When French Beekeepers first saw evidence of insecticide poisoning immediately after the release of neonicotinoid insecticides in the 1990’s (what we now call CCD in the US), rumor has it that the beekeepers took their empty hives to Bayer Crop Science headquarters in Lyon, threw them over the locked gate, and set them on fire (I was unable to quickly find news supporting this online, but was told the story by a friend from France).
This got the attention of France’s environmental minister and the neonicotinoid class of pesticides are now on track to be permanently banned in France by 2018, thanks in part to their more sensible precautionary based risk assessment system which contrasts the US EPA’s ‘wait and see’ approach (http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/vogel/uk%20oct.pdf).
This isn’t rocket science, “Pesticides” are created to kill insects. How would the health of pollinators in the U. S. look at this point if American beekeepers were as outspoken and pro-active about their livestock as our counterparts in France?
The links below are more ‘popular press’ light reading, most with references. For some more scientific data, search around on scholar.google.com. We also have a smattering of scientific papers listed on the ‘bee‘ page of this site.
It’s time to stop the madness.
- POPULAR INSECTICIDE REDUCES QUEEN BEES’ ABILITY TO LAY EGGS, STUDY FINDS
http://e360.yale.edu/digest/insecticide_neonicotinoids_queen_bee_eggs/4801/ - Researchers confirm that neonicotinoid insecticides impair bee’s brains
http://phys.org/news/2015-02-neonicotinoid-insecticides-impair-bee-brains.html - BANNED IN EUROPE, SAFE IN THE US
http://ensia.com/features/banned-in-europe-safe-in-the-u-s/ - France Approves Plan To Ban Bee-Harming Neonicotinoid Pesticides
http://naturalsociety.com/france-approves-plan-ban-bee-harming-neonicotinoid-pesticides-70527/ - Neonicotinoid Pesticides & Bee Colonies
http://www.compoundchem.com/2015/04/14/neonicotinoids/ - Maryland’s honeybees are being massacred, and the weapon might be in your house
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/03/24/marylands-honeybees-are-being-massacred-and-the-weapon-might-be-in-your-house/ - What a scientist didn’t tell the New York Times about his study on bee deaths
http://archive.fortune.com/2010/10/08/news/honey_bees_ny_times.fortune/index.htm - FDA Finds Monsanto’s Weed Killer In U.S. Honey
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carey-gillam/fda-finds-monsantos-weed_b_12008680.html - Shedding Light on Three Big Lies About Systemic Pesticides and Bees
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/28797-shedding-light-on-three-big-lies-about-systemic-pesticides-and-bees - The EPA Finally Admitted That the World’s Most Popular Pesticide Kills Bees—20 Years Too Late
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2016/01/epa-finds-major-pesticide-toxic-bees - Carcinogenicity of tetrachlorvinphos, parathion, malathion, diazinon, and glyphosate
http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVolume112.pdf - Scientific American article on glphosate carcinogenicity
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/widely-used-herbicide-linked-to-cancer/
