Ontario Corn Growers, Beekeepers Await Insecticide Review

Country Guide West

PMRA reviewing neonicotinoids after Ont., Que. bee losses last spring. Details here.

A corn harvester in MB. 

PLT photo



PLT: This story seems to suggest there is some doubt that the insecticides mentioned (i.e. the neonicotinoid "family"), actually harm pollinators. Of course they do! So please stop pussyfooting around the issue by suggesting otherwise....or that somehow PMRA's "tinkering" with label wording will clear this up.  An outright ban is the only way to proceed here (as has already been done in some European countries, with great success, I might add). I realize this will never happen in Canada as long as our "regulators" remain in bed with the chemical giants who profit prodigiously from sale of these disgusting poisons....not to mention farmers who read publications such as this. You farmers are surely a cog in the wheel which is crushing our precious pollinators, too...are you not? I'd love to hear from just one of you to justify your position on this....How about it?

Please also read: 

• Mystery of Disappearing Bees - Solved!
• Are Pesticide Regulators on the Take?

Billion Dollar Cleanup of 2010 Michigan Oil Spill to Proceed

InsideClimate News

Enbridge, the Canadian corporation proposing to build the Northern Gateway pipeline in Canada, agrees to comply with EPA order to dredge Kalamazoo River. Details here.

PLT: But the NG line won't spill, will it Enbridge?

Manitoba Upgrades Flood Threat, but Says no Repeat of 2011 Levels

Winnipeg Free Press

The province upgraded the spring flood threat today in southern Manitoba to moderate to major depending on how the spring melt goes over the next month. Details here.

Lake Manitoba - fall, 2011. PLT photo

PLT: The ravages of man-made climate change transcend politics. Sure, governments can tinker around the edges, digging deeper ditches and building higher dams. But ignorance and/or willful neglect of the underlying cause has long-since passed the realm of the criminal in all political parties. Therefore, suggesting that we'd be better off with a party of a different political stripe is fruitless. None - right, left or centre - has achieved the "eco-wisdom" necessary to adopt any plan that might last longer than a single term in office. If we all want to guarantee that this phenomenon, complete with killer storms, floods, droughts and wildfires continues, just keep living the way we are. (i.e. burn as much fossil fuel as we possibly can.) Now, jump in that big truck and head off snowmobiling with the kids. Don't worry - be happy!

Small and Medium-Sized Canadian Farms Fall Behind While Big Ones Keep on Getting Bigger

Manitoba Co-Operator

Level of on-farm investment favours large Canadian farms...Details here.

PLT photo




PLT: The law of the jungle still rules in the Canadian countryside!

Secrets of the Rich

Billionaires are hiding behind a network of “independent” groups, who manipulate politics on their behalf.

By George Monbiot... the Guardian 

Conspiracies against the public don’t get much uglier than this. As the Guardian revealed last week, two secretive organisations working for US billionaires have spent $118m to ensure that no action is taken to prevent manmade climate change(1). While inflicting untold suffering on the world’s people, their funders have used these opaque structures to ensure that their identities are never exposed.

The two organisations – the Donors’ Trust and the Donors’ Capital Fund – were set up as political funding channels for people handing over $1m or more. They have financed 102 organisations which either dismiss climate science or downplay the need to take action. The large number of recipients creates the impression that there are many independent voices challenging climate science. These groups, working through the media, mobilising gullible voters and lobbying politicians, helped to derail Obama’s cap and trade bill and the climate talks at Copenhagen. Now they’re seeking to prevent the US president from trying again(2).

US Groups Sue Environmental Protection Agency Over Honey Bee Deaths

(Reuters) - U.S. environmental regulators are failing to protect honey bees and their role in pollinating important food crops, and should immediately suspend use of some toxic insecticides tied to the widespread deaths of the bees, a lawsuit charges. Details here.