Despite the new task force to save bees, BigAg profit$ still trump actually saving bees

[RiverLover]

I find this incredibly disappointing, frustrating....
~

Pollinator Health Strategy fails to address pesticides as key driver of bee deaths

Faced with the growing crisis of declining bee populations, the White House on Tuesday released its strategy for improving pollinator health. Almost immediately, experts decried the plan, saying it "misses the mark" by refusing to acknowledge the overwhelming role that pesticides play in driving bee deaths.

Under the strategy (pdf) put forth by the Pollinator Health Task Force, which falls under the leadership of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the federal government aims to:

*Reduce honey bee colony losses to no more than 15% within 10 years, deemed "economically sustainable levels."
*Increase the Eastern population of the monarch butterfly to 225 million butterflies and protect its annual North American migration.
*"Restore or enhance 7 million acres of land" of pollinator habitat over the next 5 years through Federal actions and public-private partnerships.

To achieve these goals, the Task Force developed an action plan, which prioritizes the need to expand research on honeybees, native bees, butterflies and other pollinators, increase habitat acreage, increase outreach with other federal agencies, and expand public-private partnerships.

However, experts note that absent from the plan is any immediate action restricting the use of pesticides, particularly neonicotinoids, which studies have shown to be one of the leading causes of bee deaths. Nor does the plan outline restrictions for pesticide-coated seeds, which advocates say are "one of the largest uses of bee-harming pesticides."

"The plan focuses heavily on improving pollinator habitat, but is blind to the fact that new habitat will simply become contaminated by insecticides still heavily in use, ultimately harming pollinators," said Larissa Walker, pollinator campaign director at Center for Food Safety.

"We can’t just plant more wild flowers near crop land and expect insecticides to stop being a problem."

And Lisa Archer, Food and Technology Program director with Friends of the Earth, said the strategy "misses the mark by not adequately addressing the pesticides as a key driver of unsustainable losses of bees and other pollinators essential to our food system."....

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/05/19/bees-cant-wait-white-house-plan-save-pollinators-falls-short-say-experts

[Buzz Clik]

1. The EPA plan for neonicotinoids is already in place.

Why would this executive-level move do anything to counteract that?

[RiverLover]

2. You're kidding, right?

Even with overwhelming evidence neonicotinoids are killing our insect pollinators, the EPA has them "under review".

http://www2.epa.gov/pollinator-protection/schedule-review-neonicotinoid-pesticides

And though they have issued a moratorium on new uses,

New uses of neonicotinoids will no long be approved "until the data on pollinator health have been received and appropriate risk assessments completed," the EPA letter reads. Existing permits to use them, however, will not be rescinded — something wildlife and environmental advocacy groups are unhappy with.

"If EPA is unable to assess the safety of new uses, the agency similarly is not able to assess the safety of the close to 100 outdoor uses already approved," said the Center for Food Safety's Peter Jenkins in a statement criticizing the EPA's actions. Other organizations of beekeepers, environmentalists, and farmers echoed the sentiment.

Though it isn't calling an end to all uses of neonicotinoids, the EPA says in its letter that it is taking the problem seriously: "EPA considers the completion of the new pollinator risk assessments for these chemicals to be an agency priority."

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/epa-calls-halt-use-pesticides-suspected-killing-bees-n334936

[Buzz Clik]

3. "Even with overwhelming evidence neonicotinoids are killing our insect pollinators..." No.

Neonics have been associated with colony collapse, not killing the pollinators, and the evidence is hardly overwhelming.

Nothing new has been discovered of this association between when the last EPA plan was released this year and the formation of the new task force.

[RiverLover]

4. I disagree. Along with all environmental orgs. But no time to fight conservative lies atm. /nt

[hatrack]

24. You are on the bleeding edge of being banned - rein it in.

.

[Buzz Clik]

26. Really? You are defending this guy?

Calling me a liar and insinuating that I'm a rightwing troll? You defend that and threaten me?

Wow.

[hatrack]

28. "Threaten"? No, just a statement of fact

I asked you to be civil. Apparently it's beyond you.

Goodbye.

[gregcrawford]

6. Oh please...

...Buzz, just what do you think colony collapse IS, if not killing the pollinators?

[Buzz Clik]

11. Colony collapse is the disappearance of bees from the hive, not massive die-offs.

look it up.

[gregcrawford]

16. And the bees disappear because they are dying!

Bees don't expire in the hive. Because of their relatively short lifespans, disposing of the dead bees would overwhelm those bees dedicated to keeping house, so to speak. If they were just disappearing, they'd show up somewhere else. They don't.

[Buzz Clik]

17. Ok, you have no idea what you're talking about. You and I are done on this one.

Read up on the subject.

