Tuesday, May 1, 2012
WALL STREET JOURNAL/ A NEW BEE NY
Urban Buzz: A New Bee That Sips Sweat
Native Insects Getting Closer Look; Humans as 'Salt Lick'
By ROBERT LEE HOTZ
NEW YORK—A new bee is buzzing in Brooklyn: The tiny insect, the size of a sesame seed, sips the sweet nectar of the city—sweat.
"They use humans as a salt lick," said entomologist John Ascher, who netted the first known specimen of the species in 2010 while strolling in Brooklyn's Prospect Park near his home. "They land on your arm and lap up the sweat."
North America is home to thousands of species of native bees. But they have long been overshadowed by imported honeybees, prized for their honey and beeswax since the time of the Pharaohs and a mainstay of commercial agriculture. Now, native bees are generating serious buzz.
New York City is a hive of activity and one of the most diverse cities in the world. It's also host to hundreds of bee species, including one newly discovered specimen that lives on human sweat. WSJ's Lee Hotz reports.
For Mr. Ascher, 41 years old, nothing quite brightens the day like a new box of unidentified bees landing on his desk from some distant glade. So puzzling was the greenish-blue city bee he netted, though, that it took Mr. Ascher, who oversees a digital catalog of 700,000 bee specimens at the American Museum of Natural History, months to pinpoint its proper place in the insect kingdom.
In the end, only DNA testing by sweat bee specialist Jason Gibbs at Cornell University could identify its niche. Last November, they announced the discovery of Lasioglossum gotham, in a peer-reviewed journal called Zootaxa. The newbie joined the growing catalog of easily overlooked wild native bees.
Sweat bees don't have a high profile outside academic circles. Unlike honeybees, which were originally imported from Europe, native bees don't make much honey. To their credit, though, sweat bees rarely sting; their occasional pinprick registers a one on the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, the lowest on the four-point scale. (Bullet ants and the tarantula hawk wasp rate a four.)
Photos: Sweat Bee Generates Buzz
Jason Gibbs/Cornell University
A new species of sweat bee, Lasioglossum gotham, was discovered in the Brooklyn borough of New York in 2010, joining the growing catalog of easily overlooked wild native bees. Shown, a Lasioglossum gotham specimen.
More photos and interactive graphics
These bees prefer sweaty people—over most animals—because the human diet usually is so salty that their perspiration is saturated with the essential nutrient, experts said. Yet most people never notice when the tiny bees alight on a bare arm or leg.
As it turns out, Mr. Ascher and his colleagues are discovering New York City is a hive of activity.
By latest count, about 250 species of native bees are known to nest in sidewalk cracks, traffic median strips, parks, and high-rise balcony flower pots—more perhaps than any other major city in the world, several entomologists said. In Prospect Park alone, at least 90 species of native bees flit from flower to flower among the park's sun-dappled golden rod, dandelions and dogwood.
"For certain species, the city is as good as or better than a natural area," Mr. Ascher said.
Hovering around city parks and flower beds are masked bees, miner bees, mason bees, plasterer bees, cuckoo bees, leafcutter bees, horned bees, and at least 49 species of sweat bees. "We routinely see bees 30 stories up in window gardens," Mr. Ascher said. A local bumblebee has even been spotted on the observation deck of the Empire State Building.
Sweat bees often live unobtrusively.
"You can have sweat bees nesting in your front yard and never know it," because they are so small and mild-mannered, said Cornell's Mr. Gibbs. "Hundreds can nest in a square meter of lawn."
As an urban wilderness, New York City continues to surprise field biologists. Not so long ago, museum bug hunters discovered a new genus of centipedes—perhaps the world's smallest—under the fallen leaves in Central Park. In 2009, a new species of cockroach turned up in a West Side supermarket. Earlier this year, researchers at Rutgers University and the University of California identified a previously unknown species of leopard frog whose natural range centers on Yankee Stadium.
The discovery of this new sweat bee species—which belongs to a large family of bee species that depend on human perspiration for salt to survive—highlights the importance of the thousands of native bee species in pollinating plants, flowers and fruits.
Sweat bees aren't ready to swarm into the commercial workplace. But other native bees are gaining scientific attention at a time when honeybee hives are plagued by myriad problems that threaten their survival.
Sweat Bee
"We've neglected the native bees because the honey bee was so successful," said entomologist Anne Averill at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst who is conducting a $3.3 million federal study of native bees in 10 states. They hope to expand the role of native bees in agriculture.
Not a single native plant in North or South America actually needs a honeybee to survive, so long as native bees thrive, museum and university entomologists said. Untended and largely unnoticed, native bees play a role in pollinating cash crops such as tomatoes, cranberries, alfalfa and squash. They are more prevalent among farmers' fields than previously believed, often more effective than honeybees as pollinators and more resistant to the problems that have decimated honeybees in the U.S. and Europe, several studies show.
