tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-389031412024-03-13T20:28:35.633-07:00Help Save The Bees!Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-5630526753864417812021-10-11T21:57:00.000-07:002021-10-11T21:57:38.176-07:00Hi!<p><a href="https://www.usgs.gov/centers/eesc/science/native-bee-inventory-and-monitoring-lab?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Bees Elbows!</a> </p>Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-90836339758390272402016-02-23T06:06:00.001-08:002016-02-23T06:06:03.959-08:00The health of US honeybee hives continues to be dismal...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2016/01/epa-finds-major-pesticide-toxic-bees" target="_blank">The EPA Finally Admitted That the World’s Most Popular Pesticide Kills Bees—20 Years Too Late —By Tom Philpott</a></div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-32955389479243961522015-04-26T03:24:00.001-07:002015-04-26T03:24:37.776-07:00http://www.uwosh.edu/sustainability/teaching-resources/understanding-sustainability-1/bee-colony-collapse<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
http://www.uwosh.edu/sustainability/teaching-resources/understanding-sustainability-1/bee-colony-collapse</div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-75316211274108750992015-01-15T22:54:00.002-08:002015-01-15T22:54:10.326-08:00More Than 100 Businesses Call On White House To Protect Bees From Pesticideshttp://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/01/14/3611620/businesses-bereft-of-bees/Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-77923362023852085162014-12-06T04:13:00.001-08:002014-12-06T04:13:28.939-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
http://modernfarmer.com/2013/05/why-are-the-bees-dying/</div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-86699651659560982622014-11-11T05:03:00.000-08:002015-01-15T22:54:31.456-08:00LOVE AND THEN LOVE EVEN EVEN MORE. BECAUSE WE'RE ALL DEAD FROM BIRTH AND WHAT WE DO FROM THEN DEFINES OUR LIFE......<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
http://www.whale.org/watch-trailer-jane-payne/<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.whale.org/watch-trailer-jane-payne/" target="_blank">http://www.whale.org/watch-trailer-jane-payne/</a></div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-41210020243424102672014-10-15T05:21:00.003-07:002014-10-15T05:21:40.814-07:00neonicotinoids<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/10/the-surprisingly-simple-reason-millions-of-bees-are-dying/" target="_blank">Bee Crisis</a><br />
<br />
<div class="wp-volt-gal-blurb" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: FranklinITCStdLight, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
In the past several weeks, a spate of studies have appeared in scientific journals suggesting the culprit behind mass deaths of honeybees is widely used pesticides called neonicotinoids. On June 23, President Obama signed a memorandum establishing the first-ever federal pollinator strategy and the Agriculture Department announced $8 million in incentives to farmers and ranchers in five states who establish new habitats for honeybees.</div>
<div class="wp-volt-gal-caption" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: FranklinITCStdLight, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-volt-gal-caption" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: FranklinITCStdLight, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span class="wp-volt-gal-caption-text" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="wp-volt-gal-caption" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: FranklinITCStdLight, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span class="wp-volt-gal-caption-text" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Italian honeybees hover around the suit of beekeeper Robert Harvey as he transfers bee colonies from a blueberry field near Columbia Falls, Maine. Last year, 23.2 percent of the country’s managed honeybee colonies died, which is higher than the “acceptable” rate of about 19 percent, according to a report from a group supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Bees pollinate plants that provide much of the food that we consume, including apples, watermelons and coffee beans.</span> <span class="wp-volt-gal-caption-credit" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Adrees Latif/Reuters</span></div>
<div class="wp-volt-gal-caption" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: FranklinITCStdLight, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span class="wp-volt-gal-caption-credit" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="wp-volt-gal-caption" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: FranklinITCStdLight, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span class="wp-volt-gal-caption-credit" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="wp-volt-gal-caption" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #666666; font-family: FranklinITCStdLight, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span class="wp-volt-gal-caption-credit" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-64558353032877466942014-09-07T04:31:00.001-07:002014-09-07T04:31:14.749-07:00The Plight Of The Honeybee<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130510-honeybee-bee-science-european-union-pesticides-colony-collapse-epa-science/">The Plight of the Honeybee</a></div>Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-26303172993118828422014-05-05T21:06:00.000-07:002014-05-05T21:06:02.272-07:00For The Bees!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/videos/couple-aims-to-grow-1-million-wildflowers-for-bees" target="_blank">Couple aims to grow 1 million wildflowers for bees...</a></div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-40427224787396360142014-04-17T04:18:00.001-07:002014-04-17T04:18:27.797-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/05/07/181990532/bee-deaths-may-have-reached-a-crisis-point-for-crops" target="_blank">Bee Deaths May Have Reached A Crisis Point For Crops</a><br />
<br />
<div class="disclaimer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2rem; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
Copyright ©2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
Almost a third of the country's honeybee colonies did not make it through the winter. That's according to a new survey of America's beekeepers. In fact, that's been the case almost every year for the past six years. Beekeepers say unless someone can help more bees survive, there won't be enough to pollinate America's apples, blueberries and other treasured crops. NPR's Dan Charles reports.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
DAN CHARLES, BYLINE: The U.S. Department of Agriculture began this annual nationwide survey six years ago, after beekeepers reported some new and frightening problems with their bees.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
JEFFREY PETTIS: Well, we started out literally by phoning beekeepers.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
CHARLES: That's Jeffrey Pettis, who's in charge of the USDA's Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
Over the past six years, on average, 30 percent of all the honey bee colonies in the U.S. died off over the winter. The worst year was five years ago. Last year was the best, just 22 percent of the colonies died.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
PETTIS: The last year gave us some hope. The honey bees were doing better.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
CHARLES: But this year, the death rate was up again, 31 percent.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
When the survey started, beekeepers talked a lot about Colony Collapse Disorder; colonies that seemed pretty healthy but suddenly collapsed - the bees flew away and didn't come back. Beekeepers are not seeing that so much anymore, Pettis says. They're mostly seeing colonies that just dwindle. As the crowd of bees get smaller, it gets weaker.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
PETTIS: They can't generate heat very well in the spring to rear brood. They can't also generate heat to fly.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
CHARLES: Farmers, who grow crops like almonds and blueberries and apples rely on commercial beekeepers to make sure their crops get pollinated. This year, Pettis says, we came closer than ever before to a real crisis. The only thing that saved part of the almond crop in California was some lovely weather.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
PETTIS: We got incredibly good flight weather, so the bees, even those small colonies that we talked about earlier - the small colonies that can't fly very well even in cool weather, they were able to fly because of good weather.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
CHARLES: And the bees reached every tree.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
Pettis says beekeepers can really only afford to lose about 15 percent of their colonies each year. More than that and they lose money. Some commercial beekeepers are still in business, he says, just because they love it.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
PETTIS: I mean it's just something that gets in your blood, so you know what to give out. You know, OK, its 30 percent loss each year - I'll do better next year. We're very much optimists.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
CHARLES: Beekeepers have a whole list of reasons why so many colonies are dying. There's a nasty parasite called the Varroa mite which they can't get rid of; also, bee killing pesticides. And they say there just fewer places in the country where a bee can find plenty of food, plenty of flowering plants that provide nectar and pollen. That was especially true this past year. The same drought that left Midwestern cornfields parched and wilting also dried up wildflowers and starved the bees. That was a natural disaster.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
But May Barenboim, a professor of entomology at the University of Illinois, says most of the changes in the landscape are the result of people's decisions about what to do with their land.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
MAY BARENBOIN: I just wish there were more incentives for more people, not just farmers, to plant a more diversified landscape that provides nutritional resources for all kinds of pollinators.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
CHARLES: So, plant more flowers.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
BARENBOIN: Plant more flowers and be a little more tolerant of the weeds in the garden.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
CHARLES: What's more controversial is the role of pesticides. Some beekeepers and environmentalists are calling for tighter restrictions on the use of one particular class of pesticides, called neonicotinoids. Europe is about to ban some uses of these pesticides. But U.S. farmers and pesticide companies are opposed to any such move here and the Environmental Protection Agency says it's not yet convinced that this would help the bees very much.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
Dan Charles, NPR News.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
SIEGEL: It may mean little in the overall picture of bee health, but there are many backyards and rooftops around the U.S. with a hive or two, including here at NPR's new building in Washington, D.C.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
(SOUNDBITE OF SWARM OF BEES)</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.6rem; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
SIEGEL: Our so-called green roof, covered with soil and plants, as of yesterday houses two small wooden hives with over two 20,000 bees. No honey yet, but the bees have inspired an unofficial Twitter feed, @nprbees.</div>
<div class="disclaimer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2rem; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.</div>
<div class="disclaimer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; float: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2rem; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 85.734375px; max-width: 690px; min-height: 1px; padding: 0px 15px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; width: 690px;">
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.</div>
</div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-12198123816421195382014-02-23T05:03:00.003-08:002014-02-23T05:03:45.038-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 class="entry-title" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0.67em 0px;">
The Trouble with Beekeeping in the Anthropocene</h1>
<div class="entry-deck" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.0625em; margin-bottom: 0.9375em; margin-top: -0.25em;">
The beepocalypse is on the cover of TIME, but it looks like managed honeybees will still pull through. Wild bees—and wild species in general—won't be so lucky in a human-dominated planet</div>
<div class="entry-meta" style="color: #797777; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.8125em;">
<span class="entry-byline" style="border-left-style: none; display: inline-block; height: 10px; line-height: 0.875em; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">By <a href="http://science.time.com/author/bryanrwalsh/" rel="author" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by Bryan Walsh">Bryan Walsh</a> <a class="author-twitter" href="http://www.twitter.com/bryanrwalsh" style="color: #85a1bc; text-decoration: none;">@bryanrwalsh</a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /><br />Read more: <a href="http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/#ixzz2u9M69yJu" style="color: #003399; text-decoration: none;">Wild bees are in even worse shape than honeybees | TIME.com</a> <a href="http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/#ixzz2u9M69yJu" style="color: #003399; text-decoration: none;">http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/#ixzz2u9M69yJu</a></span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/" target="_blank">http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/</a><br />
<br />
<header class="entry-header" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><h1 class="entry-title" style="margin: 0.67em 0px;">
The Trouble with Beekeeping in the Anthropocene</h1>
<div class="entry-deck" style="color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625em; margin-bottom: 0.9375em; margin-top: -0.25em;">
The beepocalypse is on the cover of TIME, but it looks like managed honeybees will still pull through. Wild bees—and wild species in general—won't be so lucky in a human-dominated planet</div>
<div class="entry-meta" style="color: #797777; font-size: 0.8125em;">
<span class="entry-byline" style="border-left-style: none; display: inline-block; height: 10px; line-height: 0.875em; margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px;">By <a href="http://science.time.com/author/bryanrwalsh/" rel="author" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by Bryan Walsh">Bryan Walsh</a> <a class="author-twitter" href="http://www.twitter.com/bryanrwalsh" style="color: #85a1bc; text-decoration: none;">@bryanrwalsh</a></span><span class="entry-date" style="border-left-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; display: inline-block; height: 10px; line-height: 0.875em; margin-left: 8px; padding-left: 8px;">Aug. 09, 2013</span><span class="entry-comments" style="border-left-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; display: inline-block; height: 10px; line-height: 0.875em; margin-left: 8px; padding-left: 8px;"><a href="http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/#comments" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;">140 Comments</a></span></div>
