Superweed Explosion Threatens Monsanto Heartland

By CLEA CAULCUTT - France 24 - SUNDAY 19 APRIL 2009



“Superweeds” are plaguing high-tech Monsanto crops in southern US states, driving farmers to use more herbicides, return to conventional crops or even abandon their farms.
Read more here...

Artist Paul Hoppe

The Swine Flu Scare Lays Bare the Meat Industry's Monstrous Power

By *Mike Davis. Posted April 28, 2009.

(Photo courtesy of "Centre for Research on Globaliziation")

Animal husbandry now more closely resembles the petrochemical industry than the happy family farm. Click on title for more ...
======

Please also read - Flying Pigs, Tamiflu and Factory Farms - by F. William Engdahl
AND

Swine Flu Is Related to Virus Born on U.S. Hog Factories in 1998
AND
A FOOD SYSTEM THAT KILLS
New from GRAIN - April 2009

SWINE FLU IS MEAT INDUSTRY'S LATEST PLAGUE

Read more here...

COMMENT:
Johanne Dion said...

Very few seem to want to ask the question: how do these epidemics start and what can we do to avoid them? Seems to me that factory farming is just begging for these new virus mutations while creating pools of superbugs by using micro-dosing of antibiotics.

A productive thing than anybody in an industrialized country can do is to buy pork and ham that comes from a family size, almost organic pig farm, and avoid all prepared meats that come from big mainstream companies that have promoted these intensive, packed inhuman factory farms. The only way to get companies like Smithfields to change their ways is through their wallet.

Anybody who lives in a small village like mine that has had a 5,800 pig farm imposed upon them, like I have, will agree with me. Ask the people of La Gloria, Mexico.

Johanne Dion
Richelieu,
Province of Quebec,
Canada

April 30, 2009 4:07 PM
=========
Johanne Dion said...

You might like to read and add this interesting article on the subject:

April 30, 2009 4:38 PM

"Big Pharma" Poisons the World's Rivers

Cocktail of Pharmaceuticals Found in the Fish Caught Near Major U.S. Cities -
3/26/2009 - (NaturalNews) - Pharmaceutical pollution is out of control, polluting the waterways of our world to such a disturbing degree that now even the fish are carrying detectable levels of pharmaceuticals in their own bodies! A study conducted by Baylor University... read more...

Also... WORLD'S HIGHEST DRUG LEVELS ENTERING INDIA STREAM

By MARGIE MASON

PATANCHERU, India (AP) — When researchers analyzed vials of treated waste water taken from a plant where about 90 Indian drug factories dump their residues, they were shocked. Enough of a single, powerful antibiotic was being spewed into one stream each day to treat every person in a city of 90,000.

Why the Free Market Doesn't Work - Especially Regarding our Environment

Why the Free Market Doesn't Work: Consumption vs. Conservation

by Mike Adams, "The Health Ranger"

Ocean Dead Zones Likely To Expand

ScienceDaily: Your source for the latest research news and science breakthroughs.

Increasing Carbon Dioxide And Decreasing Oxygen Make It Harder For Deep-sea Animals To Breath

ScienceDaily (Apr. 18, 2009) — New calculations made by marine chemists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) suggest that low-oxygen "dead zones" in the ocean could expand significantly over the next century. As more and more carbon dioxide dissolves from the atmosphere into the ocean, marine animals will need more oxygen to survive. Read more here...

About all that can survive in these dead zones are vast hordes of slimy, amorphous, useless jellyfish (r.). They can inflict painful stings on swimmers who fail to heed warning signs (l.)

l.p.

13 Breathtaking Effects of Cutting Back on Meat

By Kathy Freston, AlterNet. Posted April 22, 2009.

The meat industry contributes to land degradation, climate change, air pollution, water shortage and pollution, and loss of biodiversity.

Read more here....
Photos by L.P.
Click on "Water" and "Livestock" labels to the right for related stories.

Honeybees Continue to Vanish: Don't Blame Aliens -- It's Our Addiction to Pesticides

By Evaggelos Vallianatos, TruthOut.org. Posted April 16, 2009.
The chemicals we use in industrial agriculture cause brain damage to the bees, making it often impossible for them to find their way home.
Click on headline for the full story.
Please also read - Should Pesticide "Regulators" & Politicians Face Penalties for Refusing to Protect Honeybees? and "Lament for the Honeybee" here.
Photo courtesy www.nonofficejobs.com

News Release – Green Party of Manitoba

Apr. 19th, 2009 - Brandon, MB.

