Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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WikiLeaks Uncovers Government Bee Killing Conspiracy
by Stephanie Feldstein December 16, 2010
http://animals.change.org/blog/view/wikileaks_uncovers_government_bee_killing_conspiracy

While the WikiLeaks media frenzy may have been focused on the release of tens 
of thousands of classified military and U.S. State Department documents, it's 
a leaked Environmental Protection Agency document that has conservationists, 
environmentalists and beekeepers abuzz.

The November 2nd memo, leaked to a Colorado beekeeper, indicates that the EPA 
was well-aware that the pesticide Clothianidin posed some serious risks to 
honey bees. There have been concerns about this chemical from as far back as 
2003, and it's already been banned in Germany, France, Italy and Slovenia 
because of its toxicity. But the EPA chose to sweep all that under the rug to 
keep the pesticide on the market.

Clothianidin, marketed as "Poncho" by Bayer, is widely used on corn, as well 
as canola, soy, sugar beets, sunflowers and wheat. As if the $262 million 
cash crop from last year wasn't enough, Bayer wants to keep expanding the 
pesticide's use. And the company's original registration was based on some 
seriously flawed science: they evaluated the wrong crop, with the wrong 
controls to assess the impact on bees.

This all adds up to some serious questions about the government contributing 
to Colony Collapse Disorder as they knowingly allowed Bayer to poison bees. 
And this is about a lot more than honey production ... native habitats, and 
as much as one-third of America's food supply, rely on the pollination 
provided by bees.

In light of the leaked memo, the National Honey Bee Advisory Board, American 
Beekeeping Federation, American Honey Producers Association, Beyond 
Pesticides, Pesticide Action Network North America, and Center for Biological 
Diversity sent a letter to the EPA requesting that the agency "take urgent 
action to stop the use of this toxic chemical."