Pesticides destroying 60 percent of honeybees

[Guest guest]

Pesticides Destroying 60 Percent of Honeybeesby David Gutierrez, staff

writer

 

(NaturalNews) The pesticides used in industrial agriculture may eventually

undermine its very existence by destroying the honeybees upon which the

system depends, experts are warning.

 

" When I was teaching at Humboldt State University in northern California 20

years ago, I invited a beekeeper to talk to my students, " wrote former

Environmental Protection Agency analyst Evaggelos Vallianatos on the Web

site Truthout.org. " He said that each time he took his bees to southern

California to pollinate other farmers'

crops<http://www.naturalnews.com/crops.html>,

he would lose a third of his bees to sprays. In 2009, the loss ranges all

the way to 60 percent. "

 

Honeybees are responsible for pollinating more than 90 crops in the United

States, for a total value of $15 billion per year in 2007 alone. Yet in the

last 20 years, overall honeybee numbers have declined by 30 percent. The

population collapse is so severe that U.S. agriculture now depends upon

imported bees for pollination.

 

One of the primary culprits in this collapse is agricultural insecticides,

to which bees are exposed every time beekeepers release them to pollinate a

non-organic field. According to bee experts, insecticides are well known to

cause brain damage and disorientation to bees, sometimes making it

impossible for them to navigate back to the hive.

 

The hallmark feature of colony collapse disorder is hives entirely or almost

entirely abandoned by their bees.

 

According to entomologist Carl Johansen of Washington State

University-Pullman, " the most destructive bee poisoning insecticide ever

developed " is a time-release chemical microcapsule known as methyl

parathion.

 

Methyl parathion was first developed as a nerve gas by the Nazi company IG

Farben in the 1940s. In its time-release formulation, it slowly releases

poison gas over the course of several days. Bees that visit plants treated

with the insecticide can bring back the still-releasing capsules to their

hives, poisoning an entire colony.

 

It's not just the bees that suffer. Parathion also contaminates the

honey<http://www.naturalnews.com/honey.html>produced by these bees,

entering the human food supply.

 

Nevertheless, beekeepers regularly recycle the wax from

parathion-contaminated hives, and sell the poisonous honey to the public