[RiverLover]

25. Look in the mirror and say the same thing, please. Maybe you'll be nicer to yourself?

Adult worker bees disappear from the hives, and the young ones are left without care & they die.

The prevailing theory was the worker bees go off, get confused & lost, and die. Of course they die, they don't just vanish into thin air. That "theory" just got more steam behind it with the study from last month that I posted here today. The neonics kill bees' brain cells. It literally makes them stupid & they die.

http://earthjustice.org/features/the-case-of-the-vanishing-honey-bee?gclid=CKCJ1b3L0cUCFYQAaQod6lQAaA

http://www.democraticunderground.com/112785818

You are coming across as a bully, BC, who doesn't know what he's talking about, but is loudly accusing others of not knowing what they are talking about.

[Owl]

7. Neonicotinoids need to be banned.

[swilton]

8. 1,000 recs

It doesn't take rocket science or a 'program' to figure this out.....any home or space (w/o the pesticides) could be a potential bee habitat...

[FlatBaroque]

9. Of course, this is obvious, and was obvious

when it was announced that Obama would save the bees. THANKS OBAMA! I read the article to see what would be done about pesticides and voila! Jack shit. Another empty gesture to try and convince citizens what a progressive guy he is. Now pass TPA dammit!

[Buzz Clik]

13. -1

Nice disruption attempt.

We can smell you a mile away.

[yellowwoodII]

10. Corn Ethanol

I live in the Midwest, and I have noticed that our politicians have outdone themselves in appeasing the desires of the corn farmers, not to mention the chemical companies from which they buy. That means that politicians voted to increase the amount of corn ethanol in our gasoline.

Does that mean that we depend less on foreign oil? No. The farmer who tills the fields near me goes over them many times with his huge oil-driven machinery. He has ripped out the fence rows so that wild life has no place to live in order to greedily plant more corn. He has the corn sprayed by airplane with pesticides. The fertilizer that he uses also uses petroleum.

Meanwhile, with the wild places gone, there is no place for milkweed to host the butterflies. The bees are killed by the pesticides. This will not end well.

[RiverLover]

23. Very interesting, good post. It must be so frustrating to see your neighbor farmer destroy natural

habitats like that. Its sad to hear, but also nice to get a first-hand experience & impressions. Appreciate it!! I share your frustrations. It will not end well, it isn't ending well...

[Nihil]

27. And even without the pesticide sprays, the wildlife dies ...

> The bees are killed by the pesticides.

The bees are also killed by the creation of mega-fields of monoculture crop.
This is a desert for anything other than the crop (and the resistant pests who
feed on it of course).

[Buzz Clik]

12. Anyone serious about understanding this issue needs to read this:

http://scientificbeekeeping.com/neonicotinoids-trying-to-make-sense-of-the-science/

and this

http://scientificbeekeeping.com/neonicotinoids-trying-to-make-sense-of-the-science-part-2/

This is a trained scientist/beekeeper trying to put it all together.

[RiverLover]

14. And also read a study to understand facts discovered (but only if you're "serious"!)

Sub-lethal exposure to neonicotinoids impaired honey bees
winterization before proceeding to colony collapse disorder
Bulletin of Insectology 2014

Results
We found honey bee colonies in both control and neoncotinoid-treated groups progressed almost identically,
and observed no acute morbidity or mortality in either group until the arrival of winter. In addition, neither the
locations where the hives were set up nor the type of sugar (high-fructose corn syrup vs. sucrose) fed
to honey bees was associated with the brood rearing or the occurrence of CCD (one-way ANOVA). Therefore data
from 3 apiary locations and two types of sugar were pooled in the data analysis. As temperatures began to
decrease in late October 2012, we observed a steady decrease of bee cluster size in both control and neonicotinoidnoid-treated colonies. While such decline was quickly reversed in the control colonies in January 2013, the neonicotinoid-treated hives continued to decline (figure 1).

http://www.bulletinofinsectology.org/pdfarticles/vol67-2014-125-130lu.pdf

These are "trained" insect scientists who have pulled it together.

[Buzz Clik]

15. Did you read the links I provided?

How does the Harvard controlled feeding study compare to field exposures? Did you notice?

[RiverLover]

18. I read the paper from 2012 that you posted. He's says "to date" often for a reason.

We know more PROVEN facts now through science than we did in 2012.

[Buzz Clik]

19. Take a look at the concentrations used in the Harvard study.

Then take a look at the "field relevant" concentrations in my link.

Then, we can talk more...

[RiverLover]

20. Your arrogance is misplaced here. You are wrong.

Go talk yourself.

[Buzz Clik]

21. What you interpret as "arrogance" is having a strong handle on the facts.

This is twice you've insulted unprovoked on this thread. I don't really give a damn about the insults, but are you going to look at the science or not?

[RiverLover]

22. There it is again!