Market Farming

[Richard Robinson <rrobinson AT nasw.org>]

On 1/21/2011 at 12:01:54 PM, Leigh Hauter wrote:

 

"This year's winter die off rate due to CCD is the

worst yet.  Personally, I have never experienced anything so bad.

The cost of replacing this winter's loss looks like it might be in

the tens of thousands of dollars.  Add to that the cost of past

year's losses we're talking real money.

 

"When I hear that the EPA has allowed Bayer to make millions of

dollars by failing to follow the law. That it has not been able to

create guidelines to prevent its chemical from causing economic harm

to me and other beekeepers  (we are not even talking about the

general environmental harm yet), I get very upset."

 

To me, that reads like "because the process for approval of clothyianidin is flawed...that clothyianidin causes CCD."

 

 Perhaps he is not trying to make as strong a logical connection as I infer.

 

Richard Stewart's point, and it's a good one, was that the claim by Beltsville Bee Lab has not been published, and therefore has not necessarily met the scientific community's standards for adequately demonstrating what it claims--that this pesticide specifically increases susceptibility to CCD.

 

It may well be that Bayer should be forced to withdraw the pesticide because it has not been able to prove it is safe--that's its burden, and if it hasn't met it, it should be withdrawn. But the negative statement that it has not been proven safe is not equivalent to the positive claim that it contributes to CCD. Since that seems to be the basis of the language in the petition, Richard's blunt statement about the petition seems warranted to me.

 

 

  Richard Robinson
 www.nasw.org/users/rrobinson/
 Hopestill Farm
 www.hopestill.com