Showing posts with label death of honey bees. Show all posts
Showing posts with label death of honey bees. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Monsanto Genetically Engineering Bees

After being blamed by massive amounts of bee keepers for the Honey Bee collapse, Monsanto purchased the largest bee research firm called Beeologics back in September of 2011. 

Their website says:
"Beeologics LLC is an international firm dedicated to restoring bee health and protecting the future of insect pollination. While its primary goal is to control the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) infection crises, Beeologics' mission is to become the guardian of bee health worldwide. Through continuous research, scientific innovation, and a focus on applicable solutions, Beeologics is developing a line of RNAi-based products to specifically address the long-term well being of the bees. "

In case you don't know RNAi-based products are a mechanism meant to block gene expression. RNAi-based products are genetically engineered products that Monsanto is now planning to use on the honey bees! The same bees who's health, (many beekeepers believe) has already been compromised by Monsanto's genetically engineered plants that produce pesticides. Their answer to this problem should be to stop making GM food, but instead it is to make more genetically engineered products that they will unleash on our planet without research to show any of them are safe.


RNAi (ribonucleic acid interference) is a process within living cells that moderates the activity of genes. It has been known by other names, including co-suppression, post transcriptional gene silencing and quelling. They all described the RNAi phenomenon. RNAs (ribonucleic acid) are the direct products of genes, and these small RNAs can bind to other specific messanger RNA (mRNA) molecules and either increase or decrease their activity, for example by preventing an mRNA from producing a protein. RNA interference has an important role in defending cells against parasitic genes - viruses and transposons,  but also in directing development as well as gene expression in general.

Monsanto In Route to Control Seeds & Pollination
Monsanto is already on its way to owning most of the seeds on the planet. They are replacing the natural spirit made food with Monsanto made frankenfood. They now also want to own the means of pollinating the food. Their frankenfoods that produce pesticides are believed by beekeepers to be killing the honey bees. Monsanto's solution to the colony collapse disorder is to replace God's honeybees with Monsanto's genetically modified bees that are resistant to all the pesticide producing food they make. 

Just as their GM seed has trespassed onto organic/conventional farmers fields by pollinators bringing pollen from one field to another, these frankenbees will also get out into the world and end up contaminating the native bees. When this happens Monsanto will probably sue any bee keeper who has bees that show similar genetics to their patented bees. Beekeepers could be forced to buy Monsanto bees when all bees are contaminated and changed into frankenbees.


Then there is you and I. Are we destined to be frankenpeople? Are we already contaminated? I eat only organic food in hope to not be contaminated by their products. We all need to do this to stop them. Do not buy anything but organic food or at least buy local from farmers you know who do no not sell genetically modified food. Do not buy non-organic corn, soybeans, cotton, canola and sugar beets - this means sugar as they are almost all GMO. Read labels. It is my opinion that the problems with human fertility, increased gastrointestinal problems and many other human diseases that have increased in the recent past may be linked to genetically engineered food. The research with animals certainly supports it. If nothing else, don't you wonder why so many more people have food allergies nowadays?

We must talk to our representatives and tell them we want labeling of GM food immediately if not outright banning of it until it has more research. So far the research is frightening. Since it is so hard to work on a federal level, get your state or even your local county to ban the growing of GM food in the county. If Monsanto claims they will sue your state or county for banning them (as they have been doing), tell your officials you will stand behind them. Don't let your officials be bullied by Monsanto.

Why do 40 other countries ban GM food outright or have laws regulating GM food when the United States won't even label it? It is up to us as citizens to get this changed.



Without the labeling, the only way for you to be safe is to eat organic food you grow or you get from reputable farmers/groceries. Additionally, this way you make sure you are not funding the further expansion of Monsanto, Bayer or Syngeta.(All part of the GM food chain.)


For more information on the research go to Jeffrey Smith's site here.



Sunday, February 19, 2012

Help Protect The Honey Bees - Act Now

We have the chance to get one of the neonicotinoid pesticides banned but we must act quickly. It will just take a few moment of your time.
Clothianidin, is produced by the German corporation Bayer CropScience. It is used as a treatment on crop seeds, including corn and canola, and works by expressing itself in the plants' pollen and nectar. These are some of honey bees' favorite sources of food.  No major independent study has verified the safety of this pesticide. However independent studies have shown that neonicotinoid pesticides like clothianidin are highly toxic to honey bees, providing compelling evidence that they should be immediately taken off the market until the E.P.A. can conduct a full and valid scientific review. 

Clothianidin was approved by the EPA in 2010 - but now the EPA is reviewing this approval. The deadline to submit a comment is Tuesday and we need to urge federal administrators to cancel the approval of this dangerous chemical. 


You can use this link to voice your opinion to the EPA. Every voice helps. Just click the "Submit a comment" box in the upper right hand corner to write to them. If you think they may want additional information from you to support what you tell them, include an email, address or phone.