</header><div class="entry-sharing group" style="border-top-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; clear: both; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; position: relative; z-index: 999;">
<div class="ad-unit sm" data-cb-ad-id="share-ad" id="share-ad" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;">
</div>
<ul class="entry-share-buttons " style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 0px;">
<li style="display: inline-block; float: left; list-style: none; position: relative;"><ul style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li class="share-fb" data-omniture-event="fb-like" style="display: inline; list-style: none;"><div class="fb-like fb_iframe_widget" data-href="http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/" data-layout="button_count" data-send="false" data-show-faces="false" data-width="450" fb-iframe-plugin-query="app_id=&href=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com%2F2013%2F08%2F09%2Fthe-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene%2F&layout=button_count&locale=en_US&sdk=joey&send=false&show_faces=false&width=450" fb-xfbml-state="rendered" style="display: inline-block; margin-right: 2em; position: relative; vertical-align: top;">
<span style="display: inline-block; height: 20px; position: relative; text-align: justify; vertical-align: bottom; width: 83px;"><iframe allowtransparency="true" class="" frameborder="0" height="1000px" name="f1b7d12b24" scrolling="no" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?app_id=&channel=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.ak.facebook.com%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter.php%3Fversion%3D40%23cb%3Df11e460898%26domain%3Dscience.time.com%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fscience.time.com%252Ff26d9c3af4%26relation%3Dparent.parent&href=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com%2F2013%2F08%2F09%2Fthe-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene%2F&layout=button_count&locale=en_US&sdk=joey&send=false&show_faces=false&width=450" style="border-style: none; height: 20px; position: absolute; visibility: visible; width: 83px;" title="fb:like Facebook Social Plugin" width="450px"></iframe></span></div>
</li>
<li class="share-fb-button" data-omniture-event="fb-share" style="display: inline; list-style: none;"><div class="fb-share" style="background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2012/library/assets/images/fb-share-button.png); background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 20px; margin: 0px 12px 0px 0px; width: 56px;">
</div>
</li>
<li class="share-tw" data-omniture-event="tweet" style="display: inline; list-style: none;"><iframe allowtransparency="true" class="twitter-share-button twitter-tweet-button twitter-count-horizontal" data-twttr-rendered="true" frameborder="0" id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/tweet_button.1392079123.html#_=1393160356929&count=horizontal&counturl=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com%2F2013%2F08%2F09%2Fthe-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene%2F&id=twitter-widget-0&lang=en&original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com%2F2013%2F08%2F09%2Fthe-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene%2F&size=m&text=Beekeeping%20in%20the%20Anthropocene%3A&url=http%3A%2F%2Fti.me%2F16zfJb8&via=TIME" style="height: 20px; width: 110px;" title="Twitter Tweet Button"></iframe> </li>
<li class="share-gp" data-omniture-event="google+" style="display: inline; list-style: none;"><div id="___plusone_0" style="border-style: none; display: inline-block; float: none; font-size: 1px; height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 90px;">
<iframe data-gapiattached="true" frameborder="0" hspace="0" id="I2_1393160359284" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="I2_1393160359284" scrolling="no" src="https://apis.google.com/u/0/_/+1/fastbutton?usegapi=1&bsv=o&size=medium&origin=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com%2F2013%2F08%2F09%2Fthe-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene%2F&gsrc=3p&jsh=m%3B%2F_%2Fscs%2Fapps-static%2F_%2Fjs%2Fk%3Doz.gapi.en.ARdzhJzjAKE.O%2Fm%3D__features__%2Fam%3DIQ%2Frt%3Dj%2Fd%3D1%2Ft%3Dzcms%2Frs%3DAItRSTNV33s2-kZGlLywO7t_o6C3oU3STA#_methods=onPlusOne%2C_ready%2C_close%2C_open%2C_resizeMe%2C_renderstart%2Concircled%2Cdrefresh%2Cerefresh&id=I2_1393160359284&parent=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com&pfname=&rpctoken=25944550" style="border-style: none; height: 20px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; position: static; top: 0px; visibility: visible; width: 90px;" tabindex="0" title="+1" vspace="0" width="100%"></iframe></div>
</li>
<li class="share-in" data-omniture-event="linkedin" style="display: inline; list-style: none;"><span class="IN-widget" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="display: inline-block !important; font-size: 1px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; vertical-align: baseline !important;"><span id="li_ui_li_gen_1393160357882_0" style="display: block !important; overflow: visible !important; position: relative !important;"><a href="" id="li_ui_li_gen_1393160357882_0-link" style="border: 0px !important; display: inline-block !important; height: 20px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;"><span id="li_ui_li_gen_1393160357882_0-logo" style="background-image: url(http://s.c.lnkd.licdn.com/scds/common/u/img/sprite/sprite_connect_v13.png) !important; background-position: 0px -276px !important; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat !important; border: 0px !important; cursor: pointer !important; display: block !important; float: right !important; height: 20px !important; left: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; overflow: hidden !important; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; text-indent: -9999em !important; top: 0px !important; width: 20px !important;">in</span><span id="li_ui_li_gen_1393160357882_0-title" style="background-color: rgb(236, 236, 236) !important; background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, rgb(254, 254, 254) 0%, rgb(236, 236, 236) 100%) !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(185, 185, 185) !important; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px !important; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-right-color: rgb(191, 191, 191) !important; border-right-style: solid !important; border-top-color: rgb(226, 226, 226) !important; border-top-left-radius: 0px !important; border-top-right-radius: 2px !important; border-top-style: solid !important; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 0px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51) !important; cursor: pointer !important; display: block !important; float: left !important; height: 18px !important; line-height: 20px !important; margin-left: 1px !important; overflow: hidden !important; padding: 0px 4px 0px 23px !important; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px !important; vertical-align: top !important; white-space: nowrap !important;"><span id="li_ui_li_gen_1393160357882_0-mark" style="display: inline-block !important; overflow: hidden !important; width: 0px !important;"></span><span id="li_ui_li_gen_1393160357882_0-title-text" style="background-color: transparent !important; background-image: none !important; display: inline-block !important; float: none !important; font-family: Arial, sans-serif !important; font-size: 11px !important; font-weight: bold !important; height: 18px !important; vertical-align: top !important;">Share</span></span></a></span></span><span style="display: inline-block !important; font-size: 1px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; vertical-align: baseline !important;"><span class="IN-right" id="li_ui_li_gen_1393160357914_1-container" style="cursor: pointer !important; display: inline-block !important; float: left !important; height: 18px !important; overflow: visible !important; padding-left: 2px !important; position: relative !important;"><span class="IN-right" id="li_ui_li_gen_1393160357914_1" style="background-image: url(http://s.c.lnkd.licdn.com/scds/common/u/img/sprite/sprite_connect_v13.png) !important; background-position-x: 100%; background-position-y: -100px !important; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat !important; display: block !important; float: left !important; height: 18px !important; margin-right: 4px !important; padding-right: 4px !important;"><span class="IN-right" id="li_ui_li_gen_1393160357914_1-inner" style="background-image: url(http://s.c.lnkd.licdn.com/scds/common/u/img/sprite/sprite_connect_v13.png) !important; background-position: 0px -60px !important; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat !important; display: block !important; float: left !important; padding-left: 8px !important;"><span class="IN-right" id="li_ui_li_gen_1393160357914_1-content" style="color: rgb(4, 85, 139) !important; display: inline !important; font-family: Arial, sans-serif !important; font-size: 11px !important; font-weight: bold !important; line-height: 18px !important; padding: 0px 5px !important;">27</span></span></span></span></span></span> </li>
<li class="share-pn" data-omniture-event="pinterest" style="display: inline; list-style: none; padding: 0px 12px 0px 16px;"><a class="PIN_1393160359105_pin_it_button_20 PIN_1393160359105_pin_it_button_en_20_gray PIN_1393160359105_pin_it_button_inline_20 PIN_1393160359105_pin_it_none_20" data-pin-config="none" data-pin-log="button_pinit" href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com%2F2013%2F08%2F09%2Fthe-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene%2F&media=http%3A%2F%2Ftimeecocentric.files.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F08%2F150652937.jpg%3Fw%3D100%26h%3D100%26crop%3D1&guid=EoxVH9JEHGWe-0&description=The+Trouble+with+Beekeeping+in+the+Anthropocene" style="background-image: url(http://passets.pinterest.com/images/pidgets/pinit_bg_en_rect_gray_20_1.png) !important; background-position: 0px -20px; background-size: 40px 60px !important; color: black; display: inline-block !important; height: 20px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; position: relative !important; text-decoration: none !important; vertical-align: baseline !important; width: 40px !important;" target="_blank"></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="read-later" style="display: inline-block; float: left; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px; position: relative;"><a href="http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/#" style="background-image: linear-gradient(rgb(253, 253, 253), rgb(240, 240, 240)); border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(202, 202, 202); color: #232323; display: block; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; height: 18px; line-height: 20px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; width: 75px; z-index: 8;">Read Later</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="entry-content" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 0.875em; line-height: 1.57143em; margin-bottom: 34px;">
<figure class="entry-thumb entry-thumb-m " style="float: right; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 20px 79.328125px; width: 1142.515625px;"><div class="responsive" data-responsive="">
<img alt="150652937" src="http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/150652937.jpg?w=360&h=240&crop=1" style="border: 0px; display: block; max-width: 100%; width: 1142.515625px;" title="150652937" /></div>
<figcaption><small class="entry-thumb-credit" style="color: #888888; display: block; font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 1.3; margin: 7px 0px 5px; min-height: 1em; text-align: right;">Allan Baxter via Getty Images</small><div class="entry-thumb-caption" style="font-size: 0.85714em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;">
Besides being a handy symbol of environmental decline, the honeybee also does some pollination</div>
</figcaption></figure><aside class="post-rail" style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-left: 158.671875px; margin-top: 16px; width: 180px;"><div class="post-rail-content" data-set="post-rail">
<div class="moving-markup">
<div class="entry-tools group">
<ul class="share-tools content-actions group" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; font-size: 0.92857em; font-weight: bold; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li class="email ca-1" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; display: inline-block; margin-left: 0px;"><a data-omniture-event="email" href="http://cgi.timeinc.net/cgi-bin/mail/mailurl2friend.cgi?path=/time/emailFriend&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com%2F2013%2F08%2F09%2Fthe-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene%2F&group=time&title=The+Trouble+with+Beekeeping+in+the+Anthropocene" style="color: #171616; display: inline-block; padding: 4px 0px 4px 10px; text-decoration: none; width: 74px;" target="_blank"><span class="icon" style="background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2012/library/assets/images/entry-share-sprite.png); background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: inline-block; height: 13px; margin-right: 4px; position: relative; top: 2px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 15px;"></span>Email</a></li>
<li class="print ca-2" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; display: inline-block; margin-left: 8px;"><a data-omniture-event="print" href="http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/print/" style="color: #171616; display: inline-block; padding: 4px 0px; text-decoration: none; width: 84px;" target="_blank"><span class="icon" style="background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2012/library/assets/images/entry-share-sprite.png); background-position: 100% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: inline-block; height: 13px; margin-right: 4px; position: relative; top: 2px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 15px;"></span>Print</a></li>
<li class="share ca-3 selected" style="border-bottom-style: none; display: inline-block; margin-left: 0px; position: relative; width: 84px; z-index: 20;"><a href="http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/#" style="background-color: white; border-left-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; box-shadow: rgb(222, 222, 222) 0px 1px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; color: #171616; display: block; padding: 4px 0px 4px 10px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; text-indent: -1px; width: 110px; z-index: 99;"><span class="icon" style="background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2012/library/assets/images/entry-share-sprite.png); background-position: 0px -52px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: inline-block; height: 13px; margin-right: 4px; position: relative; top: 2px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 15px;"></span>Share</a><ul class="share-icons" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); border-left-style: solid; border-right-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); border-right-style: solid; border-width: 0px 1px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: -1px 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px; position: absolute; width: 110px; z-index: 98;">
