permaculture

[Alia Tsang <alia@dietrick.org>]

I agree, the important details are scarce. Two possibilities come to
mind (if this is causation and not correlation):

Planting treated seed will be accompanied by treated seed dust, that
might travel and coat and be absorbed by plants more attractive to
bees.

Bees (and other insects) are also attracted to corn's guttation: sap
exuded by plants such as grasses from the edge of the leaf. That sap
would be highest in pesticides when the corn is young, before it grows
out up and has more volume to dilute the pesticide in.

But that article definitely should have included more details, and
alluded to what their information source was. (And then they cite a
study from PNAS without mentioning the study authors or anything...
for shame. That would have been a great place to use the power of
internet and throw a link to the source in.)

Alia

On Sat, Nov 8, 2014 at 5:01 PM, Jacqueline Greenleaf
<jacque@book-woman.net> wrote:
> I’m puzzled.
>
> Let me say first that I hate GMOs and I am very concerned about honeybees 
> in particular and pollinators in general. And I think neonics should be 
> banned yesterday.
>
> But how could the planting of a wind-pollinated crop cause such massive bee 
> die-off? Further, it is not clear in the article that the crop was even 
> mature enough (what does a few weeks mean?) to even be releasing pollen.
>
> Was the field sprayed with neonics? If so, the fact that the field was 
> planted with GMOs has no bearing, unless neonics are only applied to GMO 
> corn, which I do not believe to be the case. But the article does not say 
> that any kind of pesticide was applied to this field.
>
> In short, this is a very poorly written article. Now the world is full of 
> those, but I hate to see permies inflict on themselves a reputation of 
> fuzzy thinking.
>
>
> Jacque
>
>
>
>
>> On Nov 8, 2014, at 8:35 AM, Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> 37 Million Bees Found Dead In Ontario, Canada After Planting Large GMO Corn
>> Field
>> <http://organichealth.co/37-million-bees-found-dead-in-ontario-canada-after-planting-large-gmo-corn-field/>37
>> Million Bees Found Dead In Ontario, Canada After Planting Large GMO Corn
>> Field | Organic Health
>> http://organichealth.co/37-million-bees-found-dead-in-ontario-canada-after-planting-large-gmo-corn-field/
>>
>> Millions of bees dropped dead after GMO corn was planted few weeks ago in
>> Ontario, Canada. The local bee keeper, Dave Schuit who produces honey in
>> Elmwood lost about 37 million bees which are about 600 hives.
>>
>> “Once the corn started to get planted our bees died by the millions,”
>> Schuit said. While many bee keepers blame neonicotinoids, or “neonics.” for
>> colony collapse of bees and many countries in EU have banned neonicotinoid
>> class of pesticides, the US Department of Agriculture fails to ban
>> insecticides known as neonicotinoids, manufactured by Bayer CropScience 
>> Inc.
>>
>> Two of Bayer’s best-selling pesticides, Imidacloprid and Clothianidin, are
>> known to get into pollen and nectar, and can damage beneficial insects such
>> as bees. The marketing of these drugs also coincided with the occurrence of
>> large-scale bee deaths in many European countries and the United States.
>>
>> Nathan Carey another local farmer says that this spring he noticed that
>> there were not enough bees on his farm and he believes that there is a
>> strong correlation between the disappearance of bees and insecticide use.
>>
>> In the past, many scientists have struggled to find the exact cause of the
>> massive die-offs, a phenomenon they refer to as “colony collapse disorder”
>> (CCD). In the United States, for seven consecutive years, honeybees are in
>> terminal decline.
>>
>> US scientists have found 121 different pesticides in samples of bees, wax
>> and pollen, lending credence to the notion that pesticides are a key
>> problem. “We believe that some subtle interactions between nutrition,
>> pesticide exposure and other stressors are converging to kill colonies,”
>> said Jeffery Pettis, of the ARS’s bee research laboratory.
>>
>> The collapse in the global honeybee population is a major threat to crops.
>> It is estimated that a third of everything we eat depends upon honeybee
>> pollination, which means that bees contribute over 30 billion to the global
>> economy.
>>
>> A new study published in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of
>> Sciences revealed that neonicotinoid pesticides kill honeybees by damaging
>> their immune system and making them unable to fight diseases and bacteria.
>>
>> After reporting large losses of bees after exposure to Imidacloprid, banned
>> it for use on corn and sunflowers, despite protests by Bayer. In another
>> smart move, France also rejected Bayer’s application for Clothianidin, and
>> other countries, such as Italy, have banned certain neonicotinoids as well.
>>
>> After record-breaking honeybee deaths in the UK, the European Union has
>> banned multiple pesticides, including neonicotinoid pesticides.
>>
>> *You have our permission to reprint this article via creative commons
>> license if you attribute us with a live backlink to this article.* - 
>> Organic
>> Health <http://organichealth.co>
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> https://plus.google.com/+Avantgeared
> Permaculture: -- portal to an expanding global network of landtech pioneers 
> practicing and teaching permaculture
> while designing ecological, biointensive land use systems with integrated 
> elements for synergy, sustainability, regeneration and enhanced 
> nature-compatible
> human habitat --