37 million Bees found dead in Elmwood, Ontario, Canada

[Tourseasia 5]

37 million Bees found dead in Elmwood, Ontario, Canada, after large planting of GMO corn seed treated with Neonicotinoid pesticides

Local beekeepers are finding millions of their bees dead just after corn was planted here in the last few weeks. Dave Schuit, who has a honey operation in Elmwood, lost 600 hives, a total of 37 million bees.

“Once the corn started to get planted our bees died by the millions,” Schuit said. He and many others, including the European Union, are pointing the finger at a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids, manufactured by Bayer CropScience Inc. used in planting corn and some other crops. The European Union just recently voted to ban these insecticides for two years, beginning December 1, 2013, to be able to study how it relates to the large bee kill they are experiencing there also.

Local grower Nathan Carey from the Neustadt, and National Farmers Union Local 344 member, says he noticed this spring the lack of bees and bumblebees on his farm. He believes that there is a strong connection between the insecticide use and the death of pollinators.

“I feel like we all have something at stake with this issue,” he said. He is organizing a public workshop and panel discussion about this problem at his farm June 22 at 10 a.m. He hopes that all interested parties can get together and talk about the reason bees, the prime pollinators of so any different plant species, are dying.

http://storage.thepost.on.ca/v1/dynamic_resize/sws_path/suns-prod-images/1297431425429_ORIGINAL.jpg?quality=80&size=650x&stmp=1371649276623

At the farm of Gary Kenny, south west of Hanover, eight of the 10 hives he kept for a beekeeper out of Kincardine, died this spring just after corn was planted in neighbouring fields.

What seems to be deadly to bees is that the neonicotinoid pesticides are coating corn seed and with the use of new air seeders, are blowing the pesticide dust into the air when planted. The death of millions of pollinators was looked at by American Purdue University. They found that, “Bees exhibited neurotoxic symptoms, analysis of dead bees revealed traces of thiamethoxam/clothianidin in each case. Seed treatments of field crops (primarily corn) are the only major source of these compounds.

Local investigations near Guelph, led to the same conclusion. A Pest Management Regulatory Agency investigation confirmed that corn seeds treated with clothianidin or thiamethoxam “contributed to the majority of the bee mortalities” last spring.

“The air seeders are the problem,” said Ontario Federation of Agriculture director Paul Wettlaufer, who farms near Neustadt. This was after this reporter called John Gillespie, OFA Bruce County president, who told me to call Wettlaufer. Unfortunately, Wettlaufer said it was, “not a local OFA issue,” and that it was an issue for the Grain Farmers of Ontario and representative, Hennry Vanakum should be notified. Vanakum could not be rached for comment.

Yet Guelph University entomologist Peter Kevan, disagreed with the EU ban.

“There’s very little evidence to say that neonicotinoids, in a very general sense, in a broad scale sense, have been a major component in the demise of honeybees or any other pollinators, anywhere in the world,” said Kevan.

But research is showing that honeybee disorders and high colony losses have become a global phenomena. An international team of scientists led by Holland’s Utrecht University concluded that, ”Large scale prophylaxic use in agriculture, their high persistence in soil and water, and their uptake by plants and translocation to flowers, neonicotinoids put pollinator services at risk.” This research and others rsulted in the Eurpean Union ban.

The United Church is also concerned about the death of so many pollinators and has prepared a “Take Action” paper it’s sending out to all its members. The church is basing its action on local research. The Take Action paper states among other things, “Scientific information gathered suggests that the planting of corn seeds treated with neonicotinoids contributed to the majority of the bee mortalities that occurred in corn growing regions of Ontario and Quebec in Spring 2012.”

Meanwhile Schuit is replacing his queen bees every few months now instead of years, as they are dying so frequently. “OMAFRA tells me to have faith. Well, I think it’s criminal what is happening, and it’s hard to have faith if it doesn’t look like they are going to do anything anyway,” Schuit says.

http://www.thepost.on.ca/2013/06/19/bees-dying-by-the-millions

Edited November 10, 2014 by Tourseasia

[mrs thb 331]

just proves non-gmo is the way to go.

I'm all for it!!!

bees do more for us than we really know.

[lostinblue 1,989]

Looks like they have to change their planters in Canada.

[Pooky 3,841]

And yet there is a massive push under way to try and persuade the public that GMO crops are safe to grow and to eat.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

37 million Bees found dead in Elmwood, Ontario, Canada, after large planting of GMO corn seed treated with Neonicotinoid pesticides

Local beekeepers are finding millions of their bees dead just after corn was planted here in the last few weeks. Dave Schuit, who has a honey operation in Elmwood, lost 600 hives, a total of 37 million bees.

“Once the corn started to get planted our bees died by the millions,” Schuit said. He and many others, including the European Union, are pointing the finger at a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids, manufactured by Bayer CropScience Inc. used in planting corn and some other crops. The European Union just recently voted to ban these insecticides for two years, beginning December 1, 2013, to be able to study how it relates to the large bee kill they are experiencing there also.