<li class="facebook"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?s=100&p[url]=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com%2F2013%2F08%2F09%2Fthe-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene%2F&p[title]=The+Trouble+with+Beekeeping+in+the+Anthropocene&p[summary]=The+beepocalypse+is+on+the+cover+of+TIME%2C+but+it+looks+like+managed+honeybees+will+still+pull+through.+Wild+bees%E2%80%94and+wild+species+in+general%E2%80%94won%26%238217%3Bt+be+so+lucky+in+a+human-dominated+planet%0A&p[images][]=http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/150652937.jpg?w=240" style="background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2012/library/assets/images/share_icons.jpg); background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #171616; display: block; font-size: 0.85em; font-weight: normal; height: 20px; line-height: 20px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; text-decoration: none; width: 74px;" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
<li class="twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fti.me%2F16zfJb8&text=Beekeeping%20in%20the%20Anthropocene:&via=TIME" style="background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2012/library/assets/images/share_icons.jpg); background-position: 0px -20px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #171616; display: block; font-size: 0.85em; font-weight: normal; height: 20px; line-height: 20px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; text-decoration: none; width: 74px;" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li>
<li class="tumblr"><a href="http://www.tumblr.com/share/link?url=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com%2F2013%2F08%2F09%2Fthe-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene%2F&name=" style="background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2012/library/assets/images/share_icons.jpg); background-position: 0px -40px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #171616; display: block; font-size: 0.85em; font-weight: normal; height: 20px; line-height: 20px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; text-decoration: none; width: 74px;" target="_blank">Tumblr</a></li>
<li class="linkedin"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com%2F2013%2F08%2F09%2Fthe-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene%2F&title=The+Trouble+with+Beekeeping+in+the+Anthropocene&summary=The+beepocalypse+is+on+the+cover+of+TIME%2C+but+it+looks+like+managed+honeybees+will+still+pull+through.+Wild+bees%E2%80%94and+wild+species+in+general%E2%80%94won%26%238217%3Bt+be+so+lucky+in+a+human-dominated+planet%0A&source=TIME" style="background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2012/library/assets/images/share_icons.jpg); background-position: 0px -60px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #171616; display: block; font-size: 0.85em; font-weight: normal; height: 20px; line-height: 20px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; text-decoration: none; width: 74px;" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></li>
<li class="stumbleupon"><a href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com%2F2013%2F08%2F09%2Fthe-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene%2F&title=The+Trouble+with+Beekeeping+in+the+Anthropocene" style="background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2012/library/assets/images/share_icons.jpg); background-position: 0px -80px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #171616; display: block; font-size: 0.85em; font-weight: normal; height: 20px; line-height: 20px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; text-decoration: none; width: 74px;" target="_blank">StumbleUpon</a></li>
<li class="reddit"><a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com%2F2013%2F08%2F09%2Fthe-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene%2F&title=The+Trouble+with+Beekeeping+in+the+Anthropocene" style="background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2012/library/assets/images/share_icons.jpg); background-position: 0px -103px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #171616; display: block; font-size: 0.85em; font-weight: normal; height: 20px; line-height: 20px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; text-decoration: none; width: 74px;" target="_blank">Reddit</a></li>
<li class="digg"><a href="http://digg.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com%2F2013%2F08%2F09%2Fthe-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene%2F&title=The+Trouble+with+Beekeeping+in+the+Anthropocene" style="background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2012/library/assets/images/share_icons.jpg); background-position: 0px -125px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #171616; display: block; font-size: 0.85em; font-weight: normal; height: 20px; line-height: 20px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; text-decoration: none; width: 74px;" target="_blank">Digg</a></li>
<li class="mixx"><a href="http://mixx.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com%2F2013%2F08%2F09%2Fthe-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene%2F&title=The+Trouble+with+Beekeeping+in+the+Anthropocene" style="background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2012/library/assets/images/share_icons.jpg); background-position: 0px -145px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #171616; display: block; font-size: 0.85em; font-weight: normal; height: 20px; line-height: 20px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; text-decoration: none; width: 74px;" target="_blank">Mixx</a></li>
<li class="delicious"><a href="http://delicious.com/post?url=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com%2F2013%2F08%2F09%2Fthe-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene%2F&title=The+Trouble+with+Beekeeping+in+the+Anthropocene" style="background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2012/library/assets/images/share_icons.jpg); background-position: 0px -166px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #171616; display: block; font-size: 0.85em; font-weight: normal; height: 20px; line-height: 20px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; text-decoration: none; width: 74px;" target="_blank">Delicious</a></li>
<li class="google"><a href="https://plusone.google.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.time.com%2F2013%2F08%2F09%2Fthe-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene%2F" style="background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2012/library/assets/images/share_icons.jpg); background-position: 0px -187px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #171616; display: block; font-size: 0.85em; font-weight: normal; height: 20px; line-height: 20px; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 35px !important; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; width: 74px;" target="_blank">Google+</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="comment ca-4" style="border-bottom-style: none; display: inline-block; margin-left: 8px;"><a data-omniture-event="comment-click" href="http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/#comments" style="color: #171616; display: inline-block; padding: 4px 0px; text-decoration: none; width: 84px;"><span class="icon" style="background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2012/library/assets/images/entry-share-sprite.png); background-position: -92px -26px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: inline-block; height: 13px; margin-right: 4px; position: relative; top: 2px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 15px;"></span>Comment</a></li>
</ul>
<div class="follow" style="font-size: 0.92857em; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">
<div style="margin-top: 8px;">
<span class="icon twitter" style="background-image: url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/time2012/library/assets/images/twitter-bird.png); background-position: 50% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: inline-block; height: 15px; position: relative; top: 2px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 19px;"></span> Follow <a href="http://twitter.com/TIME" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@TIME</a></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</aside><div style="margin-bottom: 22px; margin-top: 16px;">
I’ve written this week’s cover story for the magazine, on the growing threat to honeybees. You can read it (with a subscription) over <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2149141,00.html?pcd=pw-edit" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="TIME">here</a>. The short version: beginning nearly a decade ago, honeybees started dying off at unusually and mysteriously high rates—this past winter, <a href="http://science.time.com/2013/05/07/beepocalypse-redux-honey-bees-are-still-dying-and-we-still-dont-know-why/" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Beepocalypse Redux: Honeybees Are Still Dying — and We Still Don’t Know Why">nearly one-third</a> of U.S. honeybee colonies died or disappeared. At first this appeared due to something called <a href="http://science.time.com/2013/05/07/beepocalypse-redux-honey-bees-are-still-dying-and-we-still-dont-know-why/" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Beepocalypse Redux: Honeybees Are Still Dying — and We Still Don’t Know Why">colony collapse disorder</a> (CCD); hives would be abandoned without warning, with bees seemingly leaving honey and intact wax behind. The apocalyptic nature of CCD—some people really thought the disappearance of the bees indicated that the <a href="http://raptureimminent.wordpress.com/tag/colony-collapse-disorder/" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Rapture">Rapture was nigh</a>—grabbed the public’s attention. More recently, beekeepers have been seeing fewer cases of CCD proper, but honeybees keep dying and bees keep collapsing. That’s bad for our food system—bees add at least $15 billion in crop value through pollination in the U.S. alone, and if colony losses keep up, those <a href="http://science.time.com/2013/05/07/beepocalypse-redux-honey-bees-are-still-dying-and-we-still-dont-know-why/" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Beepocalypse Redux: Honeybees Are Still Dying — and We Still Don’t Know Why">pollination demands may not be met</a>and valuable crops like almonds could wither.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 22px; margin-top: 16px;">
More than the bottom line for grocery stores, though, the honeybee’s plight alarms us because a species that we have tended and depended on for thousands of years is dying—and we don’t really know why. Tom Theobald, a beekeeper and blogger who has raised the alarm about CCD, put that fear this way: “The bees are just the beginning.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 22px; margin-top: 16px;">
<span id="more-16607"></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 22px; margin-top: 16px;">
(<strong>PHOTOS:</strong> <a href="http://lightbox.time.com/2013/08/08/the-bee-magnified-microscopic-photography-by-rose-lynn-fisher/#1" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;">The Bee, Magnified: Microscopic Photography by Rose-Lynn Fisher</a>)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 22px; margin-top: 16px;">
But while we don’t now we exactly what causes CCD or why honeybees are dying in larger numbers, we do know the suspects: pesticides, including the newer class of neonicotinoids that seem to affect bees even at very low levels; biological threats like the vampiric <em>Varroa </em>mite; and the lack of nutrition thanks to monocultures of commodity crops like wheat and corn, which offer honeybees little in the way of the pollen they need to survive. Most likely, bee deaths are due to a mix of all of those menaces acting together—pesticides and lack of food might weaken honeybees, and pests like <em>Varroa </em>could finish them off, spreading diseases the bees don’t have the strength to resist. Unfortunately, that means there’s no simple way to save the honeybees either. Simply banning, say, neonicotinoids might take some of the pressure off honeybees, but most scientists agree it wouldn’t solve the problem. (And getting rid of neonicotinoids would have unpredictable consequences for agriculture—the pesticides were adopted in part because they are considered safer for mammals, including human beings.) Honeybees are suffering because we’ve created a world that is increasingly inhospitable to them.</div>
<div class="vid-embed bcove-player" data-videoid="2591408791001" style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 1274.625px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative;">
<span style="font-size: 0.875em; line-height: 1.57143em;">Still, for all the alarm, honeybees are likely to pull through. As I point out in the magazine piece, beekeepers have mostly managed to replace lost colonies, though at a cost high enough that some long-time beekeepers are getting out of the business altogether. Beekeepers are buying new queens and splitting their hives, which cuts into productivity and honey production, but keeps their colony numbers high enough to so far meet pollination demands. They’re adding supplemental feed—often sugar or corn syrup—to compensate for the lack of wild forage. The scientific and agricultural community is engaged—see Monsanto’s</span><span style="font-size: 0.875em; line-height: 1.57143em;"> </span><a href="http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/monsanto-hopes-to-win-over-beekeepers-with-cure/article_19e82066-0e5f-5a57-bcfd-9232d81db401.html" style="color: #1b5288; font-size: 0.875em; line-height: 1.57143em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Honeybee">recent honeybee summit</a><span style="font-size: 0.875em; line-height: 1.57143em;">, and the company’s work on a genetic weapon against the</span><span style="font-size: 0.875em; line-height: 1.57143em;"> </span><em style="font-size: 0.875em; line-height: 1.57143em;">Varroa</em><span style="font-size: 0.875em; line-height: 1.57143em;"> </span><span style="font-size: 0.875em; line-height: 1.57143em;">mite. Randy Oliver, a beekeeper and independent researcher, told me that he could see honeybees becoming a feedlot animal like pigs or chickens, bred and kept for one purpose and having their food brought to them, rather than foraging in the semi-wild way they live now. That sounds alarming—and it’s not something anyone in the beekeeping industry would like to see—but it’s also important to remember that honeybees themselves aren’t exactly natural, especially in North America, where they were imported by European settlers in the 17th century. As Hannah Nordhaus, the author of the great book </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/B00D9TBIMI" style="color: #1b5288; font-size: 0.875em; line-height: 1.57143em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="amazon"><em>A Beekeeper’s Lament</em></a><span style="font-size: 0.875em; line-height: 1.57143em;">,</span><span style="font-size: 0.875em; line-height: 1.57143em;"> </span><a href="http://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/journal/past-issues/issue-1/an-environmental-journalists-lament/" style="color: #1b5288; font-size: 0.875em; line-height: 1.57143em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="issue">has written</a><span style="font-size: 0.875em; line-height: 1.57143em;">, honeybees have always been much more dependent on human beings than the other way around.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 22px; margin-top: 16px;">