Unlike many honeybees, urban bees in the Northeastern U.S. have adapted to rising temperatures, which have caused spring—and the first bloom of flowers for pollination—to arrive about 10 days earlier in recent years, Rutgers University researchers said.
It isn't easy keeping track of so many bees.
Sweat bees encompass an unusually broad range of behaviors, but often differ from each other in almost imperceptible ways. All that distinguishes the Gotham sweat bee from its most closely related species is the pattern of bristles on its abdomen and a few links of DNA. They are so hard to tell apart that agriculture experts world-wide are hard-pressed to take stock of them all.
"If there is a new bee species in New York, imagine the situation...somewhere in South America," said Mr. Ascher. "It is hard to effectively manage pollinators if they have not been named scientifically."
At the American Museum of Natural History, Mr. Ascher and his colleagues scramble to keep up with requests to catalog unidentified bee species. Museum corridors are a honeycomb of bee boxes and specimen drawers packed with 450,000 preserved bees.
Almost every day new native bee specimens arrive in the mail.
"We are finding out these things at a fast pace," Mr. Ascher said. "I just got another box of bees and there was a new species in Queens."
Write to Robert Lee Hotz at sciencejournal@wsj.com
Sunday, February 5, 2012
WHISTLE BLOWER - HOT SEAT NUCLEAR SAFETY?
NUCLEAR HOTSEAT SPECIAL REPORT: San Onofre - How Safe Is It?
I couldn't wait until Tuesday's podcast, guys. A summary of the current status of San Onofre nuclear reactors in San Diego after last week's leaks, discovery of over 800 damaged pipes, and employee falling into the radioactive refueling pool. Featuring an interview with James Chambers, a licensed nuclear reactor operator and whistleblower from San Onofre, who offers his unique perspective on what these alarming developments might mean.
http://lhalevy.audioacrobat.com/download/42573c97-9c90-9008-b72b-fdb6702ad773.mp3
Libbe HaLevy
Communications and Creativity Expert
Heartistry Communications
The Heart of the Art of Communicating
I couldn't wait until Tuesday's podcast, guys. A summary of the current status of San Onofre nuclear reactors in San Diego after last week's leaks, discovery of over 800 damaged pipes, and employee falling into the radioactive refueling pool. Featuring an interview with James Chambers, a licensed nuclear reactor operator and whistleblower from San Onofre, who offers his unique perspective on what these alarming developments might mean.
http://lhalevy.audioacrobat.com/download/42573c97-9c90-9008-b72b-fdb6702ad773.mp3
Libbe HaLevy
Communications and Creativity Expert
Heartistry Communications
The Heart of the Art of Communicating
BEE AND YOUR HEALTH - MERCOLA.COM
The World's #1 Natural Health Website†
MERCOLA.COM
By Dr. Mercola
Bees have been dying off around the world for a decade now from a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD. A third of the U.S. food supply depends on the honeybee
The collapse of bee colonies is probably multifactorial, rather than a response to one type of toxic assault; one major factor is the toxicity of systemic pesticides, such as Clothianidin (made by Bayer)
One Colorado beekeeper named Tom Theobald exposed the EPA’s complicity with Bayer in allowing Clothianidin to market without honeybee safety studies
An average of six different pesticides were found in hives across the country, with one hive testing positive for 31 different pesticides, in one recent study
More than 75 percent of the honey on American supermarket shelves is not honey at all, but rather an ultra-processed mixture of sugar-water, malt sweeteners, corn or rice syrup, jaggery, barley malt sweetener and other additives, smuggled in from China and tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals, such as lead
By Dr. Mercola
Bees have been dying off around the world for more than a decade now, a phenomenon that has been named "Colony Collapse Disorder," or CCD.
The U.S. and the U.K. both reported losing a third of their honeybees in 2010. Italy lost half.
The die-offs have spread to China and India, in addition to many other countries.
A third of the U.S. food supply requires the assistance of the honeybee.
The collapse of bee colonies is probably multifactorial, rather than a response to one type of toxic assault.
Although experts don't yet understand all of the underlying factors and how they interact to cause our pollinators to disappear, they agree about one thing: if we allow this to continue, our already-limited global food supply is at risk, which means more than 7 billion humans occupying this planet are at risk as well.
The common honeybee pollinates 130 different crops in the U.S. alone, including fruits, vegetables and tree nuts.
Without our bees, almonds, pumpkins, watermelons and other varieties of melon, and even vanilla, could completely disappear.
Haagen-Dazs donated $250,000 to research into bee colony collapse disorder because it says the honeybees are responsible for 24 of its 60 ice cream flavors, including strawberry, toasted pecan and banana split.
As usual, at the core of the problem is big industry, which is blinded by greed and enabled by a corrupt governmental system that permits the profit-driven sacrifice of our environment. Unfortunately, this motivation reflects an extreme shortsightedness about the long-term survival of the human race, as well as of our planet. Not only are commercial agricultural practices harming honeybee colonies, but your own health is being compromised by deceptive marketing practices about the "honey" you buy, some of which isn't really honey at all, despite what it says on the label.
