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

[Guest guest]

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

America

 

Brit Amos

Global Resource

March 26, 2008

 

`Commercial beehives pollinate over a third of [North}America's

crops and that web of nourishment encompasses everything from fruits

like peaches, apples, cherries, strawberries and more, to nuts like

California almonds, 90 percent of which are helped along by the

honeybees. Without this pollination, you could kiss those crops

goodbye, to say nothing of the honey bees produce or the flowers they

also fertilize'.1

 

This essay will discuss the arguments and seriousness that affects the

massive deaths and the decline of Bee colonies in North America. As

well, it will shed light on a worldwide hunger issue that will have an

economical and ecological impact in the very near future.

 

There are many reasons given to the decline in Bees, but one argument

that matters most is the use of Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)

and Terminator seeds that are presently being endorsed by governments

and forcefully utilized as our primary agricultural needs of survival.

I will argue what is publicized and covered by the media is in

actuality, masking the real problems of Terminator seeds and

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's).

 

Terminator seeds; genetically produced and distributed by powerful

multinational lobbies manipulate government and agricultural policy to

encompass their agenda of dominance in the agricultural industry.

American conglomerates such as Monsanto, Pioneer Seeds, and others,

have created seeds that do not reproduce (whereas these seeds have a

life span of the crop chosen). The sterilizing of the plant by the

means of sterilizing the flower pollen genetically altered and mutated

for production in the agricultural industry. Logic states that if the

flower pollen is sterile, bees are potentially going malnourished and

dying of illness due to the lack of nutrients and the interruption of

the of the digestive capacity of what they feed on through the summer

and over the winter hibernation process.

 

I will argue that the media's publications distract the civil

population of the true cause of the Colony Collapse of Bees. As such,

outlined are four major arguments in which the conglomerates of GMO's

and terminator seeds use to redirect public awareness concerning the

truth about the demise of the bees. These arguments include Varroa

mites, parasites, cell phones, and terminator seeds

 

Argument 1: Varroa mites2

 

Firstly, while there are some people who want to pin the blame on

these mites, such views are unconvincing in that the argument does not

make any sense because the main source of disease for these bees is

intestinal disease. In fact, `many bee experts assumed Varroa mites

were a major cause of the severe die-off in the winter of 2005. Yet

when researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Bee

Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, traveled to Oakdale,

California, where Anderson and a number of his fellow beekeepers spend

winter and spring, they could find no correlation between the level of

Varroa mite infestation and the health of bee colonies. `We couldn't

pin the blame for the die-off on any single cause,' says Jeff Pettis,

a research entomologist from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland,3 However, treatments

against mites may be leaving hives open to the onslaught of powerful

pathogens, much in the same way the overuse of antibiotics lead to

super bugs in society today. What does that say about our future? We

have learned that in the 1960's and 1970's, among other human

ailments, DDT was a major cause of cancer in humans and animals;

however, the substitution of such pesticides was a closely guarded

secret. Unfortunately, the long term effects on the human population

has yet to be understood as the compromise of the immune system may be

happening quicker than we are ready to accept, even regarding the

advent of super bugs. One can see that even this medical implication

has severe economical implications.

 

Argument 2: Parasites

 

Secondly; Crops and even hedges, verges, and woodlands, and even where

bees remain are sprayed with pesticides or herbicides. These chemicals

are the practical extension of an exasperating belief that nature is

our enemy. Pouring poison on our food is a very simplistic way of

dealing with our problems however it ignores the root causes. " New

genetically modified crops, designed to be immune to certain

pesticides and herbicides, have resulted in the increased usage of

these chemicals. Pesticides, particularly Bayer's imidacloprid, a

nicotine-based product marketed under the names Admire, Provado,

Merit, Marathon, and Gaucho have been concretely implicated4 in the

destruction of bee populations before (see also)5. The fact that other

bees and insects are not raiding deserted hives to feed on the honey

as they normally would lends some credence to the theory of a toxic

overload. The toxic overload is certainly a concern, but wouldn't it

also need to be considered that this is systematic in the degeneration

of the digestive process, such as in humans inability to digest

preservatives and not absorb the enzymes to break down the foods eaten

for survival?

 

Argument 3: cell phones

 

Thirdly, there was also a misconstrued study on cell phone radiation 6

and its effects on the bee's ability to navigate which turned out to

be an over-zealous unthinking reaction by an article in the

Independent news. Some have also mentioned other navigational

hindrances such as UV radiation, shifting magnetic fields and even

quantum physics7 as a reason to the destruction of the bees.

 

There is certain implications to this theory, and it has been proven

that electromagnetic radio wave lengths to affect the navigation of

the bees. However the sun emits radiation spurts all the time, yet

this has not offered a hindrance to the bees.

 

Argument 4: Terminator Seeds

 

Lastly, `Leaked documents seen by the Guardian show that Canada wants

all governments to accept the testing and commercialization of

" Terminator " crop varieties. These seeds are genetically engineered to

produce only infertile seeds, which farmers cannot replant, also to

mention that the bees that are trying to collect pollen, found to have

their digestive tract diseases, such as amoeba and nosema disease'8.

These diseases are mainly located in the digestive tract system. After

studies of the autopsy, the most alarming trait is that the lower

intestine and stinger have discolored to black vs. the normal opaque

color, Synominus with colon cancer in humans.

 

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