Agriculture's dependence on pollinators, including both wild and domesticated bees, has increased fourfold since the 1960s. A recent study of these pollinators found that they provide up to $577 billion a year of crops, half of which comes from wild pollinators. These ratios underline the severity of their collapsing numbers. More than a third are facing extinction.
Gemma Cranston, head of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership team that participated in the study, warned that "less than half the companies sampled know which of the raw materials they source depend on pollinators", adding that there needs to be more research to get the full picture.
Source:
Plight of the bees hits unaware businesses
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday April 18 2018, @11:58AM
Whatever it was, it wasn't licensed for use in the USA - now, I believe you're right that it's probably safer than anything Bayer puts out, but the point is: regulations are a farce, and it could just as easily be a lead-mercury-arsenic combo mixed with DDT.
Anecdote: back as recently as the 1970s, they dusted cattle in Central Florida with arsenic to kill pests... there are some seriously toxic patches in the middle of the big ranches where they did that.
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