Honey: Nectar of the Gods
Pure, natural, unfiltered raw honey has an abundance of medicinal and nutritional uses, including the following:
A bounty of nutrition, including enzymes, antioxidants, amino acids, vitamins and minerals Promotes the growth of friendly bacteria in your intestinal tract Good for your skin
Helps with occasional sleeplessness Promotes heart health by reducing homocysteine levels Tames allergies
Can help fight viruses, such as herpes, and bacteria, such as that present in chronic sinusitis Helps sooth a cough Helps prevent tooth decay
A special kind of honey that has healing benefits far exceeding that of ordinary honey is called Manuka honey. Manuka honey is made by bees that feed off the flowers of the Manuka bush, a medicinal plant native to New Zealand. Fake honey is unfortunately common in this era of food manipulation and control. Some Chinese brokers sell a mixture of sugar water, malt sweeteners, corn or rice syrup, jaggery, barley malt sweetener or other additives, and label it "honey". A recent report by Food Safety News reveals just how often they get away with this trickery.
Is Your Honey Fake?
In a new report by Food Safety News, more than 75 percent of the honey on American supermarket shelves may be ultra-processed—to the point that all inherent medicinal properties are completely gone—and then smuggled into the country by the barrel drum. Nearly all of this fake honey is made in China. Some of these brokers will even create bogus country of origin papers. All 60 jars of "honey" tested by FSN came back negative for pollen (including Sue Bee and Winnie the Pooh brands), which is a clear sign of ultra-processing.
According to FSN:
"The removal of these microscopic particles from deep within a flower would make the nectar flunk the quality standards set by most of the world's food safety agencies. The food safety divisions of the World Health Organization, the European Commission and dozens of others have also ruled that without pollen, there is no way to determine whether the honey came from legitimate and safe sources."
Millions of pounds of honey that have been banned by the European Union are being smuggled into the U.S. from China. Much of this honey is tainted with illegal antibiotics, including chloramphenicol, which can cause DNA damage and cancer, and heavy metals like lead. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that any product that's been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen IS NOT honey.
In their investigation, FSN discovered the following:
76 percent of honey samples bought at grocery stores (such as TOP Food, Safeway, QFC, Kroger, Harris Teeter, etc.) were absent of pollen
77 percent of the honey from big box stores (like Costco, Sam's Club, Walmart, and Target) were absent of pollen
100 percent of the honey sampled from drug stores (like Walgreens, Rite-Aid, and CVS Pharmacy) were absent of pollen
The good news is, all of the samples from farmers markets, co-ops, and natural stores like Trader Joe's had the full, proper compliment of pollen, as did organic brands from common grocery stores. But fake honey—the sorry substitute that it is—might be the ONLY thing even remotely resembling honey that you'll be able to get if we don't find a way to save our honeybees from total global collapse.
HUMANS are Causing the Demise of the Bees
Each year, commercial beekeepers have reported unprecedented losses. Steve Ellis, secretary of the National Honey Bee Advisory Board and a beekeeper for 35 years, had so many abnormal bee die-offs that he'll qualify for disaster relief from the USDA.
The main theories are the following:
Malnutrition of the bees due to destruction of their food supply, causing irreparable damage to their immune systems, which makes them more vulnerable to toxic exposures and pathogens, like viruses and fungi
Toxic pesticides, especially the newer systemic pesticides, insecticides, and genetically engineered crops, are a massive source of toxic exposure to the bees
Microwaves from cellular phones have been shown to cause CCD within 10 days, apparently by affecting the bees' communication with the hive and disrupting their navigational ability
Changing global climate, drought, and migratory stress brought about by moving bee colonies long distances to provide pollination services
The EPA claims that new systemic pesticides are safer for humans because farmers can use less of them. However, experiments show that agricultural chemicals that are safe for bees when used alone are lethal in combination. Farmers increasingly combine sprays. They also destroy nearly all flowering weeds, depriving bees of essential nutrients from different kinds of pollen.
Bee Very Afraid...
While much has been made over the "mystery" surrounding CCD, the problem began shortly after neurotoxic pesticides, which are known to be particularly toxic to honeybees, took over the global insecticide market. These relatively new pesticides are called neonicotinoids. Two prominent examples, Imidacloprid and Clothianidin, are used as seed treatments in hundreds of crops.
Virtually all of today's genetically engineered Bt corn is treated with neonicotinoids. A Purdue University study found multiple sources of pesticide exposure for honeybees living near agricultural fields, including high levels of Clothianidin in agricultural machinery exhaust, in the soil of unplanted fields near those planted with Bt corn, and on dandelions growing in those fields. The chemicals were also found in dead bees near hive entrances and in pollen stored in the hives.