Here is an example of what I wrote to them.
No major independent study has verified the safety of Clothianidin. However independent studies have shown that neonicotinoid pesticides like clothianidin are highly toxic to honey bees, providing compelling evidence that they should be immediately taken off the market until the E.P.A. can conduct a full and valid scientific review. Our honey bee population is dwindling and without them we will loose many of our major food crops. Please take Clothianidin off the market. You can find some of this research at these links below. I can supply additional information if you like. Sharol Tilgner - sharoltilgner@yahoo.com

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0029268

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1603


More information on the honey bees at these links:
Jan 19, 2012
Abstract: Populations of honey bees and other pollinators have declined worldwide in recent years. A variety of stressors have been implicated as potential causes, including agricultural pesticides. Neonicotinoid insecticides ...
Sep 23, 2011
This fantastic Dan Rather report on the honey bees and the damage done to the honey bees by neonicotinoid pesticides can be seen by clicking below on vimeo.com. As we suspected all along current research is continuing ...
Mar 14, 2011
New United Nations Report on Honey Bees. The United Nations just put out a news release on the world-wide decline of our honey bees. On March 10, 2011 the United Nations wrote “The way humanity manages or ...
Mar 02, 2011
Bee Keepers try to keep up with the loss. Each year they loose 30-40% of their hives. This can't keep up. Some of them are going out of business. Who will pollinate our food if not for the honey bees. Although there are other ...

Nov 15, 2010
My bees died this spring. They had been healthy and happy 5 days prior when I had put an essential oil in their hive to kill off mites. Something I do every spring and not something that would harm them. However, 5 days later ...

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Honey Bee Pesticide Exposure - New Study

Multiple Routes of Pesticide Exposure for Honey Bees Living Near Agricultural Fields is the title of a new research article published on honey bee deaths. It was published on January 3, 2012.

Abstract: Populations of honey bees and other pollinators have declined worldwide in recent years. A variety of stressors have been implicated as potential causes, including agricultural pesticides. Neonicotinoid insecticides, which are widely used and highly toxic to honey bees, have been found in previous analyses of honey bee pollen and comb material. However, the routes of exposure have remained largely undefined. We used LC/MS-MS to analyze samples of honey bees, pollen stored in the hive and several potential exposure routes associated with plantings of neonicotinoid treated maize. Our results demonstrate that bees are exposed to these compounds and several other agricultural pesticides in several ways throughout the foraging period. During spring, extremely high levels of clothianidin and thiamethoxam were found in planter exhaust material produced during the planting of treated maize seed. We also found neonicotinoids in the soil of each field we sampled, including unplanted fields. Plants visited by foraging bees (dandelions) growing near these fields were found to contain neonicotinoids as well. This indicates deposition of neonicotinoids on the flowers, uptake by the root system, or both. Dead bees collected near hive entrances during the spring sampling period were found to contain clothianidin as well, although whether exposure was oral (consuming pollen) or by contact (soil/planter dust) is unclear. We also detected the insecticide clothianidin in pollen collected by bees and stored in the hive. When maize plants in our field reached anthesis, maize pollen from treated seed was found to contain clothianidin and other pesticides; and honey bees in our study readily collected maize pollen. These findings clarify some of the mechanisms by which honey bees may be exposed to agricultural pesticides throughout the growing season. These results have implications for a wide range of large-scale annual cropping systems that utilize neonicotinoid seed treatments.
Christian H. Krupke1*, Greg J. Hunt1, Brian D. Eitzer2, Gladys Andino1, Krispn Given1
1 Department of Entomology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of America, 2 Department of Analytical Chemistry, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America

You can read the entire research article including their discussion of the results at this link: 

Please contact your representatives about this problem and ask them to submit a bill to save the honey bees from neonicotinoid poisoning. I am including a link here that will allow you to easily look up your federal and state representatives names and contact address/email/phone numbers. http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/

If you want to know more about the honey bees, here are past posts on the honey bees.


Friday, September 23, 2011

Dan Rather Honey Bee Report

This fantastic Dan Rather report on the honey bees and the damage done to the honey bees by neonicotinoid pesticides can be seen by clicking below on vimeo.com. As we suspected all along current research is continuing to validate our thoughts on the neonicotinoids along with other pesticides causing colony collapse disorder as well as general ill health amongst the honey bees.

In this report, the companies making neonicotinoids claim the systemic neonicotinoids are safer for humans as they use less of them on the plants. This conclusion is not necessarily true. Neonicotinoids are used as systemics with particular efficacy against sucking insects and they have a long residual activity. They may not be spraying them as often as they use to BUT, that is because they don't need to. The pesticide remains in the plant for a long time. If a pesticide is systemic in the plant and lasts in that plant for a long time, how much of this insecticide remains in the plants when people eat them?  Any amount is too much to me!