Local grower Nathan Carey from the Neustadt, and National Farmers Union Local 344 member, says he noticed this spring the lack of bees and bumblebees on his farm. He believes that there is a strong connection between the insecticide use and the death of pollinators.

“I feel like we all have something at stake with this issue,” he said. He is organizing a public workshop and panel discussion about this problem at his farm June 22 at 10 a.m. He hopes that all interested parties can get together and talk about the reason bees, the prime pollinators of so any different plant species, are dying.

http://storage.thepost.on.ca/v1/dynamic_resize/sws_path/suns-prod-images/1297431425429_ORIGINAL.jpg?quality=80&;size=650x&;stmp=1371649276623

At the farm of Gary Kenny, south west of Hanover, eight of the 10 hives he kept for a beekeeper out of Kincardine, died this spring just after corn was planted in neighbouring fields.

What seems to be deadly to bees is that the neonicotinoid pesticides are coating corn seed and with the use of new air seeders, are blowing the pesticide dust into the air when planted. The death of millions of pollinators was looked at by American Purdue University. They found that, “Bees exhibited neurotoxic symptoms, analysis of dead bees revealed traces of thiamethoxam/clothianidin in each case. Seed treatments of field crops (primarily corn) are the only major source of these compounds.

Local investigations near Guelph, led to the same conclusion. A Pest Management Regulatory Agency investigation confirmed that corn seeds treated with clothianidin or thiamethoxam “contributed to the majority of the bee mortalities” last spring.

“The air seeders are the problem,” said Ontario Federation of Agriculture director Paul Wettlaufer, who farms near Neustadt. This was after this reporter called John Gillespie, OFA Bruce County president, who told me to call Wettlaufer. Unfortunately, Wettlaufer said it was, “not a local OFA issue,” and that it was an issue for the Grain Farmers of Ontario and representative, Hennry Vanakum should be notified. Vanakum could not be rached for comment.

Yet Guelph University entomologist Peter Kevan, disagreed with the EU ban.

“There’s very little evidence to say that neonicotinoids, in a very general sense, in a broad scale sense, have been a major component in the demise of honeybees or any other pollinators, anywhere in the world,” said Kevan.

But research is showing that honeybee disorders and high colony losses have become a global phenomena. An international team of scientists led by Holland’s Utrecht University concluded that, ”Large scale prophylaxic use in agriculture, their high persistence in soil and water, and their uptake by plants and translocation to flowers, neonicotinoids put pollinator services at risk.” This research and others rsulted in the Eurpean Union ban.

The United Church is also concerned about the death of so many pollinators and has prepared a “Take Action” paper it’s sending out to all its members. The church is basing its action on local research. The Take Action paper states among other things, “Scientific information gathered suggests that the planting of corn seeds treated with neonicotinoids contributed to the majority of the bee mortalities that occurred in corn growing regions of Ontario and Quebec in Spring 2012.”

Meanwhile Schuit is replacing his queen bees every few months now instead of years, as they are dying so frequently. “OMAFRA tells me to have faith. Well, I think it’s criminal what is happening, and it’s hard to have faith if it doesn’t look like they are going to do anything anyway,” Schuit says.

http://www.thepost.on.ca/2013/06/19/bees-dying-by-the-millions

Probably realized they were surrounded by Caba chicks and flew into a Mack truck in formation

[Operator 1,927]

We try to eat organic/non-gmo. You have to pay to the price thought right?

It begs the question, besides big agro, who supports GMO? I guess hungry people.

[LibCampFireClub 635]

The following is a clip from a section of the study:

ScientificBeekeeping.com

Beekeeping Through the Eyes of a Biologist

So What’s The Problem?

The problem is that anti-GMO advocacy groups are determined to put a stop to all GE technology. They targeted California with Prop 37, which applied only to packaged foods and produce. A more cynical take on Prop 37 was that it was all about marketing: “If your produce is no different in terms of taste, safety and nutrition from a competitor, and costs more, apparently the only marketing option is to create a negative image of your competitor’s product” [60].

If Prop 37 had been successful, the promoters would then have targeted restaurants, the meat and dairy industry, and the beverage industry. I personally feel that this is an extreme position, what with the human population growing hungrier every day, and climate change threatening agriculture worldwide with heat, drought, pestilence, and salinity problems. Not only that, but GM crops hold promise for cheap omega-3 fatty acids (so that we don’t have to harvest fish for them), cost-effective biofuels, and less expensive pharmaceuticals.