Bee colonies began disappearing in the U.S. shortly after EPA allowed these new, toxic insecticides to be used. Even the EPA itself admits that "pesticide poisoning" is a likely cause of the collapse of bee colonies.
These insecticides are highly toxic to bees because they are systemic, water soluble, and very pervasive. They get into the soil and groundwater where they can accumulate and remain for many years and present long-term toxicity to the hive. They enter the vascular system of the plant and are carried to all parts of it, as well as to the pollen and nectar.
These chemicals affect insects' central nervous systems in ways that are cumulative and irreversible. Even minute amounts can have profound effects over time. Foraging insects may become disoriented and unable to find their way back to the hive.
Jim Frazier from Penn State sampled hives from across the U.S. and found an average of six different pesticides in each hive, with one hive testing positive for 31 different pesticides, some of which are of the systemic varieties. Beekeepers everywhere are concerned for their own livelihood, in addition to being fearful of the broader implications of CCD. But one small Colorado beekeeper has served as a one-man sting operation in exposing the EPA's negligence on this issue.
Bee Aware from Greg Stanley on Vimeo.
Courageous Beekeeper Battles Negligent Regulators on Behalf of Bees
Colorado beekeeper Tom Theobald became concerned about the effects systemic pesticides were having on his bee colonies. Theobald discovered that EPA allowed Bayer Crop Science, manufacturer of Clothianidin, to market its pesticide for public use without safety studies. Clothianidin has been used commercially for eight years now, with no good safety studies to back it up. Theobald uncovered the documents proving that Congress gave Bayer a thumbs-up to market their product while awaiting the results of a safety study, promised to be complete within 18 months.
And guess who conducts and funds honeybee studies?
The pesticide companies themselves… the fox is again guarding the henhouse. The EPA merely receives the report from the pesticide company, has its scientists make a recommendation, and then EPA administrators make a decision about product safety, supposedly based on good science. In this case, there is NO good science to be found—at least coming from Bayer.
The supposedly scientific research by Bayer proved to be woefully inadequate. Bayer performed the study on one 2.5-acre plot of land planted with canola seed. However, this is a mere fraction of the area foraged by a typical bee colony. In fact, the average area foraged by such a colony is 28,000 acres! Theobald called Bayer's study a "mockery of science" because it was nowhere near an accurate representation of the bees' natural habitat.
So, Theobald wrote an article for the July 2010 issue of Bee Culture, which created quite the buzz. The EPA changed their tone in response to his article, admitting the Bayer study was deficient. Nevertheless, they haven't pulled Clothianidin from the market. According to the Pesticide Action Network:
"Governments in Italy, Germany, France and elsewhere have already taken action against neonicotinoids to protect their pollinators. And beekeepers there are reporting recovery. Yet regulators in the U.S. remain paralyzed, apparently captive to industry-funded science and a regulatory framework that finds chemicals innocent until proven guilty."
No Simple Answers—Persistence is Key
Saving the honeybee will require much more than removing one or two pesticides from the market. It will require a complete change in the mindset and values of industry, and the regulators they hold captive. There is no force for change greater than that fueled by public outrage, so I encourage you to spread the word. Educate your friends, your family… your grocery bagger!
If the goal of pesticides is to increase food yield to more easily feed 7 billion human beings, this goal falls flat on its face if it leads to the collapse of our food chain.
As Tom Theobald says, we can eliminate this one product, maybe, but that won't solve the problem. In a year or two, there will just be another equally dangerous chemical, unless we can change the conditions that lead to the problem. And this means we must yell loud enough to awaken our government from its stupor.
Some folks are doing just that. Honeybee sanctuaries are springing up everywhere, as the award-winning documentary Queen of the Sun shows. Many city dwellers are becoming smalltime backyard beekeepers. If you are interested in supporting the cause, you can check out some of the following websites to guide you in how you can help.
MERCOLA.COM
By Dr. Mercola
Bees have been dying off around the world for a decade now from a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD. A third of the U.S. food supply depends on the honeybee
The collapse of bee colonies is probably multifactorial, rather than a response to one type of toxic assault; one major factor is the toxicity of systemic pesticides, such as Clothianidin (made by Bayer)
One Colorado beekeeper named Tom Theobald exposed the EPA’s complicity with Bayer in allowing Clothianidin to market without honeybee safety studies
An average of six different pesticides were found in hives across the country, with one hive testing positive for 31 different pesticides, in one recent study
More than 75 percent of the honey on American supermarket shelves is not honey at all, but rather an ultra-processed mixture of sugar-water, malt sweeteners, corn or rice syrup, jaggery, barley malt sweetener and other additives, smuggled in from China and tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals, such as lead
By Dr. Mercola
Bees have been dying off around the world for more than a decade now, a phenomenon that has been named "Colony Collapse Disorder," or CCD.
The U.S. and the U.K. both reported losing a third of their honeybees in 2010. Italy lost half.
The die-offs have spread to China and India, in addition to many other countries.
A third of the U.S. food supply requires the assistance of the honeybee.
