Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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AUDIO The Fatal Sting of Clothianidin On Honeybees
The Organic View
Date / Time: 2/7/2011 2:00 PM
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/theorganicview

    Honeybees pollinate ¾ of all of our agricultural food as well as other 
important crops such as cotton that are used for textiles. Without them, life 
as we know it would cease to exist. Any fatal impact on the honeybee would 
create a monumental disaster. Clothianidin has been widely used as a seed 
treatment on many of the USA’s key crops (which include canola, soy, 
sunflowers, wheat and sugar beet crops) for eight growing seasons under a 
conditional registration granted while EPA waited for Bayer Crop Science, the 
pesticide’s maker, to conduct a field study assessing the insecticide’s 
threat to bee colony health. The EPA has moved from granting a conditional 
registration to full registration of this chemical just in time for the 
spring planting. Clothianidin is of the neonicotinoid family of systemic 
pesticides, which are taken up by a plant’s vascular system and expressed 
through pollen, nectar and gutation droplets from which bees then forage and 
drink. Scientists are concerned about the mix and cumulative effects of the 
multiple pesticides bees are exposed to in these ways. Neonicotinoids are of 
particular concern because they have cumulative, sublethal effects on insect 
pollinators that correspond to CCD symptoms – namely, neurobehavioral and 
immune system disruptions. In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, 
host, June Stoyer will speak to Tom Theobald, Master Beekeeper, President and 
founding board member of the Boulder County Beekeepers' Association about the 
impact of this devastation chemical. Stay tuned!