Posted on 10/06/2017 8:02:25 AM PDT by ptsal
**snip**Bees and other pollinators have been on the decline for more than a decade and experts blame a combination of factors: neonics, parasites, disease, climate change and lack of a diverse food supply. Honeybees don't just make honey; about one-third of the human diet comes from plants that are pollinated by the insects. Bees pick up the pesticide when they feed on fields grown from treated seeds.
**snip**"What this shows is the magnitude of the contamination," said study lead author Edward Mitchell, a biology professor at the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland, adding that there are "relatively few places where we did not find any."
Over the past few years, several studies — in the lab and the field — link insecticides called neonicotinoids (nee-oh-NIH'-kuh-tih-noyds), or neonics, to reduced and weakened honeybee hives, although pesticide makers dispute those studies. Neonics work by attacking an insect's central nervous system;
(Excerpt) Read more at cms.klove.com ...
The study found that nearly half of the honey samples exceeded a level of the pesticide that some previous research said weakens bees, but the pesticide makers say otherwise. An outside expert, University of Nebraska's Judy Wu-Smart, said the study used too few honey samples to make the broad conclusions the researchers did.
Ann Bryan, spokeswoman for Syngenta which makes the neonic thiamethoxam, said the amount of the pesticide found in honey samples "are 50 times lower than what could cause possible effects on bees."
Jeffrey Donald, a spokesman for Bayer Crop Science which makes the neonic clothianidinsaid, said the study "perpetuates the myth that exposure to low levels of neonicotinoids implies risk, even though there is no compelling scientific evidence to support this conclusion."
The study authors likened neonics to DDT, the pesticide in the 1960s linked to declines in bald eagles and other birds. They said neonics are dangerous to all sorts of insects, even ladybugs. University of Illinois bee expert Sydney Cameron and other scientists said those comparisons aren't right because neonics don't stay in an animal's system like DDT did and are applied to seeds and not sprayed in mass quantities.
Let the market decide. If you don’t like pesticides (assuming the fake news is true), buy the other 25%. CHOICE is there. Idiots complain as if there are no choices. Free market always give choices.
My brother tried to make his own Honey but the Bees keep running away
Fake news
By changing wax foundation to actual bee designed cell dimensions hive death diminishes drastically. The AI Root dimensions used for wax foundation has cells larger than the bees make and iss said to allow disease and mites to exist. The actual bee produced cell size does not allow these events to occur
How exactly do you determine that the honey you buy wasn’t made from pesticide tainted pollen?
I mix my honey w/IPA to purify it!
Works for me!
;)
******
Once you get them to hang around, it gets interesting.
As certain as the sun rising in the morning another bee panic story makes the news.
I’m surprised there are any bees around any more, the 1973 stories I read at the time had them dying in droves and gone within a decade.
That’s one of the advantages of having lived for a long while, history tells us this story is just more Fake News.
“How exactly do you determine that the honey you buy wasn’t made from pesticide tainted pollen?”
Responsibility. Consumers are responsible for what they buy. Nobody is force feeding them honey. Consumers have the power of their wallets. Just don’t pick up crap quality honey, if you care about quality honey. Simple common sense.
If you go for the cheapest honey in the aisle, you prioritized price over quality. As simple as that. No need to complain after that.
I thought the whole "Silent Spring" fraud was debunked decades ago.
My dad had some hives which he worked after he retired. This was in NW Fla. He was able to sell a good bit of Tupelo honey. I know at one point he sold a 55 gallon drum of Tupelo. This was one person using a hand slinger just as a hobby.
Tupelo will keep without turning to sugar and I have about a quart left from a gallon jug he got from another beekeeper about 5 years ago, after he quit beekeeping.
Market can’t control bees and we can’t legislate where they fly. As long as some flowers within their range are sprayed with these pesticides, they will bring it back to the hive. Eventually 100% of pollinators will be contaminated if the trend continues.
The market only cares about profit and current price/perception. It has no mechanisms or consideration for what will happen to bees, other animals and eventually humans many decades down the road.
We are spraying many tons of chemicals into the atmosphere that never existed in nature before. Then those manmade chemicals mix with countless other chemicals and their random byproducts after breaking down for many years.
It’s impossible to test for what ALL these random mixtures will eventually do to every organism on Earth. And how those organisms will eventually affect us
Instead of buying store honey, one can get local raw honey from nearby beekeepers. Most areas will have a beekeeper association, and contacting them will provide multiple sources.
I belong to my local beekeeper association, pay the dues, and have currently 7 hives. I sell honey to folks walking up to my door, those on my email list, and an occasional booth at the local farmer’s market.
But, be aware that bees forage up to 2 or so miles in all directions from the hive. No way I can control what’s grown in this wide an area. Honey is labeled “Wildflower Honey”, and what I take in is what flowers exist at any one time nearby... could have neonicatinoids or may not have them...
I have lots of complaints about that. It's Gresham's Law - the cheap drives the good out of the market place.
I can't think of how many times I have been determined to get quality product, willingly paying the price, having looked through reviews, only to get over-priced crap instead of cheap crap.
It sure was, unfortunately the majority of people still don't know just how big of a fraud that was......
Where were the samples taken and more data is needed.
Do a google search on your state. Pretty much every state has a Honey Producers site where you can find local and/or organic honey to purchase.
We made Maple Syrup from tapping our own trees this season. It seems that bee keeping might be easier! ;)
Wow, are you right about that! I remind my kids all the time about how 40 years ago, "scientists" were certain that we were entering a new Ice Age and there wouldn't be any oil left by the year 2000.
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