The collapse of bee colonies is probably multifactorial, rather than a response to one type of toxic assault.
Although experts don't yet understand all of the underlying factors and how they interact to cause our pollinators to disappear, they agree about one thing: if we allow this to continue, our already-limited global food supply is at risk, which means more than 7 billion humans occupying this planet are at risk as well.
The common honeybee pollinates 130 different crops in the U.S. alone, including fruits, vegetables and tree nuts.
Without our bees, almonds, pumpkins, watermelons and other varieties of melon, and even vanilla, could completely disappear.
Haagen-Dazs donated $250,000 to research into bee colony collapse disorder because it says the honeybees are responsible for 24 of its 60 ice cream flavors, including strawberry, toasted pecan and banana split.
As usual, at the core of the problem is big industry, which is blinded by greed and enabled by a corrupt governmental system that permits the profit-driven sacrifice of our environment. Unfortunately, this motivation reflects an extreme shortsightedness about the long-term survival of the human race, as well as of our planet. Not only are commercial agricultural practices harming honeybee colonies, but your own health is being compromised by deceptive marketing practices about the "honey" you buy, some of which isn't really honey at all, despite what it says on the label.
Honey: Nectar of the Gods
Pure, natural, unfiltered raw honey has an abundance of medicinal and nutritional uses, including the following:
A bounty of nutrition, including enzymes, antioxidants, amino acids, vitamins and minerals Promotes the growth of friendly bacteria in your intestinal tract Good for your skin
Helps with occasional sleeplessness Promotes heart health by reducing homocysteine levels Tames allergies
Can help fight viruses, such as herpes, and bacteria, such as that present in chronic sinusitis Helps sooth a cough Helps prevent tooth decay
A special kind of honey that has healing benefits far exceeding that of ordinary honey is called Manuka honey. Manuka honey is made by bees that feed off the flowers of the Manuka bush, a medicinal plant native to New Zealand. Fake honey is unfortunately common in this era of food manipulation and control. Some Chinese brokers sell a mixture of sugar water, malt sweeteners, corn or rice syrup, jaggery, barley malt sweetener or other additives, and label it "honey". A recent report by Food Safety News reveals just how often they get away with this trickery.
Is Your Honey Fake?
In a new report by Food Safety News, more than 75 percent of the honey on American supermarket shelves may be ultra-processed—to the point that all inherent medicinal properties are completely gone—and then smuggled into the country by the barrel drum. Nearly all of this fake honey is made in China. Some of these brokers will even create bogus country of origin papers. All 60 jars of "honey" tested by FSN came back negative for pollen (including Sue Bee and Winnie the Pooh brands), which is a clear sign of ultra-processing.
According to FSN:
"The removal of these microscopic particles from deep within a flower would make the nectar flunk the quality standards set by most of the world's food safety agencies. The food safety divisions of the World Health Organization, the European Commission and dozens of others have also ruled that without pollen, there is no way to determine whether the honey came from legitimate and safe sources."
Millions of pounds of honey that have been banned by the European Union are being smuggled into the U.S. from China. Much of this honey is tainted with illegal antibiotics, including chloramphenicol, which can cause DNA damage and cancer, and heavy metals like lead. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that any product that's been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen IS NOT honey.
In their investigation, FSN discovered the following:
76 percent of honey samples bought at grocery stores (such as TOP Food, Safeway, QFC, Kroger, Harris Teeter, etc.) were absent of pollen
77 percent of the honey from big box stores (like Costco, Sam's Club, Walmart, and Target) were absent of pollen
100 percent of the honey sampled from drug stores (like Walgreens, Rite-Aid, and CVS Pharmacy) were absent of pollen
The good news is, all of the samples from farmers markets, co-ops, and natural stores like Trader Joe's had the full, proper compliment of pollen, as did organic brands from common grocery stores. But fake honey—the sorry substitute that it is—might be the ONLY thing even remotely resembling honey that you'll be able to get if we don't find a way to save our honeybees from total global collapse.
HUMANS are Causing the Demise of the Bees
Each year, commercial beekeepers have reported unprecedented losses. Steve Ellis, secretary of the National Honey Bee Advisory Board and a beekeeper for 35 years, had so many abnormal bee die-offs that he'll qualify for disaster relief from the USDA.
The main theories are the following:
Malnutrition of the bees due to destruction of their food supply, causing irreparable damage to their immune systems, which makes them more vulnerable to toxic exposures and pathogens, like viruses and fungi
Toxic pesticides, especially the newer systemic pesticides, insecticides, and genetically engineered crops, are a massive source of toxic exposure to the bees
Microwaves from cellular phones have been shown to cause CCD within 10 days, apparently by affecting the bees' communication with the hive and disrupting their navigational ability
Changing global climate, drought, and migratory stress brought about by moving bee colonies long distances to provide pollination services
The EPA claims that new systemic pesticides are safer for humans because farmers can use less of them. However, experiments show that agricultural chemicals that are safe for bees when used alone are lethal in combination. Farmers increasingly combine sprays. They also destroy nearly all flowering weeds, depriving bees of essential nutrients from different kinds of pollen.
