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<H2><EM><FONT size=2>From Reuters</FONT></EM></H2>
<H2>Mystery of the disappearing bees: Solved!</H2>
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<DIV class=author>By Richard Schiffman</DIV>
<DIV class=timestamp>April 9, 2012</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV class=headerTopics><A
href="http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/tag/bees">bees</A> | <A
href="http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/tag/environment">environment</A> |
<A href="http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/tag/food-supply">food supply</A>
| <A href="http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/tag/pesticides">pesticides</A>
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<P>If it were a novel, people would criticize the plot for being too far-fetched
– thriving colonies disappear overnight without leaving a trace, the bodies of
the victims are never found. Only in this case, it’s not fiction: It’s what’s
happening to fully a third of commercial beehives, over a million colonies every
year. Seemingly healthy communities fly off never to return. The queen bee and
mother of the hive is abandoned to starve and die.</P>
<P><A
href="http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/files/2012/04/RTR3000M_Comp.jpg"><IMG
style="MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 5px"
class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-12424"
title="A bumble-bee sits on a rhododendron bloom on a sunny spring day in Dortmund"
alt=""
src="http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/files/2012/04/RTR3000M_Comp-300x216.jpg"
width=300 height=216></A>Thousands of scientific sleuths have been on this case
for the last 15 years trying to determine why our honey bees are disappearing in
such alarming numbers. <A
href="http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/10/are-bees-the-ne.html">“This
is the biggest general threat to our food supply,”</A> according to Kevin
Hackett, the national program leader for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
bee and pollination program.</P>
<P>Until recently, the evidence was inconclusive on the cause of the mysterious
“colony collapse disorder” (CCD) that threatens the future of beekeeping
worldwide. But three new studies point an accusing finger at a culprit that many
have suspected all along, <A
href="http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/03/bayer-pesticide-bees-studies">a
class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids</A>.</P>
<P>In the U.S. alone, these pesticides, produced primarily by the German
chemical giant Bayer and known as “neonics” for short, coat a massive 142
million acres of corn, wheat, soy and cotton seeds. They are also a common
ingredient in home gardening products.</P>
<P><SPAN style="TEXT-DECORATION: underline"><A
href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/recent">Research published last
month</A></SPAN> in the prestigious journal <EM>Science</EM> shows that neonics
are absorbed by the plants’ vascular system and contaminate the pollen and
nectar that bees encounter on their rounds. They are a nerve poison that
disorient their insect victims and appear to damage the homing ability of bees,
which may help to account for their mysterious failure to make it back to the
hive.</P>
<P><SPAN style="TEXT-DECORATION: underline"><A
href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22292570">Another study</A></SPAN>
published in the American Chemical Society’s <EM>Environmental Science and
Technology</EM> journal implicated neonic-containing dust released into the air
at planting time with “lethal effects compatible with colony losses phenomena
observed by beekeepers.”</P>
<P>Purdue University entomologists observed bees at infected hives exhibiting
tremors, uncoordinated movement and convulsions, all signs of acute insecticide
poisoning. And <A
href="http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0405-hance_colonycollapse_pesticides.html">yet
another study</A> conducted by scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health
actually re-created colony collapse disorder in several honeybee hives simply by
administering small doses of a popular neonic, imidacloprid.</P>
<P>But scientists believe that exposure to toxic pesticides is only one factor
that has led to the decline of honey bees in recent years. The destruction and
fragmentation of bee habitats, as a result of land development and the spread of
monoculture agriculture, deprives pollinators of their diverse natural food
supply. This has already led to the extinction of a number of wild bee species.
The planting of genetically modified organism (GMO) crops – some of which now
contain toxic insecticides within their genetic structure – may also be
responsible for <A
href="http://non-gmoreport.com/articles/apr07/gm_crops_killing_bees.php">poisoning
bees and weakening their immune systems</A>.</P>
<P>Every spring millions of bee colonies are trucked to the Central Valley of
California and other agricultural areas to replace the wild pollinators, which
have all but disappeared in many parts of the country. These bees are routinely
fed high-fructose corn syrup instead of their own nutritious honey. And in an
effort to boost productivity, the queens are now artificially inseminated, which
has led to a disturbing decline in bee genetic diversity. Bees are also dusted
with chemical poisons to control mites and other pathogens that have flourished
in the overcrowded commercial colonies.</P>
<P>In 1923, Rudolph Steiner, the German founder of biodynamic agriculture, a
precursor of the modern organic movement, predicted that within a hundred years
artificial industrial techniques used to breed honey bees <A
href="http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1032682">would lead to the species’
collapse</A>. His prophecy was right on target!</P>
<P>Honey bees have been likened to the canaries in the coal mine. Their
vanishing is nature’s way of telling us that conditions have deteriorated in the
world around us. Bees won’t survive for long if we don’t change our commercial
breeding practices and remove deadly toxins from their environment. A massive
pollinator die-off would imperil world food supplies and devastate ecosystems
that depend on them. The loss of these creatures might rival climate change in
its impact on life on earth.</P>
<P>Still, this is a disaster that does not need to happen. Germany and France <A
href="http://www.greenrightnow.com/wabc/2008/06/23/germany-and-france-ban-pesticides-linked-to-bee-deaths-geneticist-urges-us-ban-would-save-the-bees/">have
already banned pesticides</A> that have been implicated in the deaths of bees.
There is still time to save the bees by working with nature rather than against
it, according to environmentalist and author Bill McKibben:</P>
<P>“Past a certain point, we can’t make nature conform to our industrial model.
The collapse of beehives is a warning – and the cleverness of a few beekeepers
in figuring out how to work with bees not as masters but as partners offers a
clear-eyed kind of hope for many of our ecological dilemmas.”</P>
<P><EM>PHOTO: A bumblebee sits on a rhododendron bloom on a sunny spring day in
Dortmund, Germany, March 28, 2012. REUTERS/Ina
Fassbender</EM></P></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>