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posted by janrinok on Monday June 23 2014, @05:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the honey-we-have-a-problem dept.

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."

 
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  • (Score: 1) by meisterister on Monday June 23 2014, @10:24PM

    by meisterister (949) on Monday June 23 2014, @10:24PM (#59155) Journal

    Surely we can find enough pissed off bee.... farmers? ranchers? to push the price of honey up in order to draw attention to the problem.

    --
    (May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Horse With Stripes on Tuesday June 24 2014, @12:41AM

    by Horse With Stripes (577) on Tuesday June 24 2014, @12:41AM (#59181)

    If only this was about honey. It's about the bees pollenating all the other crops that require the process to produce food.

    America has so many natural resources to feed all of our citizens, and then some. But we ('we' being Corporate America and the politicians they buy) would rather poison the land - and in this case the bees - just to make a little more profit. Soon there won't be as many farmers, so these corporations won't sell as much of their poisons, and then they'll be asking the government for assistance. Within 10 - 20 years more and more Americans will know what hunger really means. If we can't grow it, and we can't afford to buy what is grown, then things will change in a hurry. Nothing stresses a population like mass hunger.