Bee Very Afraid...
While much has been made over the "mystery" surrounding CCD, the problem began shortly after neurotoxic pesticides, which are known to be particularly toxic to honeybees, took over the global insecticide market. These relatively new pesticides are called neonicotinoids. Two prominent examples, Imidacloprid and Clothianidin, are used as seed treatments in hundreds of crops.
Virtually all of today's genetically engineered Bt corn is treated with neonicotinoids. A Purdue University study found multiple sources of pesticide exposure for honeybees living near agricultural fields, including high levels of Clothianidin in agricultural machinery exhaust, in the soil of unplanted fields near those planted with Bt corn, and on dandelions growing in those fields. The chemicals were also found in dead bees near hive entrances and in pollen stored in the hives.
Bee colonies began disappearing in the U.S. shortly after EPA allowed these new, toxic insecticides to be used. Even the EPA itself admits that "pesticide poisoning" is a likely cause of the collapse of bee colonies.
These insecticides are highly toxic to bees because they are systemic, water soluble, and very pervasive. They get into the soil and groundwater where they can accumulate and remain for many years and present long-term toxicity to the hive. They enter the vascular system of the plant and are carried to all parts of it, as well as to the pollen and nectar.
These chemicals affect insects' central nervous systems in ways that are cumulative and irreversible. Even minute amounts can have profound effects over time. Foraging insects may become disoriented and unable to find their way back to the hive.
Jim Frazier from Penn State sampled hives from across the U.S. and found an average of six different pesticides in each hive, with one hive testing positive for 31 different pesticides, some of which are of the systemic varieties. Beekeepers everywhere are concerned for their own livelihood, in addition to being fearful of the broader implications of CCD. But one small Colorado beekeeper has served as a one-man sting operation in exposing the EPA's negligence on this issue.
Bee Aware from Greg Stanley on Vimeo.
Courageous Beekeeper Battles Negligent Regulators on Behalf of Bees
Colorado beekeeper Tom Theobald became concerned about the effects systemic pesticides were having on his bee colonies. Theobald discovered that EPA allowed Bayer Crop Science, manufacturer of Clothianidin, to market its pesticide for public use without safety studies. Clothianidin has been used commercially for eight years now, with no good safety studies to back it up. Theobald uncovered the documents proving that Congress gave Bayer a thumbs-up to market their product while awaiting the results of a safety study, promised to be complete within 18 months.
And guess who conducts and funds honeybee studies?
The pesticide companies themselves… the fox is again guarding the henhouse. The EPA merely receives the report from the pesticide company, has its scientists make a recommendation, and then EPA administrators make a decision about product safety, supposedly based on good science. In this case, there is NO good science to be found—at least coming from Bayer.
The supposedly scientific research by Bayer proved to be woefully inadequate. Bayer performed the study on one 2.5-acre plot of land planted with canola seed. However, this is a mere fraction of the area foraged by a typical bee colony. In fact, the average area foraged by such a colony is 28,000 acres! Theobald called Bayer's study a "mockery of science" because it was nowhere near an accurate representation of the bees' natural habitat.
So, Theobald wrote an article for the July 2010 issue of Bee Culture, which created quite the buzz. The EPA changed their tone in response to his article, admitting the Bayer study was deficient. Nevertheless, they haven't pulled Clothianidin from the market. According to the Pesticide Action Network:
"Governments in Italy, Germany, France and elsewhere have already taken action against neonicotinoids to protect their pollinators. And beekeepers there are reporting recovery. Yet regulators in the U.S. remain paralyzed, apparently captive to industry-funded science and a regulatory framework that finds chemicals innocent until proven guilty."
No Simple Answers—Persistence is Key
Saving the honeybee will require much more than removing one or two pesticides from the market. It will require a complete change in the mindset and values of industry, and the regulators they hold captive. There is no force for change greater than that fueled by public outrage, so I encourage you to spread the word. Educate your friends, your family… your grocery bagger!
If the goal of pesticides is to increase food yield to more easily feed 7 billion human beings, this goal falls flat on its face if it leads to the collapse of our food chain.
As Tom Theobald says, we can eliminate this one product, maybe, but that won't solve the problem. In a year or two, there will just be another equally dangerous chemical, unless we can change the conditions that lead to the problem. And this means we must yell loud enough to awaken our government from its stupor.
Some folks are doing just that. Honeybee sanctuaries are springing up everywhere, as the award-winning documentary Queen of the Sun shows. Many city dwellers are becoming smalltime backyard beekeepers. If you are interested in supporting the cause, you can check out some of the following websites to guide you in how you can help.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
AND YET ANOTHER ATTACKER to our BEES
Parasite Drives Honey Bees to Doomed Zombie Flight?
by Steve Williams
January 4, 2012
10:00 am
Parasitic flies that take over the bodies of honeybees may at last provide another clue into why honey bee colonies have been collapsing at an alarming rate.
