the corn rootworm which causes 1 billion USD worth of damage in North America and 1/2 billion euro worth in Europe. It seems to me that if the EPA is not going to ban clothianidin, then there needs to be aggressive enforcement of appropriate application methods, and a suspension of the pesticides use until that is possible.
- byteclub 16y agoThat's ok, we'll just replace honey with high-fructose corn syrup - problem solved!