(<strong>WATCH:</strong><a href="http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,2591571063001_2149180,00.html" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;" title="Are Robotic Bees the Future?"> Are Robotic Bees the Future?</a>)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 22px; margin-top: 16px;">
The reality is that honeybees are very useful to human beings, and species that are very useful to us—think domesticated animals and pets—tend to do OK in the <a href="http://science.time.com/2012/12/18/do-we-need-a-new-environmentalism/" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Anthropocene: Do We Need a New Environmentalism for a New Age?">increasingly human-dominated world</a> we call the Anthropocene. But other wild species aren’t so lucky—and that includes the thousands of species of wild bees and other non-domesticated pollinators. Bumblebees have experienced <a href="http://news.discovery.com/animals/insects/study-bumble-bees-at-risk-while-others-thrive-13030.htm" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Bumble">recent and rapid population loss</a> in the U.S., punctuated by a mass pesticide poisoning in Oregon this past June that led to the <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/28/memorial-to-honor-50000-bumble-bees-that-died-in-oregon-parking-lot/" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="50,000">deaths of some 50,000 bumblebees</a>. A 2006 <a href="http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/nas_report_in_brief.pdf" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Content">report</a> by the National Academies of Science concluded that the populations of many other wild pollinators—especially wild bees—was trending “demonstrably downward.” The threats are much the same ones faced by managed honeybees: pesticides, lack of wild forage, parasites and disease. The difference is that there are thousands of human beings who make it their business to care for and prop up the populations of honeybees. No one is doing the same thing for wild bees. The supposed beepocalypse is on the cover of<em>TIME </em>magazine, but “you don’t hear about the decline of hundreds of species of wild bees,” says Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 22px; margin-top: 16px;">
(<strong>MORE:</strong> <a href="http://science.time.com/2013/08/08/behind-the-bees-knees-the-origins-of-nine-bee-idioms/" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;">Behind the Bee’s Knees: The Origins of Nine Bee-Inspired Sayings</a>)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 22px; margin-top: 16px;">
That’s meant almost literally—we don’t hear them anymore. The plight of the bees illustrates our outsized influence on the this planet as we reshape it—consciously and not—to meet our immediate needs. But just because we have this power doesn’t mean we fully understand it, or our impact on our own world. We are a species that increasingly has omnipotence without omniscience. That’s a dangerous combination for the animals and plants that share this planet with us. And eventually, it will be dangerous for us, too.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 22px; margin-top: 16px;">
<em><strong><a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2149141,00.html?pcd=pw-edit" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;">Subscribe here</a> to read Bryan Walsh’s full </strong></em><strong>TIME</strong><em><strong> cover story on A World Without Bees. Already a subscriber? <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2149141,00.html?pcd=pw-edit" style="color: #1b5288; text-decoration: none;">Read it here.</a></strong></em></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /><br />Read more: <a href="http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/#ixzz2u9ME679K" style="color: #003399; text-decoration: none;">Wild bees are in even worse shape than honeybees | TIME.com</a> <a href="http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/#ixzz2u9ME679K" style="color: #003399; text-decoration: none;">http://science.time.com/2013/08/09/the-trouble-with-beekeeping-in-the-anthropocene/#ixzz2u9ME679K</a></span></div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-59502104168308529022014-01-16T03:13:00.001-08:002014-01-16T03:30:42.858-08:00Stimulating Honeybees for 2014 Almond Pollination<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Via a new, great find, <a href="http://waywardspark.com/stimulating-honeybees-for-2014-almond-pollination/#mc_signup" target="_blank">Wayward Spark</a><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 10px;">- See more at: http://waywardspark.com/stimulating-honeybees-for-2014-almond-pollination/#mc_signup</span></div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-4696822605510895212014-01-14T04:56:00.001-08:002014-01-14T04:56:35.488-08:00Bad for bees, bad for kids | Pesticide Action Network<a href="http://www.panna.org/blog/bad-bees-bad-kids">Bad for bees, bad for kids | Pesticide Action Network</a>Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-51385791021456764532014-01-14T04:55:00.001-08:002014-01-14T04:55:31.181-08:00USDA’s Green Light for Pesticide-Promoting, Genetically-Engineered (GE) Corn Opposed by Farmers, Scientists and Public Interest Groups | Pesticide Action Network<a href="http://www.panna.org/media-center/press-release/usda-genetically-engineered-corn-opposed-by-farmers-scientists-public-interest">USDA’s Green Light for Pesticide-Promoting, Genetically-Engineered (GE) Corn Opposed by Farmers, Scientists and Public Interest Groups | Pesticide Action Network</a>Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-43664613512304894772014-01-14T04:50:00.001-08:002014-01-14T04:50:54.316-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.panna.org/blog">http://www.panna.org/blog</a></div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-15981359240581493202013-11-19T03:48:00.001-08:002013-11-19T03:48:45.504-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.panna.org/current-campaigns/bees?gclid=CNmV3Y3j8LoCFVGCQgodY2UAzQ" target="_blank">Pesticides & Pollinator Decline</a><br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #434343; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.56em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px 10px;">
Bees have been dying off in droves around the world since the mid-1990s. First in France, then in the U.S. and elsewhere, colonies have been mysteriously collapsing with adult bees disappearing, seemingly abandoning their hives. In 2006, about two years after this phenomenon hit the U.S., it was named “Colony Collapse Disorder,” or CCD. Each year since commercial beekeepers have reported annual losses of 29% - 36%. Such losses are unprecedented, and more than double what is considered normal.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #434343; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.56em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px 10px;">
While wild pollinators like <a href="http://www.panna.org/resources/panups/panup_20100115#2" style="color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;">bats</a> and <a href="http://www.xerces.org/bumblebees/" style="color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;" target="_blank">bumble bees</a> are also facing catastrophic declines, managed honey bees are the most economically important pollinators in the world. <a href="http://www.panna.org/blog/global-report-bee-decline-tip-iceberg" style="color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;">According to a recent U.N. report</a>, of the 100 crops that provide 90% of the world's food, over 70 are pollinated by bees. In the U.S. alone, honey bees’ economic contribution is <a href="http://www.panna.org/sites/default/files/EconValue_US%20Pollination_Morse&Calderone_0.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/modules/iconizer/files_icons/icon_pdf.gif); background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; padding: 5px 20px 5px 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;">valued at over $15 billion</a>.</div>
<h3 style="background-color: white; color: #4f4f4f; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 2.2em; margin: 20px 0px 5px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px;">
What the bees are telling us</h3>
<div id="box" style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #434343; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; margin: 7px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 310px;">
<div id="lb" style="background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/themes/deepsea/images/l.gif); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: no-repeat repeat;">
<div id="rb" style="background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/themes/deepsea/images/r.gif); background-position: 100% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat repeat;">
<div id="bb" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/themes/deepsea/images/bb.gif); background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">
<div id="blc" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/themes/deepsea/images/blc.gif); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">
<div id="brc" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/themes/deepsea/images/brc.gif); background-position: 100% 100%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">
<div id="tb" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/themes/deepsea/images/tb.gif); background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">
<div id="tlc" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/themes/deepsea/images/tlc.gif); background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">
<div id="trc" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/themes/deepsea/images/trc.gif); background-position: 100% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">
<div id="boxcontent" style="padding: 2em;">
<h4 style="color: #4f4f4f; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 2.2em; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px;">
<strong>State of the Science</strong></h4>
<div style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span style="font-size: 12px;"><img alt="State of the Science: Pesticides & Bees" src="http://www.panna.org/sites/default/files/user1/bees-state-science.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: left; height: 108px; margin-left: 7px; margin-right: 7px; width: 83px;" />PAN's report <em>Honey Bees and Pesticides: State of the Science</em> presents findings from dozens of scientific studies, focusing on the link between pesticides and CCD. <a href="http://www.panna.org/sites/default/files/Bees&Pesticides_SOS_FINAL_May2012.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/modules/iconizer/files_icons/icon_pdf.gif); background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; padding: 5px 20px 5px 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;">Download here»</a></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #434343; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.56em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px 10px;">
U.S. commercial beekeepers report that their industry is on the verge of collapse, and farmers who rely on pollination services are increasingly concerned. It's unlikely that such a collapse will directly result in a food security crisis, but crop yields would decline signficantly, and more acres of land would need to be put into production to meet demand.<a href="http://www.panna.org/current-campaigns/bees?gclid=CNmV3Y3j8LoCFVGCQgodY2UAzQ#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" style="color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;" title="">[1]</a> With most fruits, many vegetables, almonds, alfalfa and many other crops all dependent upon bees for pollination, the variety and nutritional value of our food system is threatened.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #434343; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.56em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px 10px;">
In addition to their agricultural value as pollinators, honey bees are a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_species" style="color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;" target="_blank">keystone</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indicator_species" style="color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;" target="_blank">indicator species</a>. Their decline points to (and will likely accelerate) broader environmental degradation in a kind of ripple effect. Pollinator population declines are thus a disproportionately important piece of the current collapse in biodiversity that <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/animal-extinction--the-greatest-threat-to-mankind-397939.html" style="color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;" target="_blank">seven in ten biologists</a>believe poses an even greater threat to humanity than the global warming which contributes to it. Little-known fact: we are today living through a sixth mass extinction. During the last one, dinosaurs went extinct.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #434343; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.56em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px 10px;">
As indicator species, honey bees are sounding an alarm that we ignore at our peril. Among their lessons: industrial agriculture has gone off the rails, kicking the <a href="http://www.panna.org/sites/default/files/BenbrookLecture_Systemics.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/modules/iconizer/files_icons/icon_pdf.gif); background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; padding: 5px 20px 5px 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;">pesticide treadmill into high gear</a>with a new class of dangerous systemic pesticides while <a href="http://www.grist.org/article/food-2010-12-10-leaked-documents-show-epa-allowed-bee-toxic-pesticide-" style="color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;" target="_blank">regulators were asleep at the switch</a>.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #434343; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.56em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<a href="http://www.honeybeehaven.org/" style="color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;" target="_blank"><img alt="Help bees" src="http://www.panna.org/sites/default/files/user1/help_bees_button_small.png" style="border: 0px; float: left; height: 38px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; width: 98px;" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.honeybeehaven.org/" style="color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;" target="_blank">Visit the new Honey Bee Haven site and sign the pledge to protect pollinators.</a></div>
<div id="box" style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #434343; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px; margin: 7px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 310px;">
<div id="lb" style="background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/themes/deepsea/images/l.gif); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: no-repeat repeat;">
<div id="rb" style="background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/themes/deepsea/images/r.gif); background-position: 100% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat repeat;">