Since 2007 hives across the US have been deserted by bees who have gone missing without an apparent cause, decimating colonies across the country. A combination of factors had been blamed for the decline in numbers, ranging from parasitic mites to the effects of pesticides.
However, new findings published in Plos One show a more gruesome threat to bee numbers: the discovery that honey bees may be falling prey to a paristic fly that causes the bees to fly around in the night before killing them, with the offspring of the fly eventually emerging from the remains of the honey bee.
From New Scientist:
John Hafernik of San Francisco State University in California and colleagues discovered that hosting Apocephalus borealis, a parasitic fly found throughout North America, makes bees fly around in a disoriented way at night, when they normally roost in the hive, before killing them.
Although unlikely to be the sole cause of colony collapse disorder, Hafernik thinks the parasitic fly discovery may help explain why bees quit their hives. “They seem to leave their hives in the middle of the night on what we call the ‘flight of the living dead’,” he says.
More from the study’s abstract:
Honey bee colonies are subject to numerous pathogens and parasites. Interaction among multiple pathogens and parasites is the proposed cause for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a syndrome characterized by worker bees abandoning their hive. Here we provide the first documentation that the phorid fly Apocephalus borealis, previously known to parasitize bumble bees, also infects and eventually kills honey bees and may pose an emerging threat to North American apiculture. Parasitized honey bees show hive abandonment behavior, leaving their hives at night and dying shortly thereafter. On average, seven days later up to 13 phorid larvae emerge from each dead bee and pupate away from the bee.
The parasitic flies have now been found at 77% of sites in the San Francisco Bay area and their presence has been detected in hives in South Dakota and California’s Central Valley.
The team will now investigate if the so-called “zombie” flights the bees have been forced to undertake are because the parasite affects the bee’s “clock” genes that govern when the bees are active. An alternative theory is that the bees may be ejected from the colony by other bees in order to save the hive from further infection.
As mentioned above, the parasite is unlikely to be the sole cause of declining honey bee numbers but this new finding may provide a clue that can eventually lead scientists to a solution on how to help honey bee populations recover.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/parasite-drives-honey-bees-to-doomed-zombie-flight.html#ixzz1idPvuIVm
by Steve Williams
January 4, 2012
10:00 am
Parasitic flies that take over the bodies of honeybees may at last provide another clue into why honey bee colonies have been collapsing at an alarming rate.
Since 2007 hives across the US have been deserted by bees who have gone missing without an apparent cause, decimating colonies across the country. A combination of factors had been blamed for the decline in numbers, ranging from parasitic mites to the effects of pesticides.
However, new findings published in Plos One show a more gruesome threat to bee numbers: the discovery that honey bees may be falling prey to a paristic fly that causes the bees to fly around in the night before killing them, with the offspring of the fly eventually emerging from the remains of the honey bee.
From New Scientist:
John Hafernik of San Francisco State University in California and colleagues discovered that hosting Apocephalus borealis, a parasitic fly found throughout North America, makes bees fly around in a disoriented way at night, when they normally roost in the hive, before killing them.
Although unlikely to be the sole cause of colony collapse disorder, Hafernik thinks the parasitic fly discovery may help explain why bees quit their hives. “They seem to leave their hives in the middle of the night on what we call the ‘flight of the living dead’,” he says.
More from the study’s abstract:
Honey bee colonies are subject to numerous pathogens and parasites. Interaction among multiple pathogens and parasites is the proposed cause for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a syndrome characterized by worker bees abandoning their hive. Here we provide the first documentation that the phorid fly Apocephalus borealis, previously known to parasitize bumble bees, also infects and eventually kills honey bees and may pose an emerging threat to North American apiculture. Parasitized honey bees show hive abandonment behavior, leaving their hives at night and dying shortly thereafter. On average, seven days later up to 13 phorid larvae emerge from each dead bee and pupate away from the bee.
The parasitic flies have now been found at 77% of sites in the San Francisco Bay area and their presence has been detected in hives in South Dakota and California’s Central Valley.
The team will now investigate if the so-called “zombie” flights the bees have been forced to undertake are because the parasite affects the bee’s “clock” genes that govern when the bees are active. An alternative theory is that the bees may be ejected from the colony by other bees in order to save the hive from further infection.
As mentioned above, the parasite is unlikely to be the sole cause of declining honey bee numbers but this new finding may provide a clue that can eventually lead scientists to a solution on how to help honey bee populations recover.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/parasite-drives-honey-bees-to-doomed-zombie-flight.html#ixzz1idPvuIVm
Thursday, November 24, 2011
THANNKSGIVING and THE BEEKEEPER
It’s Thanksgiving! Why Do You Need To Thank A Beekeeper?