A good blog on the problem with the anti-GMO fear campaign can be found at [61], from which I quote:

It would be bad enough if something like the Seralini study simply contributed to the unnecessary angst amongst consumers around the world. It also has very real political, economic and practical effects. For instance brand conscious food companies have used their leverage to prevent the development of GMO versions of potatoes, bananas, coffee and other crops because they fear controversy. Apple growers worried about the market response are opposing the introduction of a non-browning apple even though it was developed by one of their own fruit companies. French activists destroyed a government-run field trial of a virus-resistant root stock which could have made it possible to produce good wine on sites that have become useless because of contamination with sting nematodes and the virus they vector. California voters have the potential to pass a seriously flawed “GMO labeling” initiative next month that could only serve the purposes of the lawyers and “natural products” marketers who created it. More importantly, European and Japanese importers of wheat essentially blackmailed the North American wheat producers into blocking biotech wheat development because those companies were nervous about consumer response in countries where GMO angst is so high. This has delayed by decades not only specific desirable trait development, but also what might have been an enormous private investment in a crop that is critically important for feeding a lot more people than just those in those rich countries. There is a huge cost of “precaution” based on poor science.

I believe that people should be well informed before taking a stance on important issues. I’d like to suggest one last excellent blog by an independent U.C. Berkeley evolutionary biologist and medical researcher:“How Bt Corn and Roundup Ready Soy Work – And Why They Should Not Scare You [62].

http://scientificbeekeeping.com/sick-bees-part-18e-colony-collapse-revisited-genetically-modified-plants/

Edited November 10, 2014 by ExExpat

[lostinblue 1,989]

The drills were not modified to ensure the exhaust air was incorporated into the soil .http://www.voluntaryinitiative.org.uk/media/549433/bpg-seed-treatment-mar-2014.pdf

The insecticide was the problem in the bee deaths (the application method ) . . Anti- GMO corn propaganda was just thrown in there to sensationalize the story , Non GMO corn would have the same insecticide on it .

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Peple have been modyfing the genetics of plants since the days of Gregor Mendel to increase crop yield and make plants resistant to diseases

All this GMO BS is like the most of organic movement is hippie feel good crapola

[Dakine10 5,452]

Peple have been modyfing the genetics of plants since the days of Gregor Mendel to increase crop yield and make plants resistant to diseases

All this GMO BS is like the most of organic movement is hippie feel good crapola

There's no way in nature to get a gene for roundup tolerance into a soy bean. Genetic modification goes beyond crossbreeding.

Most of the genetic modification being done is for pesticide tolerance, so they can spray your food with weed killer before you eat it. As long as you are OK with the fact that you are also ingesting that weed killer, then GMO is OK. I would rather have it labeled so I can choose. The resistance to labeling is because producers know nobody would willingly buy something filled with cytotoxins if they had a choice.

[LibCampFireClub 635]

producers know nobody would willingly buy something filled with cytotoxins if they had a choice.

Are you sure you didn't copy this from that internet thing?

[Dakine10 5,452]

Are you sure you didn't copy this from that internet thing?

I am sure of what I posted. If I copied I would have linked it.

A while back, I participated in a research project measuring serum glyphosate levels in human blood. Pretty disturbing results. Human beings are not roundup ready. It does some nasty things to human cells. There are plenty of beneficial applications for genetic modification, but If the only practical application of GMO is going to be inserting genes for pesticide tolerance, we would be better off without it.

[lostinblue 1,989]

There's no way in nature to get a gene for roundup tolerance into a soy bean. Genetic modification goes beyond crossbreeding.

Most of the genetic modification being done is for pesticide tolerance, so they can spray your food with weed killer before you eat it. As long as you are OK with the fact that you are also ingesting that weed killer, then GMO is OK. I would rather have it labeled so I can choose. The resistance to labeling is because producers know nobody would willingly buy something filled with cytotoxins if they had a choice.

So if they stopped genetic modification..... spraying of herbicides would stop ? Non GMO crops still use and will use more harmful herbicides to accomplish the same thing. .. Organic farming cannot support the worlds population .. It never will. You need a drop in the worlds population. How fast do we do this ...

[Dakine10 5,452]

So if they stopped genetic modification..... spraying of herbicides would stop ? Non GMO crops still use and will use more harmful herbicides to accomplish the same thing. .. Organic farming cannot support the worlds population .. It never will. You need a drop in the worlds population. How fast do we do this ...

GMO crops modified for herbicide tolerance will generally mean more herbicide use and more importantly, more indiscriminant herbicide use. I'm not as familiar with neonicotoids, except to know it's an insecticide, Different scenario than glyphosate but it's probably a safe bet that the more of it you use, the more residual damage.

We don't have to guess. Many countries have banned GMO foods, even large countries like Germany, Russia, and China to name a few. There's probably empirical evidence out there.

I'm just not sure why people think this is all some benign thing. It's being driven by companies like Monsanto's profit margin and that's all. If it wasn't, there are actually a lot of other areas that they could put more into developing. Not nearly as much money goes into drought tolerance, cold tolerance and other areas that could increase productivity without relying on having to keep buying the herbicide from the company that patents the seed.