<div id="bb" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/themes/deepsea/images/bb.gif); background-position: 50% 100%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">
<div id="blc" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/themes/deepsea/images/blc.gif); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">
<div id="brc" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/themes/deepsea/images/brc.gif); background-position: 100% 100%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">
<div id="tb" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/themes/deepsea/images/tb.gif); background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;">
<div id="tlc" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/themes/deepsea/images/tlc.gif); background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">
<div id="trc" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/themes/deepsea/images/trc.gif); background-position: 100% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">
<div id="boxcontent" style="padding: 2em;">
<h4 style="color: #4f4f4f; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 2.2em; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px;">
<strong>Neonicotinoids at-a-glance</strong></h4>
<ul style="line-height: 1.56em; list-style-image: url(http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/images/list-arrow.png);">
<li style="margin-left: -8px; padding: 0px 20px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Very persistent in soil & water soluble.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: -8px; padding: 0px 20px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Systemic pesticides applied at the root (as seed coating or drench) & then taken up through the plant’s vascular system to be expressed in pollen, nectar & <a href="http://www.panna.org/resources/panups/panup_20100430#3" style="color: #58694f; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;">guttation droplets</a>(like dew) from which bees then forage & drink.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: -8px; padding: 0px 20px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/pesticide.jsp?pesticide=967" style="color: #58694f; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;" target="_blank">Systemics on food</a> cannot be washed off.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: -8px; padding: 0px 20px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Nicotine-like, neurotoxic insecticides that bind to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in insects’ brains.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: -8px; padding: 0px 20px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Bees have a <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17065616" style="color: #58694f; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;" target="_blank">particular genetic vulnerability</a> to these & other pesticides because they have more of these receptors, as well as more learning & memory genes, & fewer genes for detoxification.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: -8px; padding: 0px 20px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Widely used on more than 140 crop varieties, as well as on termites, flea treatments, lawns & gardens.</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: -8px; padding: 0px 20px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18712805" style="color: #58694f; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;" target="_blank">Fastest-growing class</a> of synthetic pesticides in history. Imidacloprid is Bayer Crop Science's <a href="http://www.bayercropscience.com/bcsweb/cropprotection.nsf/id/FactsFigures" style="color: #58694f; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;" target="_blank">top-selling</a>product.</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #434343; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.1875px;">
<h3 style="color: #4f4f4f; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 2.2em; margin: 20px 0px 5px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px;">
What we know</h3>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.56em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px 10px;">
Much has been made over the "mystery" surrounding CCD, but in recent years two points of consensus have emerged:</div>
<ol>
<li style="margin-left: 20px; padding: 0px 30px 0px 2px;"><em>Multiple, interacting causes</em> are in play – key suspects include pathogens, habitat loss and pesticides; and</li>
<li style="margin-left: 20px; padding: 0px 30px 0px 2px;"><em>Immune system damage</em> is a critical factor that may be at the root of the disorder.</li>
</ol>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.56em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px 10px;">
Meanwhile, a new class of systemic, neurotoxic pesticides that are known to be particularly toxic to honey bees has rapidly taken over the global insecticide market since their introduction in the 1990s: neonicotinoids. Neonicotinoids (like imidacloprid and its successor product clothianidin) are used as seed treatments in hundreds of crops from corn to almonds, as well as in lawn care and flea products. These products persist for years in the soil, and, as systemics, permeate the plants to which they are applied to be expressed as pollen, nectar and<a href="http://www.panna.org/resources/panups/panup_20100430#3" style="color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;">guttation droplets</a> (like pesticide dew).</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.56em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px 10px;">
Honey bee exposure to this class of pesticides is, in other words, nearly pervasive – and in the U.S. the rate of seed treatment with these insecticides increased five-fold around the same time CCD hit the U.S.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.56em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<a href="http://www.panna.org/sites/default/files/Alaux_Neonics+Nosema.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://www.panna.org/sites/all/modules/iconizer/files_icons/icon_pdf.gif); background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; padding: 5px 20px 5px 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;">Recent science</a> shows that extremely low dose exposures to neonicotinoids undermine immunity – rendering honey bees more susceptible to pathogens. And beekeepers in the U.S. and Europe have, for years, been <a href="http://www.panna.org/blog/beekeepers-call-immediate-ban-ccd-linked-pesticide" style="color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;">asking governments to pull or restrict this class of pesticides</a> because they believe them to be harming hive health. </div>
<h3 style="color: #4f4f4f; font-size: 1.3em; line-height: 2.2em; margin: 20px 0px 5px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px;">
Decisive action is overdue</h3>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.56em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px 10px;">
Governments in Italy, Germany, France and elsewhere have already taken action against neonicotinoids to protect their pollinators. And beekeepers there are reporting recovery. Yet regulators in the U.S. remain paralyzed, apparently captive to <a href="http://www.panna.org/issues/pesticides-profit/corporate-science" style="color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;">industry-funded science</a> and a regulatory framework that finds chemicals innocent until proven guilty.</div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.56em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px 10px;">
It seems that only massive public outcry will compel U.S. policymakers to take action on a timeframe that is meaningful for bees and beekeepers. <strong>With one in every three bites of food dependent on honey bees for pollination, the time for decisive action is now.</strong></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 0.95em; line-height: 1.56em; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px 10px;">
<span style="font-size: 10px;"><a href="http://www.panna.org/current-campaigns/bees?gclid=CNmV3Y3j8LoCFVGCQgodY2UAzQ#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" style="color: #7b6777; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px;" title="">[1]</a> Spivak M, Mader E, Vaughan M, et al., The plight of the bees, <em>Environmental Science and Technology</em> (45) 34-38, 2011.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-30999114202558563542013-10-03T23:17:00.002-07:002013-10-03T23:17:28.622-07:00Why Are Bees Disappearing?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="http://embed.ted.com/talks/marla_spivak_why_bees_are_disappearing.html" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-16951599899439837792013-08-03T02:07:00.001-07:002013-08-03T02:07:43.817-07:0050% of US Bees Dead. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_5B0quVwJyY/UfzITgI-qyI/AAAAAAAABNU/iG7BFt7deYw/s1600/2011211-bee.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_5B0quVwJyY/UfzITgI-qyI/AAAAAAAABNU/iG7BFt7deYw/s320/2011211-bee.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 32px; letter-spacing: -1px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
“We’ve been doing this 30 years, & we’ve never experienced this kind of loss before.”~ Jeremy Hance</h1>
<h2 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<br /></h2>
<h2 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Colony Collapse Disorder: Common Pesticides Disrupt Brain Functioning in Bees.</h2>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Update via Reddit r/permaculture:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Recent bee related death reports:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2013/06/pesticide_confirmed_in_bee_dea.html#/0" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;" target="_blank">Bee deaths a result of pesticide Safari; count upped to 50,000 dead insects</a></div>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Meanwhile, other reports of bees dying around Wilsonville and surrounding towns have prompted Xerces to check whether similar pesticides were used elsewhere.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
“My worry is that we’re going to lose sight of the real message,” said Mace Vaughan of Xerces. “I think we’re (using insecticides) all over the place, and people are doing it in their backyards without even knowing it.”</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/04/us-bee-deaths-colony-collapse_n_3379506.html" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;" target="_blank">U.S. Bee Deaths From Colony Collapse Disorder May Be Tied To Diet, Study Finds</a> (Boston, MA)</div>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Agrichemical and pesticide makers like Monsanto, Bayer AG and Syngenta are also launching projects to study and counter colony collapse.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Few deny that pesticides – particularly a class of commonly used insecticides called neonicotinoids – can be harmful to bees in the laboratory. It is unclear what threat the insecticides pose under current agricultural usage. Some scientists say habitat decline and disease-carrying parasites, such as the Varroa mite, are the chief cause of bee deaths.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<a href="http://www.grandhaventribune.com/article/415831" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;" target="_blank">Agri-giants trying to solve bee deaths</a> (St. Louis, MO)</div>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
One of every three bites of food we consume depends on pollination by honeybees, but these overlooked contributors to our food system are continuing to die in stubbornly perplexing ways.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
In 2006, beekeepers started noticing that bees were abandoning their hives, a phenomenon scientists dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder. Since then, the American bee population has dropped by an average of 30 percent every year, sending researchers, beekeepers and farmers into a head-scratching frenzy to figure out the cause.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<a href="http://www.citynews.ca/2013/06/23/study-links-insecticides-to-bee-deaths/" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;" target="_blank">Study links insecticides to bee deaths</a> (Quebec, Canada)</div>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
According to Jean-Pierre Chapleau, spokesman for the Quebec Beekeepers’ Federation, beekeepers want neonicotinoid insecticides banned.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
“Neonicotinoid insecticides are overused,” he says. Chapleau said that beekeepers don’t blame farmers, because they can’t buy seeds that have not been treated with insecticides even if they want to.</div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
The industry says that’s not accurate.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/scottish-bee-deaths-double-in-a-single-year-1-2958182" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;" target="_blank">Scottish bee deaths double in a single year</a> (Scotland)</div>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
SBA president Phil McAnespie said: “Last summer and autumn were very bad, which is obviously an issue and viruses are associated with that. “I think most of the losses are down to the weather. Obviously, there is concern about neonicotinoids and there is ongoing research into that but I don’t think they have played any major part in this [the increase in bee deaths].”</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Update: <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jun/13/honeybee-colonies-england-winter" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Animal agriculture carnage: Third of all honeybee colonies in England did not survive winter</a>(<a href="http://www.reddit.com/domain/guardian.co.uk/" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">guardian.co.uk</a>)</div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Update: <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/03/us-usa-bees-food-idUSBRE9520XM20130603" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Bee keepers’ use of corn syrup and other honey substitutes as bee feed may be contributing to colony collapse</a> (<a href="http://www.reddit.com/domain/reuters.com/" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">reuters.com</a>)</div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Update: <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/05/winter-honeybee-losses/" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">1/3 of US Honeybee Colonies Died Last Winter, Threatening US Food Supply – “We’re getting closer & closer to the point where we don’t have enough bees in this country to meet pollination demands,” said entomologist Dennis vanEngelstorp, who led survey documenting declines.</a> (<a href="http://www.reddit.com/domain/wired.com/" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">wired.com</a>)</div>
<h3 style="border: 0px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Update: It’s confirmed: It’s getting worse. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/science/earth/soaring-bee-deaths-in-2012-sound-alarm-on-malady.html?hp&_r=0" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Cover of the NY Times today, edging out even the Taliban. Thing is, this threat we know how to stop.</a></h3>
</blockquote>
