Saving the Bees Means Saving the Food Supply!

The world population sits at just over 7.6 Billion humans, our impact on the health of the planet ranges from disregard for our personal pollution, to toxic waste released from our mines and wells, to global warming from our excessive carbon release into the atmosphere…and it is only getting worse. With all of this in mind, and an expanding population, you’d think we would want to protect bees…as they provide a great deal of the food needed for our survival.

Today we find our Federal Government, led by Trump …an uninformed, and often caustic science denier, is reversing the positive course established by the past four Administrations…retreating into the pockets of petrochemical and pesticide developers…raising their profits while damaging our nation and the planet. Trump will be long in his grave by the time our global population crests…at about 9.6 Billion in the year 2050, but his disastrous policies will have damaged America beyond our imagined impact…and it will have ended the histories of many other nations.

One of our biggest issues is the loss of pollinators. Bees the world over are suffering the attacks that our corporate producers are throwing at them. Bayer, BASF, Dow Agro, Monsanto, and Syngenta are key among these conglomerates.  And the worlds bee population is being devastated by the broad band pesticides and herbicides that these companies are spraying to protect ornamentals, and crops from other varieties of insects, bugs, and worms.

Unpublished field trials by pesticide manufacturers show their products cause serious harm to honeybees at high levels, leading to calls from senior scientists for the companies to end the secrecy which cloaks much of their research. The research, conducted by Syngenta and Bayer on their neonicotinoid insecticides, were submitted to the US Environmental Protection Agency and obtained by Greenpeace after a freedom of information request. What was reported was alarming.

Neonicotinoids are the world’s most widely used insecticides and there is clear scientific evidence that they harm bees at the levels found in fields, though only a little to date showing the pesticides harm the overall performance of colonies. Neonicotinoids were banned from use on flowering crops in the EU in 2013, despite UK opposition.

While flowers are treated by these same broadband insecticides to keep them pretty, flowering crops are their primary target and bees work all these fields. Here are some examples of what bees pollinate:  Cranberry Celery Coffee, Sweet Cherry, Tangerine, Tomato, Watermelon, Broccoli, Blueberry, Avocado, Apple, Strawberry, Sunflower, Carrot, Cucumber, Squash (plant),  Pumpkin, Gourd, Marrow, Zucchini…and the list could go on for rows and rows.

So, if you are hungry …keep in mind that we are destroying the very crops that we cherish by wiping out bees through the profit game that these corporations are engaged in.  Time to ask Trump what he wants on his salad…and force Pruitt to keep the EPA engaged in meaningful anti-pesticide programs nationally, and internationally. It’s a must, and the time for it is now!