Afternoon Matinee: Going 'Beyond Pesticides' to Save the Bee Population

Afternoon Matinee: 'Colony Collapse Disorder' Threatens Bees, US Agriculture

Afternoon Matinee: Pesticides Most Common in 12 Produce Items

Afternoon Matinee: Say NO to Pesticides

The Mooing of...Seals?

Trey Smith

Talk about pesticides and other pollutants negatively impacting our shared environment and a lot of people show great disinterest. "It's no big deal" or "I think the problem exists, but it's over-hyped" are common refrains. According to a recent article in the Vancouver Sun, it IS a big deal and, far from being over-hyped, a lot of what's going on is underreported.

A slew of pathogens typically found in livestock and domestic animals is increasingly being found in marine mammals, including in the Strait of Georgia off Vancouver.

"We're finding similar pathology or abnormalities in marine mammals to what we're seeing in our livestock cases," said Stephen Raverty, a veterinary pathologist with B.C.'s animal health centre in Abbotsford.

Some of these pathogens are thought to make their way from land into the Strait of Georgia through rainwater and streams - especially the Fraser River, which flows through farmland. But there are also concerns that infected marine mammals could pose their own risks to humans.

What makes this report more alarming is that "federal funding for such investigations is drying up" in both the US and Canada. Consequently, while human activities may be jeopardizing the health and safety of marine animals, our chances of knowing AND doing something about it are diminishing.

Sticking our collective heads in the sands won't make these problems go away. In fact, ignoring the situation will make it worse...to the detriment of these innocent beings AND ourselves!

Bee Damned

Trey Smith

A study published in the current issue of the German science journal Naturwissenschaften, reveals how bees given minute doses of the widely used pesticide imidacloprid became more vulnerable to infections from a deadly parasite, nosema.

Bee experts described this as clear evidence of the role pesticides play in the plight of bees. Although research into the furry insects may seem like a very academic exercise, bees are vital to human survival. More than 70 of the 100 crops that provide 90 per cent of the world's food are pollinated by bees, and Albert Einstein once predicted that if bees died out, "man would have no more than four years to live."

The study, led by Dr Jeffrey Pettis, the head of the US Department of Agriculture's Bee Research Laboratory, says: "We believe that subtle interactions between pesticides and pathogens, such as demonstrated here, could be a major contributor to increased mortality of honey bee colonies worldwide."
~ from Pesticides Blamed for Bee Decline by Jonathan Owen ~

Do you find the conclusions of this report shocking? I certainly don't. There is so much about life -- of ourselves and all the other life forms on Planet Earth -- that we don't have a good grasp on. But when it comes to the prospects of making an easy buck, why allow ignorance to be a hurdle?

Isn't it better to go charging off into the unknown and, if problems arise, to deal with them later? Possibly generations after the fact?

Isn't that what good parents teach their children?

(Not!!)

Oops

In the corporate world's tortured language, workers are no longer fired. They just experience an "employment adjustment." But the most twisted euphemism I've heard in a long time comes from DuPont: "We are investigating the reports of these unfavorable tree symptoms," the pesticide maker recently stated.

How unfavorable? Finito, flat-lined, the tree is dead. Not just one tree, but hundreds of thousands all across the country are suffering the final "symptom."

The culprit turns out to be Imprelis, a DuPont weed-killer widely applied to lawns, golf courses, and — ironically — cemeteries.

Rather than just poisoning dandelions and other weeds, the herbicide also seems to be causing spruces, pines, willows, poplars, and other unintended victims to croak.
~ from DuPont's Herbicide Goes Rogue by Jim Hightower ~

Why am I not surprised at this news story? Could it be that the government relies too much on corporate data for testing purposes? Could it be that such tests typically consider only short-term, not long-term, impacts? Could it be that profit almost always wins out over safety?

Of course, it's all these things and more. We are poisoning our planet to death! We allow this to happen so a few corporations can rake in big bucks.