<h4 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
</h4>
<h4 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/science/earth/soaring-bee-deaths-in-2012-sound-alarm-on-malady.html?hp&_r=0" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><img alt="bee colony nytimes bees" class="alignleft size-large wp-image-495335" height="277" src="http://images.elephantjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Screen-Shot-2013-03-29-at-10.28.41-AM-500x471.png" style="border: 0px; color: #343434; float: left; margin: 10px 20px 20px 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;" width="295" /></a></h4>
<h4 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/science/earth/soaring-bee-deaths-in-2012-sound-alarm-on-malady.html?hp&_r=0" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">“Bee Die-Off Soars, Putting Crops at Risk A mysterious malady seems to have expanded drastically in the past year, wiping out as many as half of the beehives needed to pollinate much of America’s produce.”</a></h4>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<h4 style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/science/earth/soaring-bee-deaths-in-2012-sound-alarm-on-malady.html?hp&_r=0" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Exposure to commonly used pesticides directly disrupts brain functioning in bees, according to new research in <i style="border: 0px; color: #343434; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Nature</i>.”</a></h4>
</blockquote>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
While the study is the first to record that popular pesticides directly injure bee brain physiology, it adds to a slew of recent studies showing that pesticides, especially <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonicotinoid" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;" target="_blank">neonicotinoids</a>, are capable of <a href="http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/10/study-we-knew-bees-everywhere-are-dying-we-didnt-know-why-now-we-do-and-its-obvious/" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;" target="_blank">devastating bee hives</a> and may be, at least, partly responsible for on-going Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Christopher Connolly with the University of Dundee in Scotland and his team exposed honeybees to two pesticides at levels encountered in the wild: neonicotinoids and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acaricide" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;" target="_blank">miticidal pesticides</a>.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
By recording brain activity after exposure, the researchers found that both pesticides directly hampered bee brain functioning, including blocking neurons from firing. The findings are especially notable for studying bees after exposure to the miticidal pesticide, which is used directly on bee hives to safeguard them from a common parasite, the <i style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Varroa destructor</i> mite. In this case, however, the cure may be worse than the disease. Connolly explains:</div>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
“Much discussion of the risks posed by the neonicotinoid insecticides has raised important questions of their suitability for use in our environment. However, little consideration has been given to the miticidal pesticides introduced directly into honeybee hives to protect the bees from the Varroa mite. We find that both have negative impact on honeybee brain function.”</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Furthermore the researchers found that when bees were exposed to both chemicals—the neonicotinoids and miticidal pesticides—their brain functioning and learning abilities were hurt even more.</div>
<h4 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
The study is the first to show the direct brain impacts that may explain why bees exposed to these pesticides slow aberrant behavior, including losing their way easily and slow reactions.</h4>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Scientists both in the U.S. and Europe have recorded the complete collapse of hives following exposure. However, pesticide companies have continually argued that their products cause no harm to bees even as high-profile independent research from multiple sources appears to be telling a very different story.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
The research has spurred some policy movement. France has banned the use of neonicotinoids on certain crops. The EU proposed a ban on neonicotinoids for two years after a committee looked at the research for six months. However, the ban was scuttled by opposition from Germany and the UK, though it could still come up in appeal.</div>
<h4 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Most recently, nine beekeeping and environmental groups sued the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to take action to protect bees.</h4>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Bees are key plant pollinators, and <a href="http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/03/what-the-hell-is-happening-to-the-bees/" style="border: 0px; color: #ff3300; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;" target="_blank">their decline </a>has worried scientists, farmers, and policymakers worldwide. In the U.S. alone, bee pollination is estimated to be worth $8-12 billion. While bee declines have occurred in the past, researchers believe this one is much more severe.</div>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #343434; font-family: 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<div style="border: 0px; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<em style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Citation</em>: Mary J. Palmer,Christopher Moffat, Nastja Saranzewa, Jenni Harvey, Geraldine A. Wright, Christopher N. Connolly. Cholinergic pesticides cause mushroom body neuronal inactivation in honeybees. Nature Communications. 4, Article number: 1634. doi:10.1038/ncomms2648.</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-38064563119825658322013-07-25T05:14:00.000-07:002013-07-25T05:14:04.528-07:00A new study has pinpointed some of the probable causes of bee deaths CCD<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DYPHXk_sA6s/UfEWfOfZmVI/AAAAAAAABM8/nQ__b29OdZw/s1600/pic0021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DYPHXk_sA6s/UfEWfOfZmVI/AAAAAAAABM8/nQ__b29OdZw/s320/pic0021.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://qz.com/107970" target="_blank">Your Bees Are Dying</a><br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: PTSerif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 22px;">
The mysterious mass die-off of honey bees that pollinate $30 billion worth of crops in the US has so decimated America’s <i>apis mellifera</i>population that <a href="http://qz.com/81558/america-is-one-bad-winter-away-from-a-food-disaster-thanks-to-dying-bees/" style="color: #168dd9; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">one bad winter could leave fields fallow</a>. Now, a new study has pinpointed some of the probable causes of bee deaths and the rather scary results show that averting beemageddon will be much more difficult than previously thought.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: PTSerif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 22px;">
Scientists had struggled to find the trigger for so-called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that has wiped out an estimated 10 million beehives, worth $2 billion, over the past six years. Suspects have included pesticides, disease-bearing parasites and poor nutrition. But in a first-of-its-kind study <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0070182#authcontrib" style="color: #168dd9; text-decoration: none;">published today in the journal PLOS ONE</a>, scientists at the University of Maryland and the US Department of Agriculture have identified a witch’s brew of pesticides and fungicides contaminating pollen that bees collect to feed their hives. The findings break new ground on why large numbers of bees are dying though they do not identify the specific cause of CCD, where an entire beehive dies at once.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: PTSerif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 22px;">
When researchers collected pollen from hives on the east coast pollinating cranberry, watermelon and other crops and fed it to healthy bees, those bees showed a significant decline in their ability to resist infection by a parasite called<i>Nosema ceranae</i>. The parasite has been implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder though scientists took pains to point out that their findings do not directly link the pesticides to CCD. The pollen was contaminated on average with nine different pesticides and fungicides though scientists discovered 21 agricultural chemicals in one sample. Scientists identified eight ag chemicals associated with increased risk of infection by the parasite.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: PTSerif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 22px;">
Most disturbing, bees that ate pollen contaminated with fungicides were three times as likely to be infected by the parasite. Widely used, fungicides had been thought to be harmless for bees as they’re designed to kill fungus, not insects, on crops like apples.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: PTSerif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 22px;">
“There’s growing evidence that fungicides may be affecting the bees on their own and I think what it highlights is a need to reassess how we label these agricultural chemicals,” Dennis vanEngelsdorp, the study’s lead author, told Quartz.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: PTSerif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 22px;">
Labels on pesticides warn farmers not to spray when pollinating bees are in the vicinity but such precautions have not applied to fungicides.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: PTSerif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 22px;">
Bee populations are so low in the US that it now takes 60% of the country’s surviving colonies just to pollinate one California crop, almonds. And that’s not just a west coast problem—California supplies 80% of the world’s almonds, a market worth $4 billion.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: PTSerif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 22px;">
In recent years, a class of chemicals called neonicotinoids has been linked to bee deaths and in April regulators <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/business/global/30iht-eubees30.html?_r=1&" style="color: #168dd9; text-decoration: none;">banned the use of the pesticide for two years</a> in Europe where bee populations have also plummeted. But vanEngelsdorp, an assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland, says the new study shows that the interaction of multiple pesticides is affecting bee health.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: PTSerif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 22px;">
“The pesticide issue in itself is much more complex than we have led to be believe,” he says. “It’s a lot more complicated than just one product, which means of course the solution does not lie in just banning one class of product.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: PTSerif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 22px;">
The study found another complication in efforts to save the bees: US honey bees, which are descendants of European bees, do not bring home pollen from native North American crops but collect bee chow from nearby weeds and wildflowers. That pollen, however, was also contaminated with pesticides even though those plants were not the target of spraying.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: PTSerif, Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 22px;">
“It’s not clear whether the pesticides are drifting over to those plants but we need take a new look at agricultural spraying practices,” says vanEngelsdorp.</div>
</div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-9135211307539406132013-06-28T02:31:00.001-07:002013-06-28T02:31:05.071-07:00CCD Monsanto Bee Crisis<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="headArticles" style="border: 0px; color: #242424; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; height: auto; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px 10px; min-height: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;">
<h1 style="border: 0px; font-family: Droid-Serif, georgia, serif; font-size: 28px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 33px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Monsanto launches honey bee advisory council</h1>
<div class="articleType clearfix" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1;">
</div>
</div>
<div class="body" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; border: 0px; color: #242424; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px auto; min-height: 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;">
<div class="articleContentWrapper clearfix" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px; zoom: 1;">
<div class="articleContent clearfix" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1;">
<div class="articleContentMedia clearfix" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 306px; zoom: 1;">
<div class="igal" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Article" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div class="mediaContainer imageText clearfix onlyShowFirst" style="background-color: #ebebeb; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1;">
<div class="image" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="ct" ct="APT: Enlarge Photo" href="http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2013/06/14/monsanto-launches-honey-bee-advisory.html?s=image_gallery" style="color: #334e91; font-size: 13px; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said this week that Grandevo Bioinsecticide produced by Marrone Bio Innovations Inc. will not harm bees" border="0" src="http://assets.bizjournals.com/stlouis/Bee_Local_bees_feature*304.jpg?v=1" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><div class="image-overlay enlarge-image" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); background-image: url(http://assets.bizjournals.com/lib/img/iconsSprite.png); background-position: -12px -2630px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; bottom: 6px; color: white; left: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 10px 4px 35px; position: absolute; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;">
Enlarge</div>
</a></div>
<div class="photoBy" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #929292; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 0px 8px; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 0px 8px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cathy Cheney | Portland Business Journal</span></div>
<div class="caption" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #444444; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 10px 8px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="mediaContainer clearfix bannerAd" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; clear: both; height: auto; line-height: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto; zoom: 1;">