Read related story here.

The leader of the Green Party of Manitoba, James Beddome, is challenging Premier Doer to make Manitoba the first western province to ban lawn and garden chemicals.

Just weeks ago, Ontario became just the second jurisdiction in the country to do away with the so-called “cosmetic” use of pesticides, long considered a health hazard, especially to children.

Beddome says such a ban would do a lot to enhance the image Mr. Doer has been promoting of himself as a “green” leader.

He further challenges the Premier to call on Ottawa for an immediate halt to the introduction of any further genetically-engineered crops in this country.

Beddome says, contrary to industry hype, GMO crops require more, not less, pesticides to ensure their success.

Meanwhile, there is mounting and credible evidence that these pesticides are harmful, both to human health and the natural environment.

CONTACT: James Beddome - (204) 990-5195
Or Larry Powell - (204) 937-3055
======
Ontario has just passed a new law which comes into effect on Earth Day, this Wednesday as a matter of fact, to ban the use of cosmetic pesticides in that province.

Just click here and search for Cosmetic Pesticides Ban Act, 2008

Also read related article here...

=====
Roundup is probably the most familiar and widely-used weed-killer in the world today.
It's used mainly on crops such as canola, which have been genetically modified to resist the chemical.

So the weeds in the treated fields are killed, while the crops survive.

(Ironically, canola has itself become a "weed" in crops sown in subsequent years.

Being Roundup-resistant, ever-more potent chemicals have been produced to kill it!

Where will this all end?

Roundup is also the herbicide of choice for a lot of urban homeowners, who use it trustingly on their lawns and gardens to get rid of such things as dandelions.
.
Thanks in large measure to expensive, pervasive advertising campaigns by its makers, Monsanto Corporation, it has a reputation for being effective and safe.


Empty containers dumped beside a field.

(Above)

But it is now becoming clear that Roundup is not the benign, harmless product it has been made out to be.



A container collection site in rural MB.
Photos by L.P
A research team at the University of Caen, in France, has found that Roundup kills human tissue within 24 hours of exposure, at just fractions of the concentrations used in agriculture!
Team leader, Prof. Gilles-Eric Seralini (l.)
President of the Scientific Council of CRIIGEN
University of Caen - Laboratory of Biochimistry
Please also help Prof. Seralini fend off an attack from the buitech industry by clicking here.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/defendiSeralini.php
Surprisingly, Roundup has been found to be far more toxic as a mixture that its active ingredient, glyphosate, alone.

This means that the products mixed with glyphosate to make Roundup are also, by themselves, very toxic.

They too have been touted for years as being "inert" or inactive, implying that they too, are harmless!

Yet Roundup continues to be used in "oceanic" amounts! Why?
============
As well, a study at the University of Pittsburgh has found that Roundup is highly toxic to amphibians, including frogs!
Biology Professor Rick Relyea (r.) found Roundup to be acutely toxic to amphibians.

Could this be a factor in the alarming decline of amphibian populations around the world?

If you accept that creatures such as this are barometers, not only of our natural environment, but of a healthy human population, then we suggest there is reason
for concern here.

The extinct

Golden Toad, (above).

Red-eyed tree frog (above).
Art by Rosa (Eunche) Lee, a
winner in the '09 Robert Bateman
"Get to Know" Contest.
Yet Roundup continues to be used in "oceanic" amounts! Why?

Despite all of this, Monsanto and other big corporations continues to invent more and more GMO crops that are, in Monsanto's jargon, "Roundup Ready." These include alf alfa and sugar beets.

Amid a groundswell of concern, Monsanto dropped a bid to develop GMO wheat in Canada a few years ago. But, make no mistake. That idea is still very much alive.

Tragically, governments continue to set science aside and approve ever more of what some critics call "frankencrops!"

That’s why we, the Green Party of Manitoba, believe it’s of utmost importance that an immediate hold be placed on the approval of any new GMO crops in Canada until their full impact on health and environment can be investigated.
=======

Late in 2005, (almost four years ago) a Canadian scientist, Myriam Fernandez with Ag Canada’s research Centre in Swift Current, found that wheat crops grown a year after glyphosate had been applied to the field, had higher levels of a fungal disease known as fusarium head blight, than fields where no glyphosate had been applied.

The blight affects mostly wheat, but can also attack barley, corn and oats. It affects both yield and quality of crops and can produce toxic seed.

Fusarium is a serious and pervasive condition that has deprived producers of millions of dollars of revenue over the years.