There are many earth-friendly ways to combat or control weeds, varmints and diseases. It takes some thinking, sweat and patience. But we live in a world that expects instantaneous success and so it's much easier to drench our lawns and gardens with a toxic brew of chemicals. I mean, who pulls weeds anymore?

And why are so many people eager and willing to turn their properties into chemical cesspools? Because industry and the government promise it is safe, even when they have no idea if this is true or not. That's why stories like this aren't surprising in the least.

We will reap what we sow!

Plan Bee

As a follow-up to a post from early this morning, lookie here!

A leaked EPA memo is being cited by scientists as smoking gun evidence of likely cause of the massive die-off of honeybees. The culprits, these researchers claim, are Bayer CropScience and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The memo details how Bayer performed facially inadequate testing on the pesticide clothianidin and then EPA accepted the results to release the pesticide without adequate proof that it would not harm the bee population. The EPA gave conditional approval in 2003 and let Bayer sell the product.

The EPA memo dated November 2, 2010 says that the EPA accepted the flawed research and only told the company to complete further safety testing by a certain deadline. The company did not complete the research for years and instead fought to get extensions on its conditional permit. The final testing was reportedly flawed — performed in another country with bees that were located on a small patch of treated crops surrounded by thousands of acres on untreated crops. The EPA quickly embraced the defective study and gave full registration to clothianidin in 2007 during the Bush Administration. Yet, even in the Obama Administration in November, 2010, the EPA did not act when the company filed for another extension.

On a political level, this is a fascinating story since many Republican candidates have been calling for the elimination or reduction of the EPA to help the economy. The loss of the honeybees represents a catastrophic blow for agriculture in the United States. Even if you are a candidate with little concern for public health or the environment, this is an example of how pollution or harmful chemicals hurt the economy.

On a legal level, the story would create an interesting question if true. The company stands accused of doing rigged and delayed field testing in order to get a defective product to market. The result is claimed to be the devastation of honeybees that are vital to farms and other businesses. Can they now sue? The problem will be proving causation in such a massive tort case. Of course, a trial would produce greater scrutiny than was the case at the EPA.

I am also concerned that this memo had to be leaked. Once again, neither the agency nor Congress informed the nation of this evidence for years as the world has searched for a cause of the loss. Even if this is not found to the cause or only cause, there remains questions of why this company was able to introduce such a chemical into the environment with so little scrutiny. The reliance on industry testing has long been controversial and the lack of serious scrutiny during both the Bush and Obama Administrations shows how industry continues to exercise a disturbing degree of control over the data used to evaluate their products.
~ Did Bayer (and the EPA) Kill The Honeybees? by Jonathan Turley ~

Its Own Kind of War

A meta-analysis on 19 studies confirms kidney and liver toxicity in rats and mice fed on GM soybean and maize, representing more than 80 percent of all commercially available GM food; it also exposes gross inadequacies of current risk assessment.
~ from GM Feed Toxic, New Meta-Analysis Confirms by Dr Eva Sirinathsinghji ~

Generally, when we think of war, we think of soldiers, guns, bullets, missiles, drones and tanks. We think of two sides duking it out for territory, resources, religion and/or ideology. But there is another war going on right now, but this one hardly registers a blip on most people's radar screens.

This war is far more insidious than most. The target is the worldwide food supply and, if the aggressors prove successful, almost everyone in the world will become a war victim!!

As with most wars, money plays a huge role. The agrichemical industry wants to do away with most natural food crops to be replaced by genetically-modified versions. Since they own the patented seeds and farmers are prohibited from saving seeds from year to year, they have created a system that will provide them with a staggering windfall of profit year after year after year.

If that wasn't bad enough -- and it is extremely bad for subsistence farmers -- more and more studies are indicating that these new food crops are dangerous to human health. Isn't that what everyone wants to hear, that your bowl of corn flakes ultimately will kill you?

