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They are among America's busiest workers but they've been declining sharply in recent years due to various factors, including pesticides, mite infestations and loss of genetic diversity. Now Faith Karimi writes at CNN that President Obama has created a task force to address the issue of rapidly diminishing honey bees and other pollinators. "The problem is serious and requires immediate attention to ensure the sustainability of our food production systems, avoid additional economic impact on the agricultural sector, and protect the health of the environment," Obama said in a memo was sent to Cabinet secretaries and agency heads.
Friends of the Earth says that the US needs to immediately ban the use of neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides chemically similar to nicotine that has been linked to bee deaths. "The administration should prevent the release and use of these toxic pesticides until determined safe," says Erich Pica whose organization is conducting a campaign and has collected more than half a million petition signatures asking Home Depot and Lowe's to stop selling plants treated with neonicotinoids (neonics). So why isn't the US moving more quickly to ban neonics? Neonics play "a major role in pest management for pest control, agriculture and the ornamental plant protection industries. They serve as a group of highly effective insecticides with low risk to people and birds, which can be applied systemically to the soil," notes a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension blogger. This is a safer, better pesticide than many alternatives.
Another reason to hold off on a ban: There are still doubts that neonics are the principal cause of bee colony collapse. "In other words, while neonics might be one of the precipitating causes, they might not be the principle cause of colony collapse disorder (CCD) in the US and Europe," says David Clark Scott. "Saving the honey bees may require a more complex solution than banning one group of insecticides. And it may require more investigation into other possible causes of CCD, including parasites, viruses, climate change, bee nutrition, lack of genetic diversity and bee keeping practices."
(Score: 4, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 23 2014, @06:01PM
Notice the order the producers are listed in. Bayer is on top, selling more of this stuff than the leading two contenders combined. Bayer almost single handedly pushed the approval for this stuff through, based on incomplete and faulty "research" or "testing" done in Canada. No independent tests were ever done on the stuff, Bayer's "research" was accepted by the FDA.
Bayer has a lot of money invested in their pesticides, and they keep throwing good money after bad by lobbying here, and in the EU.
One thing that is glossed over in discussions about neonics, is their persistence. One dose on a field is believed to persist in the soil, and in the plant life, for six or more years, up to a decade. Plants actively take the stuff up out of the soil, deposit in all of the plant's cells, and the plant is poison to bees, and any other susceptible insects. When the plant dies, or is harvested, it seems that the remaining plant material deteriorates, and the remaining pesticide again goes back into the soil.
Not enough research has been done - no one knows positively how long this pesticide does reside. But, it is far to long!
Banning the stuff today would still mean bees are dying off at least six years from now, and possibly a decade in the future.
We need to ban it, immediately, without dicking around, without worrying about investors.
And, the FDA needs to be made to actually TEST the stuff they approve of! The next poison they approve may be even worse than neonics!
(Score: 1) by strattitarius on Monday June 23 2014, @08:21PM
Seriously, there are many of these oversight agencies that only oversee the testing conducted by the producers of the product. It's a pretty pathetic system; easy to see the holes and opportunities for corruption.
Slashdot Beta Sucks. Soylent Alpha Rules. News at 11.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday June 24 2014, @11:56AM
One interesting point is the conspiracy types come out of the woodwork, but banning a persistent product is just going to explode sales of non persistent products. So instead of a gallon of semi-permanent neo you'll get ten one gallon applications of nithiazine which is vaguely vampiric (in the sense that it turns to dust once sunlight hits it, unlike the semi-permanent neos)
Given that all USA corn and soy is treated with this stuff, I'm feeling better about a grain-free diet. Once it starts killing livestock, then I'll be worried.