Sierra Club Press Release on USDA Stand on Honeybees

PRESS RELEASE
>Contact: Laurel Hopwood, Sierra Club
>216-371-9779
>
>U.S.D.A. caves into lobbyists over massive bee deaths while Germany
>takes a major step to keep their pollinators pollinating crops
>
>In light of the mounting evidence that new seed chemical coatings are
>deadly to bees and the action of Germany to call for an immediate
>suspension of these seed treatments, the Sierra Club today reaffirmed
>its call for a U.S. moratorium on specific chemical treatments to
>protect our bees and crops, until more study can be done.
>
>Recently Germany's federal agricultural research institute noted, "It
>can unequivocally be concluded that poisoning of the bees is due to the
>rub-off of the pesticide ingredient clothianidin from corn seeds."
> At issue are the neonicotinoids, including clothianidin, being used
>in a new way - as seed coatings.
>
>For years, farmers have been spraying neonicotinoids onto their crops
>to stop insect infestation. Now Bayer and Monsanto have acquired
>patents to coat their proprietary corn seeds with these neonicotinoids.
>
>"Part of the equation in the U.S. is genetically engineered corn, as
>more and more corn seeds are being gene spliced with a completely
>different species - a bacteria," said Walter Haefeker, of the German
>Beekeepers Association Board of Directors. "Bayer and Monsanto
>recently entered into agreements to manufacture neonicotinic-coated
>genetically engineered corn. It's likely that this will worsen the bee
>die-off problem."
>
>David Hackenburg, former president of the American Beekeeping
>Federation, has been urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to do
>more study. "Look at what's time based. The massive bee decimation
>started when regulatory agencies rubber stamped the use of
>neonicotinoid spraying and coating," he said.
>
>"Sierra Club joins the concern of beekeepers," said Laurel Hopwood,
>Sierra Club Genetic Engineering Committee Chair. "It's unfortunate that
>regulatory agencies are using double speak. They claim to protect our
>food supply - yet they aren't doing the proper studies. The loss of
>honeybees will leave a huge void in the kitchens of the American people
>and an estimated loss of 14 billion dollars to farmers. We expect the
>U.S.D.A. to do their job. We call for a precautionary moratorium on
>these powerful crop treatments to protect our bees and our food.
>###
>

Pollinators This Spring

This is a continuation of our last post.

This is not hard science by any means, but it appears to me that the colder than normal temperatures are having a direct bearing on the number of insects present. We have noticed that our large colonies of bluebells are have been in flower nearly twice as long as in years when the daily temperatures are higher. Another indication of the cold temperatures is how little planted corn has emerged and what has emerged is very small compared to past years. We are just starting to see a few butterflies and they tend to be in the most protected areas.
My night-time back door surveys of moths and other nocturnal insects also seem to directly implicate that low temperatures are having a negative effect on numbers. I can recall only one warm evening so far this season, and that night there were a few moths, most evenings, there have been none or just one or two. Another indication is the general absence of mosquitos, I have yet to encounter, but one in the
woods. I am not defending the use of agricultural insecticides, but
we need to remember insects like heat and we have not had much of it this spring.

Carl

On May 20, 2008, at 4:59 PM, Richard G wrote:

> I have noticed that as well. Despite prodigious flowering of apple
> trees, plums, and other fruit trees, I fear that the lack of
> pollinators may lead to another down year in local fruit production.
>
> Dick