Imkers moeten wijken voor Monsanto

“De uitspraak maakt duidelijk dat de bijenteelt door de agro-gentechniek in de kern getroffen is. Het kan niet juist zijn dat Monsanto’s problemen worden afgewenteld op imkers en landbouwers”, verklaarde Thomas Radetzki, een vertegenwoordiger van de belangenorganisatie, die de imker bijstaat. Zij overwegen in hoger beroep te gaan.

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Europarlement luidt noodklok over bijensterfte

Het Europees Parlement luidt de noodklok over het geringe aantal bijen in Europa. Afgelopen zomer waren er veel minder bijen dan gebruikelijk, wat tot problemen leidde bij imkers, boeren en tuinders. Zonder bijen raken bloemen niet bevrucht, met als resultaat minder planten, groenten en fruit.

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Does EPA know pesticides are killing honeybees?

Honeybees are extremely valuable, tireless little workers. According to USDA, they pollinate about one-third of all of the food we eat and pollination is responsible for $15 billion in added crop value.

During the winter of 2006-2007, some beekeepers began to report unusually high losses of 30-90 percent of their hives. This phenomenon has been called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) because of its sudden onset.

What’s causing CCD? Theories range from cell phones to Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) and everything in between. But ask any beekeeper (I’ve talked with several) and they’ll point to what they say is the main culprit - pesticides.

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Death of the Bees: GMO Crops and the Decline of Bee Colonies in North America

Genetically modified seeds are produced and distributed by powerful biotech conglomerates. The latter manipulate government agricultural policy with a view to supporting their agenda of dominance in the agricultural industry. American conglomerates such as Monsanto, Pioneer HiBred and others, have created seeds that reproduce only under certain conditions, often linked to the use of their own brands of fertilizer and/or insecticide.

The genetic modification of the plant leads to the concurrent genetic modification of the flower pollen. When the flower pollen becomes genetically modified or sterile, the bees will potentially go malnourished and die of illness due to the lack of nutrients and the interruption of the digestive capacity of what they feed on through the summer and over the winter hibernation process.

I will argue that the media reports tend to distract public opinion from the true cause which underlies the destruction of bee colonies. As such, outlined are four major arguments which the biotech conglomerates (which produce and market GMO seeds) have used to mislead the public regarding the demise of the bees.

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Mysterieuze bijensterfte in het Groene Hart

De oorzaak van de bijensterfte is nog een mysterie. Bij een onderzoek van de dode beestjes bleek dat ze gezond zijn. De imkers hebben er ook alles aan gedaan om de bijen de winter door te helpen.

Lees meer op RTV West

Related:

Please Lord, not the bees

’Bijensterfte erger dan opwarming aarde’

’Bijensterfte erger dan opwarming aarde’

Haarlem-In Kennemerland is paniek onder imkers uitgebroken. De bijen hebben een rampzalige winter doorgemaakt. Driekwart van de volken is dood als gevolg van ziekten. Ook wereldwijd zijn grote problemen. De Belgische professor Frans Jacobs, werkzaam bij de universiteit van Gent en een vermaard bijendeskundige, luidt de noodklok.

,,De oprukkende varroa destructor mijt zorgt voor grote bijensterfte. Economisch kan dit probleem erger worden dan de opwarming van de aarde. Want zonder bijen, geen bestuiving en geen landbouw.''

Lees meer op Haarlems Dagblad

Please Lord, not the bees

Everything you didn't want to know about Colony Collapse Disorder

It sounds like the start of a Kurt Vonnegut novel:

Nobody worried all that much about the loss of a few animal species here and there until one day the bees came to their senses and decided to quit producing an unnaturally large surplus of honey for our benefit. One by one, they went on strike and flew off to parts unknown.

Among the various mythologies of the apocalypse, fear of insect plagues has always loomed larger than fear of species loss. But this may change, as a strange new plague is wiping out our honey bees one hive at a time. It has been named Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, by the apiculturalists and apiarists who are scrambling to understand and hopefully stop it. First reported last autumn in the U.S., the list of afflicted countries has now expanded to include several in Europe, as well as Brazil, Taiwan, and possibly Canada. (1)(24)(29)

Read more at GNN