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.

Honeybee Webinar From Purdue University

There is a FANTASTIC new honeybee webinar put out by Purdue University examining issues the honeybees have to deal with. They focus on neonicotinoid treated seeds and their toxicity to bees.

Most of the annual crop acreage planted in North America this year will be planted with neonicotinoid treated seed. Neonicotinoids are extremely toxic to honey bees and recent research suggests that honey bees foraging near these types of plantings may be at risk. The risk is greatest during the period while crops are being planted.

In addition to providing an overview of the research, this webinar offers suggestions for both field crop growers and beekeepers that can minimize the chances of honey bee exposure to these chemicals in the field. 

You can see it here. Please also pass this on to anyone who gardens or farms. Especially get gardeners who use neonicotinoid sprays and farmers who use neonicotinoid  treated seed or sprays to watch it.

This past post has a list of neonicotinoid sprays and information on them. The list is useful to give to gardeners and farmers to make sure they do not use them or if they insist on using them to be sure to read the label and be very careful with it.

This past post has research on honey bee deaths due to neonicotinoids.

You can search this blog for more posts on honeybees if you wish to read more.

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. Krupke^1*, 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: 

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

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.

http://dreamingabeautifulworld.blogspot.com/2011/09/dan-rather-honey-bee-report.html

Sept 23, 2011

Dreaming A Beautiful World: A Cause of the Honey Bee Deaths

Nov 15, 2010

New United Nations Report on Honey Bees

Mar 14, 2011

Dreaming A Beautiful World: Bill To Save The Bees

Mar 10, 2011

Dreaming A Beautiful World: Save The Honey Bees

Mar 02, 2011

A Cause of the Honey Bee Deaths

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 I was walking by the hive, I noticed hundreds of dead bees at the doorstep to the hive and on the ground in front of the hive. I looked inside and most of the rest were in various stages on their way to death. The ones still alive appeared to be drunk. I thought they looked like they had some sort of nervous system toxicity.

When I called my local bee association and spoke with one of the respected mentors there. He told me he thought my bees had a new type of Nosema called Nosema ceranae. I got my microscope out and dissected some bees and did see the Nocema spores. However, with ceranae the bees usually die away from the hive and what I had was a massive amt of dead bees (appeared to be all of them) in the hive or right outside of the hive. Plus the ones still alive looked drunk. I was so sure they were poisoned with something.

Upon further investigation I came upon what I think was the culprit. A type of insecticide called imidicloprid. It is my personal belief that this insecticide is a main cause of the massive honey bee deaths being experienced on the planet.

In 2003, 13 North Dakota beekeepers brought a class-action lawsuit against Bayer, alleging that the company's neonicotinoid, Imidacloprid, which had been used in nearby fields, was responsible for the loss of more than 60% of their hives. The beekeepers said their bees appeared to be getting drunk from the spray. They could not walk straight and could not work. (Just like mine!)

Dr. Daniel Mayer a retired bee expert from Washington State University, traveled to 17 different bee yards in North Dakota and observed dead bees and bees in the throes of what looked like Imidacloprid poisoning. He theorized that after foraging in planted fields where the seeds had been treated with Imidacloprid, the bees then brought the pesticide back to the hive, where it built up in the wax combs.

Pennsylvania beekeeper Dave Hackenberg lost 60% of his colonies. In an interview with Linda Mounton Howe, he said hat he and other beekeepers thought the culprits were systemic nicotine-based insecticides getting into crops that flower, contaminating the pollen on which honeybees forage. Imidacloprid (Called Gaucho by Bayer is a nicotine-based insecticide.)

Many of us beekeepers think that the virus and fungi that are being found in the bees guts when they are found dead (colony collapse disorder) is not the actual culprit but they are merely opportunists growing out of control in bees with compromised immune systems. People have asked what is it that is suppressing the bee’s immune systems. Why do so many of the bees die in the fields and not even return to their hives. Some of us think the answer is Bayer’s number one selling insecticide, Imidacloprid. Imidacloprid is s neonicotinoid that lab tests have confirmed will interfere with nerve impulse transmissions in insects, including honeybees. Aha, this sounds like a drunken honeybee does it not?

Environmental groups and beekeeper organizations have been trying to ban neonicotinoid pesticides, which have been linked to bee decline across the world. In a recent study, the toxicity of neonicotinoid insecticides to arthropods was shown to be reinforced by exposure time. The Dutch toxicologist Henk Tennekes demonstrates that the long-term risks associated with the insecticides imidacloprid and thiacloprid are far greater than previously thought. This could actually explain worldwide bee decline. The study was published in the journal Toxicology, July 23rd.

The acceptable limits for neonicotinoid insecticides are based mainly on short-term tests. If long-term studies were to be carried out, far lower concentrations may turn out to be hazardous. This explains why minute quantities of imidacloprid may induce bee decline in the long run.” Because of their high persistence significant quantities of neonicotinoids may remain in the soil for several years. Consequently, untreated plants growing on soil previously exposed to imidacloprid may take up the substance via their roots and become hazardous for bees.

In short imidacloprid and other neonicotinoids are bad news for the bees and probably bad news for other beneficial insects. Some countries such as France and Germany have bans on neonicotinoid use. Bayer has had multiple law-suites against their product imidacloprid, but in the USA we are still using it along with its closely related chemical relative called clothianidin (also made by Bayer)

WHAT CAN WE DO? I am sure none of you reading this blog use toxic chemicals in your gardens or on your farms. However, we need to talk to our neighbors and find out what they use. Educate them on the hazards of neonicotinoids. It will take all our efforts to save the honeybees.

Places you can learn more:

http://pollinatethis.org/beeblog/2009/05/24/us-honeybee-advisory-board-asks-epa-to-ban-imidacloprid/

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1603/0022-0493-101.6.1743?journalCode=ecen

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_12469.cfm

http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1779&category=Environment

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/10/10-1