<span id="adops-c1" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; display: block; margin: 0px auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;"><a href="http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?sa=L&ai=CZFRJaFfNUaO2HouSlAK6gIHYB9H_3vIDAAAQASAAUKqg0rMHYMmO34bIo5AZggEXY2EtcHViLTk3MzYwOTI2MDQ2Nzc1MTbIAQPgAgCoAwGqBMEBT9D49wMPpAzxM2vJCjZ9MfslLXPBurEpPnq9tYz3I_GtdRpOQc4Pl5fk3p6YIx9PY7RhFH0HG7P3s_plZWlt8YpWeMwBlTb9CJ0L9OVQvvqX2DpQUIpluJHl1OQoV6MOfdchBwKNgIvD4-TJrghyYAikHIvMZyk71Oe3SMewdrPyK_CmyeDIfRPoWgVBd_65K5KiO_BpSFlgGxeL3_oX-OtpxmDnr7tJKeP669gS4V_2Aoe50FqBXTtkqJy8CWP4PuAEAaAGFA&num=0&sig=AOD64_3P5Roe3ilRXQ3LC_qJKtJnVjI_CQ&client=ca-pub-9736092604677516&adurl=http://www.moenergy.org/mepc-2013-registration.html" style="background-image: none; color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" height="250" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/simgad/12826642808267799838" style="background-image: none; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="300" /></a></span></div>
<div id="marchex" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<table cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(127, 127, 127) !important; font-size: 14px; height: 220px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;" xmlns:ibn="urn:industrybrains.com:linkserver"><tbody style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<tr style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></td><td colspan="3" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #9e9e9e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 2px 2px 2px 8px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sponsored Links</td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-right-color: rgb(127, 127, 127); border-right-style: solid; border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></td></tr>
<tr style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px;"></td><td colspan="3" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 2px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 268px;"><a href="http://links.industrybrains.com/click?sid=930&scid=14052&rqctid=6405&pos=1&lid=735479&cid=158296&pr=2&tstamp=20130628052911&iip=76.95.239.221&ltype=JSCR&lname=286x220&url=http://clk.atdmt.com/INV/go/428043042/direct/01/" style="color: #1e79e9; font-family: Tahoma; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Planning for Retirement?</a><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</div>
<a href="http://links.industrybrains.com/click?sid=930&scid=14052&rqctid=6405&pos=1&lid=735479&cid=158296&pr=2&tstamp=20130628052911&iip=76.95.239.221&ltype=JSCR&lname=286x220&url=http://clk.atdmt.com/INV/go/428043042/direct/01/" style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;">$500,000 portfolio? Download the guide by Forbes Columnist Ken Fisher's firm.</a><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</div>
<a href="http://links.industrybrains.com/click?sid=930&scid=14052&rqctid=6405&pos=1&lid=735479&cid=158296&pr=2&tstamp=20130628052911&iip=76.95.239.221&ltype=JSCR&lname=286x220&url=http://clk.atdmt.com/INV/go/428043042/direct/01/" style="color: #9b9b9b; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.FisherInvestments.com</a></td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-right-color: rgb(127, 127, 127); border-right-style: solid; border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px;"></td></tr>
<tr style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px;"></td><td colspan="3" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 2px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 268px;"><a href="http://links.industrybrains.com/click?sid=930&scid=14052&rqctid=6405&pos=2&lid=714390&cid=156777&pr=2&tstamp=20130628052911&iip=76.95.239.221&ltype=JSCR&lname=286x220&url=http://www.cedars-sinai.edu/Patients/Programs-and-Services/Spine-Center%3futm_source%3dMarchex%26utm_medium%3dText%26utm_campaign%3dCED_FY13_Q3_Q4_ALWAYS_ON%26utm_content%3dSpine" style="color: #1e79e9; font-family: Tahoma; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Cedars-Sinai Spine Center</a><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</div>
<a href="http://links.industrybrains.com/click?sid=930&scid=14052&rqctid=6405&pos=2&lid=714390&cid=156777&pr=2&tstamp=20130628052911&iip=76.95.239.221&ltype=JSCR&lname=286x220&url=http://www.cedars-sinai.edu/Patients/Programs-and-Services/Spine-Center%3futm_source%3dMarchex%26utm_medium%3dText%26utm_campaign%3dCED_FY13_Q3_Q4_ALWAYS_ON%26utm_content%3dSpine" style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Schedule an appointment with California's most experienced spine specialists.</a><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</div>
<a href="http://links.industrybrains.com/click?sid=930&scid=14052&rqctid=6405&pos=2&lid=714390&cid=156777&pr=2&tstamp=20130628052911&iip=76.95.239.221&ltype=JSCR&lname=286x220&url=http://www.cedars-sinai.edu/Patients/Programs-and-Services/Spine-Center%3futm_source%3dMarchex%26utm_medium%3dText%26utm_campaign%3dCED_FY13_Q3_Q4_ALWAYS_ON%26utm_content%3dSpine" style="color: #9b9b9b; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.cedars-sinai.edu</a></td><td style="background-color: transparent; border-right-color: rgb(127, 127, 127); border-right-style: solid; border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 16px;"></td></tr>
<tr style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td colspan="8" style="background-color: transparent; border-right-color: rgb(127, 127, 127); border-right-style: solid; border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; color: #9e9e9e; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.2em; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.industrybrains.com/signupgroup/Welcome_IB.aspx" style="color: #9e9e9e; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Get Listed Here</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="http://shlinks.industrybrains.com/sh?sid=930&a=a82f10e2ddd1d4a4f5869d8600243d887f86e46f5fc13552f96214ec404bc837" style="color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;"></a></div>
</div>
<div class="staff_info" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-width: 1px 0px; float: left; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 274px;">
<a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/bio/7001/E.B.+Solomont+" style="color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img src="http://assets.bizjournals.com/stlouis/images/SolomontEB2013.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgb(201, 201, 201) 0px 0px 2px 2px; background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-shadow: rgb(201, 201, 201) 0px 0px 2px 2px; display: block; float: left; height: auto; margin: 13px 11px 13px 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 56px;" width="56" /></a>
<dl style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<dt style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px 0px 3px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/bio/7001/E.B.+Solomont+" rel="author" style="color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;">E.B. Solomont</a></dt>
<dd style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 3px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Reporter-<em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; display: block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">St. Louis Business Journal</em></dd><dd style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="mailto:esolomont@bizjournals.com" style="color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Email</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/stlbizesolomont" style="color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Twitter</a> | <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/stlbj" style="color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Facebook</a></dd></dl>
</div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #444444; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 20px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
The buzz around the <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/morning_call/2013/05/monsanto-abuzz-over-bee-summit.html" style="color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">plight of the honey bees</a> has prompted Monsanto and other stakeholders to form a new advisory council to address bee health, the company announced.</div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #444444; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 20px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
The Honey Bee Advisory Council, which industry experts, was announced at the three-day Honey Bee Health Summit at Monsanto’s Chesterfield Village Research Center this week. The summit was hosted by the $13.5 billion agriculture company and by Project Apis m (PAm), for a crowd of about 100.</div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #444444; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 20px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Monsanto also rolled out a <a href="http://www.monsanto.com/improvingagriculture/Pages/honey-bee-health.aspx" style="color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Honey Bee Health page on its website</a>.</div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #444444; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 20px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
“Healthy honey bees are essential for productive agriculture and the environment,” <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/search/results?q=Jerry%20Hayes" style="color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Jerry Hayes</a>, who runs Monsanto’s bee industry efforts, said in a statement.</div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #444444; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 20px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Since 2006, colonies of honey bees have been dying off in what’s been known as Colony Collapse Disorder.</div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #444444; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 20px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
An estimated 10 million bee hives, valued at $200 each, have been lost since 2006 — adding up to a total replacement cost of $2 billion, according to the <a class="ct saveLink" ct="APT: Company Link" href="http://www.bizjournals.com/profiles/company/us/dc/washington/us_department_of_agriculture/1212183" style="color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;">U.S. Department of Agriculture</a>. Overall, the number of bee colonies has dropped to 2.5 million in 2012, from 6 million in 1947. Colony losses this past winter were 31 percent, compared with 22 percent in 2011-12, according to USDA data.</div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #444444; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 20px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Monsanto and PAm have been working together in California for the last year (in a three-year program) to encourage farmers to plant forage, the food supply for honey bees that is made up of nectar and pollen from flowering plants. Company officials said “year-one” results yielded 450 acres of forage, 130 percent of the goal.</div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #444444; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 20px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
For its part, Monsanto has been investing in bee health in the past several years. In 2011,<a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2011/09/28/monsanto-buys-pest-control-tech-startup.html" style="color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Monsanto acquired Beeologics</a>, a startup founded in 2007 to develop biological tools for disease control for bees, for $113 million. “If beekeepers let mite pressure get out of control, it becomes an uphill battle and they usually lose,” said Hayes, who is the Beeologics commercial lead.</div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #444444; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 20px 20px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
The Honey Bee Advisory Council is comprised of Monsanto executives and others, including <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/search/results?q=Diana%20Cox-Foster" style="color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Diana Cox-Foster</a>, a professor at <a class="ct saveLink" ct="APT: Company Link" href="http://www.bizjournals.com/profiles/company/us/pa/university_park/penn_state_university/3267669" style="color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Penn State University;</a> <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/search/results?q=David%20Mendes" style="color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;">David Mendes</a>, past president of the American Beekeeping Association; <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/search/results?q=Gus%20Rouse" style="color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Gus Rouse</a>, owner of Kona Queen Hawaii Inc.; and <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/search/results?q=Larry%20Johnson" style="color: #334e91; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Larry Johnson</a>, commercial beekeper.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-3588223618532304892013-06-18T04:49:00.000-07:002013-06-18T04:49:20.322-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=15572" target="_blank">Honey Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder 2013</a></div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-14777685506181880042013-05-10T11:30:00.001-07:002013-05-10T11:30:08.494-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/05/winter-honeybee-losses/</div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-90668773516894171762013-05-09T23:24:00.002-07:002013-05-09T23:24:40.511-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/apr/29/bee-harming-pesticides-banned-europe">Bee-harming pesticides banned in Europe | Environment | guardian.co.uk</a></div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-48850805884527412992013-04-20T00:25:00.001-07:002013-04-20T00:30:27.416-07:00CCD BEES ALMONDS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/02/12/bee-decline-could-hurt-almond-growers-signs-things-come" target="_blank">How Does Colony Collapse Disorder Affect The Almond, Blueberry, Honey Industry?</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="region region-content-top" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<div class="block block-takepart-custom block-boxes-delta-page_title_h1 block-boxes-bid-takepart_custom-page_title_h1" id="block-takepart-custom-page-title-h1">
<div class="content clearfix">
<h1 class="title" style="clear: both; color: black; font-size: 42px; line-height: 44px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 36px; line-height: 36px;">Why California Is in Desperate Need of Bees</span></h1>
</div>
</div>
<div class="block block-boxes block-boxes-delta-box-9753089b block-boxes-bid-boxes-box-9753089b" id="block-boxes-box-9753089b" style="clear: both;">
<div class="content clearfix">
<div class="boxes-box" id="boxes-box-box-9753089b">
<div class="boxes-box-content">
<div class="field field-name-field-article-subhead field-type-text field-label-hidden" style="color: #666666; font-size: 20px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 8px;">
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item even">