The worst part of all is that the clock is ticking. This isn't the kind of war that we can put off. We can't say, let's work up a defensive battle plan to implement in the next decade or so. You see, GMO seed and plants are like a Trojan horse. Once the seeds are planted and grow into crops, the wind carries their genetic blueprint to places far and wide. This blueprint mingles with the DNA of non-GMO plants and, before you know it, all plants carry GMO markers.

The agrichemical industry understands this dynamic and so they only need to forestall opposition for a decade or two. If GMOs remain legal during this time frame, they will end up cornering the future market for seeds and food crops by default.

This is why the time to stop them isn't tomorrow; it's n-o-w.

Afternoon Matinee: The Future of Food

To watch this entire 90-minute documentary, go here.

Afternoon Matinee: The World According to Monsanto, Part 10

The World According to Monsanto is a 2008 documentary film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. This 10 part film is based on Robin's three-year long investigation into the US agricultural giant Monsanto corporation's practices around the world. The World According to Monsanto is also a book written as well by Marie-Monique Robin, winner of the Rachel Carson Prize.

Afternoon Matinee: The World According to Monsanto, Part 9

The World According to Monsanto is a 2008 documentary film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. This 10 part film is based on Robin's three-year long investigation into the US agricultural giant Monsanto corporation's practices around the world. The World According to Monsanto is also a book written as well by Marie-Monique Robin, winner of the Rachel Carson Prize.

Afternoon Matinee: The World According to Monsanto, Part 8

The World According to Monsanto is a 2008 documentary film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. This 10 part film is based on Robin's three-year long investigation into the US agricultural giant Monsanto corporation's practices around the world. The World According to Monsanto is also a book written as well by Marie-Monique Robin, winner of the Rachel Carson Prize.

Afternoon Matinee: The World According to Monsanto, Part 7

The World According to Monsanto is a 2008 documentary film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. This 10 part film is based on Robin's three-year long investigation into the US agricultural giant Monsanto corporation's practices around the world. The World According to Monsanto is also a book written as well by Marie-Monique Robin, winner of the Rachel Carson Prize.

Afternoon Matinee: The World According to Monsanto, Part 6

The World According to Monsanto is a 2008 documentary film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. This 10 part film is based on Robin's three-year long investigation into the US agricultural giant Monsanto corporation's practices around the world. The World According to Monsanto is also a book written as well by Marie-Monique Robin, winner of the Rachel Carson Prize.

Afternoon Matinee: The World According to Monsanto, Part 5

The World According to Monsanto is a 2008 documentary film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. This 10 part film is based on Robin's three-year long investigation into the US agricultural giant Monsanto corporation's practices around the world. The World According to Monsanto is also a book written as well by Marie-Monique Robin, winner of the Rachel Carson Prize.

Afternoon Matinee: The World According to Monsanto, Part 4

The World According to Monsanto is a 2008 documentary film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. This 10 part film is based on Robin's three-year long investigation into the US agricultural giant Monsanto corporation's practices around the world. The World According to Monsanto is also a book written as well by Marie-Monique Robin, winner of the Rachel Carson Prize.

Afternoon Matinee: The World According to Monsanto, Part 3

The World According to Monsanto is a 2008 documentary film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. This 10 part film is based on Robin's three-year long investigation into the US agricultural giant Monsanto corporation's practices around the world. The World According to Monsanto is also a book written as well by Marie-Monique Robin, winner of the Rachel Carson Prize.

Afternoon Matinee: The World According to Monsanto, Part 2

The World According to Monsanto is a 2008 documentary film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. This 10 part film is based on Robin's three-year long investigation into the US agricultural giant Monsanto corporation's practices around the world. The World According to Monsanto is also a book written as well by Marie-Monique Robin, winner of the Rachel Carson Prize.

Afternoon Matinee: The World According to Monsanto, Part 1

The World According to Monsanto is a 2008 documentary film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. This 10-part film is based on Robin's three-year long investigation into the US agricultural giant Monsanto corporation's practices around the world. The World According to Monsanto is also a book written as well by Marie-Monique Robin, winner of the Rachel Carson Prize.