Fernandez also found, under similar conditions, Roundup seemed to promote another phenomenon called sudden death syndrome in soy beans.

Yet Roundup continues to be used in "oceanic" amounts! Why?

Her finding followed 4 years of study.

Click here, then search for Myriam Fernandez.

(NOTE-her complete study no longer seems to be posted on this site.)
======
For years now, honeybees have been disappearing in alarming numbers in Canada and around the world.

While many factors are believed to be causing this, it is known for sure that certain pesticides, for one, are lethal to the bees.

Click here for the complete, joint, 6 year-old study by the EPA and PMRA…

While Germany, France, Italy and Slovenia have already banned these chemicals, including an especially nasty one called “clothianidin.” (made by Bayer CropScience) North American regulators not only continue to allow this poison to be used, they are approving new ones which are just as potent, if not more so!

So they sit and fiddle, apparently oblivious of the fact that one out of every three spoons-full of food we put in our mouths is there thanks to honeybees, the world’s most efficient pollinators!

Authorities seem to feel that every last cause of bee disappearances has to be identified and proven rather than acting on the ones we already know about!
They even have a convenient term for it. “Colony Collapse Disorder.” It’s characterized as a mystery apparently so deep, let’s not even try to solve it!

Yet clothianadin continues to be used in "oceanic" amounts! Why?

It is a strange phenomenon we see repeatedly….an unexplained and fiercely loyal allegiance of our politicians to large, wealthy and powerful chemical companies who can seemingly do whatever they want!
======
Illness Among Pesticide Applicators in the Northern 'States

As long ago as the early '90s, the University of Minnesota found significantly more birth defects among children in the Red River Valley than in other agricultural regions of that state.

Of these, most were born to men who applied pesticides for a living to wheat, sugar beet and potato crops. And most of those children were conceived in spring, when herbicide use was the greatest.

The children developed significantly more problems with circulation, breathing and genital formation than the general population.

The lowest rates of birth defects were found in what are called "non-crop" regions of Minnesota.

"Birth defects, season of conception, and gender of children born to pesticide applicators living in the Red River Valley of Minnesota, USA.
Garry VF, Harkins ME, Erickson LL, Long-Simpson LK, Holland SE, Burroughs BL.
Environmental Medicine and Pathology Laboratory, 1st Floor Stone Laboratory 1, University of Minnesota,"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12060842 ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.
Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

========================

Spousal effects

Reproductive outcomes in the women of the Red River Valley of the north. I. The spouses of pesticide applicators: pregnancy loss, age at menarche, and exposures to pesticides.
Garry VF, Harkins M, Lyubimov A, Erickson L, Long L.

Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota

In addition, these same studies showed that the wives of men who applied chemicals, especially fungicides, had a significant increase in their risk of miscarriages..

And, of the kids born to fungicide applicators, significantly fewer were boys than girls. This suggests this kind of product may even be a determinant in the gender of newborns.

Southern Manitoba and Pesticide Hazards

A year-&-a-half ago, a bright young researcher at the University of Manitoba, Jennifer Magoon, did an exhaustive and groundbreaking bit of research. Sifting through mounds of records, she cross-referenced the health insurance files of thousands of people in rural southern Manitoba with agricultural maps showing the intensity of pesticide use in the region.

She found a link between the intensity of the use of pesticides, especially insecticides, and moderate to serious health conditions of the people there.

For example, where insecticide use was average, there was a 32.7 percent, or slightly less than a one-in-three chance of lower birth rates, respiratory distress and jaundice among the very young. Where pesticide use was twice that amount, these illnesses increased by a full four percentage points - to 36.7 percent!

And, where insecticide use was average, severe birth defects like spina bifida, Down Syndrome and cleft palate could be expected in 11.8% of newborns. Where pesticide use was doubled, that figure jumped to 12.8%, an increase of one full percentage point.

Magoon calls these numbers statistically significant and very unlikely to happen by chance.

Her recommendations?

Decrease pesticide use and conduct further studies that would pin down a "cause and effect" relationship.
Have either of these things happened?

Rather than decrease pesticide use, governments here and in North America are falling over themselves to approve new GMO crops, like alf alfa and sugar beets. And if you hear a politician or chemical manufacturer claim that GM crops need less pesticides, don't believe it! Field studies show just the opposite is happening.

So not only are the health risks, especially to children, unacceptable, it is becoming clear that GM crops are being developed, not in the interests of our food producers, or consumers, but as cash cows for the chemical corporations.