$3.8 billion almond industry may take a huge hit due to colony collapse disorder.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="clearfix" id="content" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline-block; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-left: 155px; margin-right: -644px; vertical-align: top; width: 480px;">
<div class="region region-content">
<div class="block block-system block-boxes-delta-main block-boxes-bid-105" id="block-system-main">
<div class="content clearfix">
<div about="/article/2013/02/12/bee-decline-could-hurt-almond-growers-signs-things-come" class="node node-openpublish-article view-mode-full clearfix" typeof="sioc:Item foaf:Document">
<div class="content content-bottom clearfix ">
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden">
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded">
<div style="color: black; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
Love isn’t the only thing blooming around Valentine’s Day. So are California’s 800,000 acres of almond blossoms. But scientists warn there may simply not be enough honey bees available to pollinate this year’s crop, which prompts an ominous question: “<a href="http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=9602" rel="nofollow" style="color: #0099cc; text-decoration: initial;" target="_blank">Is 2013 the year colony collapse disorder (CCD) begins to impact our food supply?</a>”</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
Mysterious and worrisome bee losses have been on the radar since 2006, but this winter was especially hard on hives, and some experts, like UC Davis entomologist Eric Mussen, predict 2013 could end up as one of the worst honey production years on record. That’s bad news for almond growers, who rely heavily on bees to pollinate the nut trees, and the state’s ag-economy. Almonds are California’s second largest cash crop (behind dairy) and the state’s largest export crop, worth an estimated $3.8 billion.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
This is big business. According to <em><a href="http://scientificbeekeeping.com/2012-almond-pollination-update/" style="color: #0099cc; text-decoration: initial;" target="_blank">Scientific Beekeeping</a>,</em> over a million out-of-state bee hives arrive by pickup truck and semi-trailers to work California’s almond orchards, outnumbering local hives two to one, before leaving to pollinate a rotation of flowering crops in other parts of the country.</div>
<div class="takepart-take-action-widget-wysiwyg-wrapper" style="color: black; display: inline !important; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;">So just how bad could the season be? Pretty bad. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says beekeepers have been losing approximately 30 percent of their honey bees each year. </span><a href="http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_22558673/troubling-honey-bee-shortage-almond-orchards-across-california" rel="nofollow" style="color: #0099cc; text-decoration: initial;" target="_blank">But word of hive losses in the 70-90 percent range are being reported this winter</a><span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;">—an unsustainable trend for the nation’s commercial beekeepers, and a worrying decline for fruit and vegetable producers, who rely heavily on the tiny workers. For commercial beekeeper Jeff Anderson, whose bees pollinate crops in California and Minnesota, the declines are jaw dropping.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
“My operation started last spring with a high count of 3,150 hives. Today <a href="http://www.bouldercountybeekeepers.org/are-u-s-beekeepers-too-emotional/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #0099cc; text-decoration: initial;" target="_blank">I have 992 alive</a>, most in severely weakened condition,” he says.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
The nation’s almond crop won’t be the only food impacted.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
“Bees pollinate over 95 different types of fruits and vegetables, with almonds being the most prolific,” Paul Towers, spokesperson for the Pesticide Action Network, tells TakePart. “What happens in the almond crop spells good news or bad news for other crops. There’s a ripple effect as commercial bees get moved from almonds to blueberries to cranberries and pumpkins.”</div>
<div class="drupal-embed" nid="33019" view_mode="embed">
<div class="embed-gallery-wrapper" style="border-top-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 1px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 10px 0px;">
<div about="/photos/future-food-facts" class="node node-openpublish-photo-gallery view-mode-embed clearfix node-embedded" style="border: 4px solid rgb(239, 243, 245) !important; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" typeof="sioc:Item foaf:Document">
<div class="field field-name-field-photo-gallery-slideshow field-type-views-field field-label-hidden" style="margin: 8px 0px 0px;">
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item even">
<div class="view view-photo-gallery view-id-photo_gallery view-display-id-block_1 view-dom-id-816da6cfc5edd0ae12538ca6a655cd9b jquery-once-1-processed">
<div class="view-content">
<div class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first views-row-last">
<div class="views-field views-field-field-gallery-images-1" style="margin: 0px; overflow: hidden;">
<div class="field-content">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;">While there’s still no scientifically definitive cause for CCD (some suggest weather, parasites and disease), </span><a href="http://www.takepart.com/article/2010/08/06/colony-collapse-disorder-new-study-says-pesticides-are-killing-honeybees" style="color: #0099cc; text-decoration: initial;" target="_self">the finger is increasingly being pointed</a><span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;"> at a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids—including clothiandin, thiamethoxam imidicloprid and sulfoxaflor—currently under consideration at the Environmental Protection Agency. </span><a href="http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/03/19/last-answer-honey-bee-die-offs" style="color: #0099cc; text-decoration: initial;">As we told you last year, </a><span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;">scientists have linked neonicotinoids use on crops to sudden die-offs of honeybees.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
The European Commission, on the other hand, recently <a href="http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/02/neonicotinoid-pesticides-eu-ban-bees" style="color: #0099cc; text-decoration: initial;" target="_blank">recommended a two-year suspension</a> of three neonicotinoid insecticides beginning July 1. The U.S. has no such policy, but PAN, along with the Center for Food Safety, Beyond Pesticides and 25 beekeepers filed an emergency legal petition with the EPA to halt use of clothianidin until further studies have been done. The petition was denied.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br />
<br /></div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38903141.post-40355752420270054622013-04-09T05:08:00.003-07:002013-04-09T05:13:14.019-07:00Monsanto Bee Colony Collapse Information GMO Total Frankenbee fucking bullshit #monsanto #fuckyou #monsantojustsuedme<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0kPsILVofbI/UWQF0mN6JWI/AAAAAAAABDQ/bK_7CyU-yZE/s1600/_Bee.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0kPsILVofbI/UWQF0mN6JWI/AAAAAAAABDQ/bK_7CyU-yZE/s320/_Bee.png" width="305" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: #efefef; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">
*Blamed for Bee Collapse, Monsanto Buys Leading Bee Research Firm<br />
Read more here: <a href="http://naturalsociety.com/monsanto-bee-collapse-buys-bee-research-firm/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #0066cc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">http://naturalsociety.com/monsanto-bee-collapse-buys-bee-research-firm/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: #efefef; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">
*Monsanto buys leading bee research firm after being implicated in bee colony collapse<br />
Read more here: <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/035688_Monsanto_honey_bees_colony_collapse.html" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #0066cc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">http://www.naturalnews.com/035688_Monsanto_honey_bees_colony_collapse.html</a></div>
<div style="background-color: #efefef; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">
*Monsanto Genetically Engineering Bees<br />
Read more here: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdreamingabeautifulworld.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F04%2Fmonsanto-genetically-engineering-bees.html&h=PAQEZn_c4&s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #0066cc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">http://dreamingabeautifulworld.blogspot.com/2012/04/monsanto-genetically-engineering-bees.html</a></div>
<div style="background-color: #efefef; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Post by: Julie<br />
Join us! <a href="http://www.facebook.com/thenwowillfail" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #0066cc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/thenwowillfail</a></div>
<div style="background-color: #efefef; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: #efefef; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 12px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline;">
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
Love isn’t the only thing blooming around Valentine’s Day. So are California’s 800,000 acres of almond blossoms. But scientists warn there may simply not be enough honey bees available to pollinate this year’s crop, which prompts an ominous question: “<a href="http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=9602" rel="nofollow" style="color: #0099cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Is 2013 the year colony collapse disorder (CCD) begins to impact our food supply?</a>”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
Mysterious and worrisome bee losses have been on the radar since 2006, but this winter was especially hard on hives, and some experts, like UC Davis entomologist Eric Mussen, predict 2013 could end up as one of the worst honey production years on record. That’s bad news for almond growers, who rely heavily on bees to pollinate the nut trees, and the state’s ag-economy. Almonds are California’s second largest cash crop (behind dairy) and the state’s largest export crop, worth an estimated $3.8 billion.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
This is big business. According to <em><a href="http://scientificbeekeeping.com/2012-almond-pollination-update/" style="color: #0099cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Scientific Beekeeping</a>,</em> over a million out-of-state bee hives arrive by pickup truck and semi-trailers to work California’s almond orchards, outnumbering local hives two to one, before leaving to pollinate a rotation of flowering crops in other parts of the country.</div>
<div class="takepart-take-action-widget-wysiwyg-wrapper" style="background-color: white; display: inline !important; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div class="takepart-take-action-widget-wysiwyg-wrapper" style="background-color: white; display: inline !important; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;"></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
So just how bad could the season be? Pretty bad. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says beekeepers have been losing approximately 30 percent of their honey bees each year. <a href="http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_22558673/troubling-honey-bee-shortage-almond-orchards-across-california" rel="nofollow" style="color: #0099cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">But word of hive losses in the 70-90 percent range are being reported this winter</a>—an unsustainable trend for the nation’s commercial beekeepers, and a worrying decline for fruit and vegetable producers, who rely heavily on the tiny workers. For commercial beekeeper Jeff Anderson, whose bees pollinate crops in California and Minnesota, the declines are jaw dropping.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
“My operation started last spring with a high count of 3,150 hives. Today <a href="http://www.bouldercountybeekeepers.org/are-u-s-beekeepers-too-emotional/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #0099cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">I have 992 alive</a>, most in severely weakened condition,” he says.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
The nation’s almond crop won’t be the only food impacted.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
“Bees pollinate over 95 different types of fruits and vegetables, with almonds being the most prolific,” Paul Towers, spokesperson for the Pesticide Action Network, tells TakePart. “What happens in the almond crop spells good news or bad news for other crops. There’s a ripple effect as commercial bees get moved from almonds to blueberries to cranberries and pumpkins.”</div>
<div class="drupal-embed" nid="33019" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;" view_mode="embed">
<div class="embed-gallery-wrapper" style="border-top-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 1px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 10px 0px;">
<div about="/photos/future-food-facts" class="node node-openpublish-photo-gallery view-mode-embed clearfix node-embedded" style="border: 4px solid rgb(239, 243, 245) !important; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 10px 0px 10px 10px;" typeof="sioc:Item foaf:Document">
<div class="embedded-gallery-header" style="color: #99bbcc; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16px; text-transform: uppercase;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
While there’s still no scientifically definitive cause for CCD (some suggest weather, parasites and disease), <a href="http://www.takepart.com/article/2010/08/06/colony-collapse-disorder-new-study-says-pesticides-are-killing-honeybees" style="color: #0099cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_self">the finger is increasingly being pointed</a> at a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids—including clothiandin, thiamethoxam imidicloprid and sulfoxaflor—currently under consideration at the Environmental Protection Agency. <a href="http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/03/19/last-answer-honey-bee-die-offs" style="color: #0099cc; text-decoration: none;">As we told you last year, </a>scientists have linked neonicotinoids use on crops to sudden die-offs of honeybees.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
The European Commission, on the other hand, recently <a href="http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/02/neonicotinoid-pesticides-eu-ban-bees" style="color: #0099cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">recommended a two-year suspension</a> of three neonicotinoid insecticides beginning July 1. The U.S. has no such policy, but PAN, along with the Center for Food Safety, Beyond Pesticides and 25 beekeepers filed an emergency legal petition with the EPA to halt use of clothianidin until further studies have been done. The petition was denied.</div>
<br /></div>
Fat Free Milkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13332338941285409691noreply@blogger.com0