As for further studies, I haven't heard of any. Have you? I 'd invite you as journalists to make inquiries, to find out why!
-30-

Statement by Concerned Citizens of the Valley

Concerned Citizens of the Valley is a group of people who live in the Swan River Valley of west-central Manitoba, CA.

In the mid-1990’s, Louisiana Pacific proposed to build an Oriented Strandboard mill near Minitonas in west-central Manitoba. Clean Environment Commission hearings on the environmental impact of the OSB mill were held in 1994.

The wood products plant in question. (photo by Larry.)

At the time of the hearings, the US Environmental Protection Agency had reached an agreement with Louisiana-Pacific to install Regenerative Thermal Oxidizers in it’s US mills. These RTOs limit the emission of toxic compounds like formaldehyde, benzene and Volatile Organic Compounds, toxins known to be hazardous to human health.

In Manitoba, requirements were far less rigorous and Louisiana-Pacific did not propose to install RTOs, nor was the government suggesting that the Company do so. It was the view of some that Manitoba citizens should be afforded at least the same level of health and environmental protection as citizens of the US. Environmental groups and citizens from the Swan Valley came together to work towards that goal.

The Clean Environment Commission hearings lasted several weeks and included testimony from the US Environmental Protection Agency. Louisiana-Pacific relented and agreed to install RTOs at the Swan Valley mill. This was a significant environmental victory for those very dedicated people who worked and volunteered on behalf of their fellow man and the environment.

Fast forward to the present.

Louisiana-Pacific is losing money due to lower demand for its product. The Company wants to cut costs. It issues statements indicating that it will cut jobs and will be examining other means to reduce costs.

The Company pleads its case to the Manitoba government in 2008. The Company indicates that it costs $3 million per year to operate the RTOs. And that the RTOs have a life expectancy of about ten years, their time is up, and it will cost $10 million to replace them. The Company also indicates that it has made some changes to its operation that would reduce emissions. The mill may close if costs are not reduced, and people will be out of work.

What happens? On January 8 of this year, Manitoba Conservation quietly grants approval for the Company to stop using the RTOs on an interim basis. Near the end of January, in an article in the local Swan Valley paper, the mill manager is quoted to say “We have been working with ministers Rosann Wowchuk and Stan Struthers and Andrew Swan on this and other cost saving initiatives. We are very pleased that they are supporting us.”.

Despite the huge investment of volunteer capital to ensure that the mill was required to install RTOs, the interim approval is granted because the government views the alteration to be ‘minor’. There was no notification of what Manitoba Conservation had done. And people, including those living next to the mill, were left in the dark. At least for awhile.

Near the end of January, Manitoba Conservation advertises in the Winnipeg Free Press and the local Swan Valley paper. The government indicates that Louisiana-Pacific has applied to permanently stop using its RTOs and to increase the amount of toxicants that it will emit to the area.

Since that time, we have come together to examine Louisiana-Pacific’s proposal. Here are a few of the things that we have found.
• A number of the contaminants pose risks to human health. Some of the contaminants are known carcinogens. Volatile Organic Compounds, even in low quantities, can affect the central nervous and respiratory systems. The young, old, those with compromised breathing, those with diabetes, and the unborn are most vulnerable.
• RTOs or equivalent equipment are required at Louisiana-Pacific and all OSB mills in the US. This includes mills that operate like the Swan Valley mill.
• A recent comparison of Canada to the US, Europe, and Australia found that “... Canada provides weaker protection for human health from the negative effects of air pollution that the U.S., Australia, and the European Union. Canada is the only nation to rely on voluntary national guidelines, which provide a far weaker approach to air pollution than the national standards in the U.S., Australia, and the European Union”.
• The Company proposes to build higher stacks to more widely disperse the greater amount of toxins.
• Louisiana-Pacific indicates that, once it gets through the economic downturn, the Company will be stronger than ever. Analysts in the field of OSB are predicting that the demand for this product will recover by 2010 and then be very strong. If the Company can cut costs by shutting of pollution controls in Manitoba, it will that much more profitable in the future.
• There are significant questions surrounding the assessments conducted by LP’s consultants.
• The health assessment was done by an organization that receives its funding from the forestry industry, including Louisiana-Pacific. We would be far more confident if the assessment had been conducted by a truly independent organization whose mandate was public health.
• The assessment of the movement and concentrations of toxins was done by a US company that is no longer in existence. We wonder why Louisiana-Pacific did not hire a Manitoba engineering firm, as this kind of work is done by a number of engineers certified to operate in Manitoba.
• There is considerable similarity between how Louisiana-Pacific has handled its assessment of dispersion of the toxins, and how Louisiana-Pacific handled its 1995 assessment of the ability of the forest to provide for the mill. In that case, it has since been proven that Louisiana-Pacific and its consultants massively overestimated the sustainable wood supply and the rate at which the forest grows.

In response to public comments on Louisiana-Pacific’s proposal, Minister Struthers instructed the Clean Environment Commission to conduct an investigation and public meeting.

We are happy that we will be able to participate in a meeting on this issue, although details of the meeting are presently unknown. For example, we are unaware if we will be able to question Louisiana-Pacific’s consultants.

Of particular importance, huge power imbalances exist between large corporations and government, and ordinary citizens. For example, Louisiana-Pacific had sales of almost 1.7 billion dollars in 2007; the Company’s pockets are pretty deep. And government has immense power in relation to the average citizen.

Intervenor funding provides funding to citizens in an effort to level the playing field. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency considers intervenor funding to be one way to provide “Canadians with high quality environmental assessments that contribute to informed decision making, in support of sustainable development.”

We ask you support us by phoning, writing, and emailing to Minister Struthers, Premier Doer, and your local MLA. We ask you to demand that Minister Struthers provide intervenor funding to Concerned Citizens of the Valley. This will allow our group to hire the best of independent expertise. We believe that this matter cannot be left in the hands of industry and government; it is up to us to make certain that the environment and human health will not be compromised for profitability.

Thank you for your time.

Concerned Citizens of the Valley

Greenhouse gases bad for health: U.S. agency

CBC - Cars, power plants and factories in the United States could all soon face much tougher pollution limits after a government declaration by the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday. It sets the stage for the first federal regulation of gases blamed for global warming. Read more here...

(Photo - Greenpeace)

Failure to Yield

Union of Concerned Scientists - Citizens and Scientists for Environmental Solutions

Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops

For years the biotechnology industry has trumpeted that it will feed the world, promising that its genetically engineered crops will produce higher yields. But is this true? Click here for the answer...

George Monbiot: on Global Warming - “It’s over, now we must adapt to what nature sends our way”

George Monbiot is Europe's leading "green" commentator. Below is his article in the UK's Guardian.

=================

Quietly in public, loudly in private, climate scientists everywhere are saying the same thing: it's over. The years in which more than 2C of global warming could have been prevented have passed, the opportunities squandered by denial and delay. On current trajectories we'll be lucky to get away with 4C. Mitigation (limiting greenhouse gas pollution) has failed; now we must adapt to what nature sends our way. If we can.Read more here....

Big Food - The New Tobacco?

Big Food Is Copying Big Tobacco's Disinformation Tactics.

How Many Will Die This Time?

By Fen Montaigne, Yale Environment 360. Posted April 11, 2009.

Courtesy of AlterNet.

More of Man's Inhumanity Toward Nature?

Photo - Guardian - UK
Published on Wednesday, April 8, 2009 by the Times Online (UK)

by Lewis Smith

Mass strandings of dolphins and whales could be caused because the animals are rendered temporarily deaf by military sonar, experiments have shown. Read more...

Also watch this heart-wrenching BBC video of stranded dolphins.

Breaking News: New Ontario Law on Toxic Chemical Reduction

This just in from Environmental Defence - The province of Ontario has introduced new legislation designed to persuade companies to reduce their use of toxic chemicals. It will be the first jurisdiction in the country to produce such a strategy. Read more....

Should Pesticide "Regulators" & Politicians Face Penalties for Refusing to Protect Honeybees?

By Larry Powell.

Over the past several months, I have politely asked the federal Minister of Health, the Hon.Leona Aglukkaq, (r.) who is responsible for the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, at least three times to comment on the issues outlined in my article, below. She has not responded.
==================
As many of you will know, populations of honeybees have, in recent years, been tragically and "mysteriously" disappearing around the world.

I say "mysteriously" with some sarcasm, because pesticides are already known to be one of the factors. Yet, instead of removing these known toxins from the market, they continue to be allowed, while ever-more harmful ones are being approved!

Not only do the bees produce our honey, they are our most important pollinators, responsible for the production of up to one-third of the human food supply!

Despite numerous and now frantic studies into the phenomenon, which has been dubbed "Colony Collapse Disorder," nothing is being done and the bees continue to disappear.

So I'm not really optimistic for the future of these wondrous creatures.

Why? Because we have now let harmful chemicals insinuate themselves so completely into our lives, we can no longer separate reality from industry or government hype.

Beekeepers are themselves concerned about chemicals now being sprayed on crops like sunflowers, where some of their bees pollinate.

In a recent letter-to-the-editor, a government entomologist talks about "managing" insects on sunflower crops (with chemicals, of course).

It's a single word. But it speaks volumes about how completely we have now divorced ourselves from the notion of working with nature to produce our food.

We are so bogged down in the nuances of the debate; which products will kill bees "on contact" (as opposed to which ones will kill them later on, I guess), and how "target" and "non-target" insects are affected, we can no longer see the forest for the trees.

Of course these chemicals have all been sorted into these neat little compartments, each with its own label.

That's nice.

But, does anyone truly believe there will be no harmful synergistic effects when so many chemical soups are applied with such abandon to our food crops yearly?

Are we supposed to accept that new generations of ever-more-potent poisons, descendants of ones used in wartime to kill people and now specifically designed to kill insects, will somehow stop doing their job, say "excuse me," politely and magically step around beneficial insects and kill only the bad ones?

Give me a break!

Yet huge chemical-makers brag on their websites, without fear of contradiction, that they work "with nature," toward "sustainable" agriculture and an end to world hunger!

All the while, their products are threatening food production, not promoting it!

Their version of "sustainability" is to pour ever-larger amounts of their over-priced products onto our crops, just so our producers can "stay even" with last year!

Figures from credible sources show that, despite the chemical onslaught that has transformed agriculture since the 1930's, crops lost to pests of all kinds, have actually increased as a percentage of production!

Might there actually come a day when corporate chemical-makers, government bureaucrats, politicians and regulators, will actually face penalties if they know that certain products are harmful to human health or the environment, yet do nothing? Probably not.

But wouldn't that jam up our courts!

If you think that sounds harsh, consider that one out of every three spoons-full of food we eat, comes courtesy of honeybees!

Meanwhile, North American "regulators", armed with the certain knowledge that products already out there are "very highly toxic" to bees, not only continue to allow their use, but are approving new ones that are probably even worse!

So, on whose behalf are these "regulators" acting? Yours? Mine? Or the chemical companies and their fat bottom lines?

You be the judge.

Meanwhile, scientists and researchers continue to chase their tails, frantically trying to explain every last reason behind "Colony Collapse Disorder," a phenomenon that has been conveniently invented to impress people about how deep a mystery it is to solve.

There probably are factors other than pesticides involved, granted. But why cross every "t" and dot every "i" when they could be acting on one they already know about?

And, in fairness, there are dedicated scientists who have pointed their finger at pesticides too, yet their voices seem to get lost in the wilderness.

It's been pointed out with monotonous regularity that many bee deaths (such as some Canadian ones) do not "fit the profile" of Colony Collapse Disorder.

Gee, I guess they don't count, then! No point in even trying to do anything about those!

You can bet the chemical companies are wringing their hands in glee, knowing that, as they rack up record sales, multiple scientific studies go madly off in all directions, concluding nothing.

In a couple of radio interviews I have heard, academics put a devilishly clever "spin" on the topic. Bending over backwards not to offend the chemical companies, they conceded that "not much more" can be done using pesticides, to protect the bees (from things like mites, etc)! Heaven forbid they should even hint that they are actually a factor!

(One has to wonder just how "beholden" are their respective universities to the chemical companies because of grants they may get from them? Journalists don't ask those kinds of questions, any more.)
l.p.

Please also read "Lament for the Honeybee." Just click on the "Honeybees" category in the column to the right.
=====

Comment: Yes, we should BEE wise & admit that pesticides are the culprit.
BEE cause if we don't, we will all suffer.
JerrySatire@aol.com www.Lampoon.net
=====

Farmers Need Help to Grow More Food With Less Water - FAO

Future of water is in agriculture
FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf has called for more attention to be paid to water management in agriculture and for increased support and guidance for farmers in developing countries to tackle water scarcity and the related problem of hunger. Meanwhile, the FAO has urged policy-makers to include agriculture in negotiations for a new climate change treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto protocol.

Photo courtesty of www.treehugger.com

Canada Plunders Our Oceans With the "Best" of Them!

The Trouble With Sea Cucumbers - Sea cucumber stocks are under intense fishing pressure throughout the world, according to a new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In a majority of countries reviewed and in the African and Indian Ocean regions, stocks are overfished. In the Asian Pacific region the most sought-after species are largely depleted. [more... (Photos courtesy of FAO)

Large-scale sea cucumber harvesting

operation in Canada. (left).