Posted by June Stoyer on November 22nd, 2011
THE ORGANIC VIEW - www.theorganicview.com
The Pilgrims Weren’t The Only Ones Traveling To The New World!
Thanksgiving is a special celebration in America in which family and friends gather to enjoy a cornucopia of scrumptious foods. While most people typically give thanks for their friends, family, healthy and good fortune, not many really think about the importance of the honeybee in this celebration. Just like the Pilgrims, the honeybees were also natives of Europe.
What Foods Would YOU Miss If Bees Didn’t Exist?
Did you know that honeybees are also responsible for pollinating ¾ of all of our agricultural crops? When you look around the table this Thanksgiving, think about how many foods such as plums, raspberries, almonds, cherries, apples and pumpkins (favorites, especially for traditional pies).
Thanksgiving cornucopia thanks to bees
How many foods would NOT be available if there were no bees?
Then think about how some of the foods which are consumed by turkeys have been pollinated by bees. Without the honeybee, Thanksgiving would not be the feast that it is. Unfortunately, the honeybee population continues to rapidly decline with the increased number of genetically modified crops combined with systemic pesticides. Thankfully, there are many leaders, educators and activists who are working together to raise awareness and help educate the public about the importance of honeybees in our lives.
Posted by June Stoyer on November 22nd, 2011
THE ORGANIC VIEW - www.theorganicview.com
The Pilgrims Weren’t The Only Ones Traveling To The New World!
Thanksgiving is a special celebration in America in which family and friends gather to enjoy a cornucopia of scrumptious foods. While most people typically give thanks for their friends, family, healthy and good fortune, not many really think about the importance of the honeybee in this celebration. Just like the Pilgrims, the honeybees were also natives of Europe.
What Foods Would YOU Miss If Bees Didn’t Exist?
Did you know that honeybees are also responsible for pollinating ¾ of all of our agricultural crops? When you look around the table this Thanksgiving, think about how many foods such as plums, raspberries, almonds, cherries, apples and pumpkins (favorites, especially for traditional pies).
Thanksgiving cornucopia thanks to bees
How many foods would NOT be available if there were no bees?
Then think about how some of the foods which are consumed by turkeys have been pollinated by bees. Without the honeybee, Thanksgiving would not be the feast that it is. Unfortunately, the honeybee population continues to rapidly decline with the increased number of genetically modified crops combined with systemic pesticides. Thankfully, there are many leaders, educators and activists who are working together to raise awareness and help educate the public about the importance of honeybees in our lives.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
TRUE OR NOT TRUE
this is a query brought to us and the response is made by ERIC MUSSEN of UC DAVIS
QUERY:
I would like to ask you if the statements made in this article about honey and HFCS are true or not: http://www.vegsource.com/talk/awakening/messages/18304.html.
ANSWER: There is enough woefully inaccurate information in this material, written 12 years ago, to demonstrate a person who needs to be informed of the truth. Beekeepers in the United States do not feed crystallized high fructose corn HFCS) syrup to honey bees with the goal of having the bees manipulate the syrup as they do nectar, then sell the product as honey. Honey bees are not “force fed.” That suggests putting tubes through their mouthparts and injecting syrup. They take HFCS, willingly, from feeders, but only as a syrup, not as crystals.
The next inaccurate statement is that the bees somehow “enzymatically flavor it.” The enzymes introduced into sugar syrups by honey bees reduce sucrose to fructose and glucose and may change some of the sugar to hydrogen peroxide. The flavor of honey comes from the nectar and the flowers from which the nectar is obtained, not from anything introduced by the bees.
Many honeys crystallize, naturally – some, like cotton, canola, and sunflower, very quickly (days), and a few like tupelo and California sage that stay liquid for years. Often the reason a honey granulates quickly is because the glucose to fructose ratio is HIGHER than in the average honeys.
Fructose is metabolized in the livers of mammals and can be converted into fat and triglycerides. There is no indication that such a biochemical transformation occurs in a honey bee. The amount of fructose in HFCS fed to honey bees basically mimics the amount found in table sugar or honey. If sucrose or honey were to be named the same way that HFCS is named, they would be called “Type 50.” That means that 50 percent of the sugar in the syrup is glucose and 50 percent is fructose. Honey breaks down pretty much the same, except the fructose concentration often is a bit higher than the glucose. So, chemically, there is extremely little difference between the HFCSs and honey or table sugar.
Beekeepers tend to purchase and feed Type 42 (42% fructose and 58% glucose) and type 55 (55% fructose and 45% glucose) as well as 50/50 blends of HFCS and sucrose syrup, to their colonies, if the bees need to be stimulated to rear brood or if the bees did not store enough honey to get through the winter. Feeding bees costs a lot of money and beekeepers do not feed any more than they have to.
An analysis of honey and HFCS by HPLC (high pressure liquid chromatography) reveals very similar output data, since the sugars are the same. If the USDA allows “almost 40% fructose by weight” in honey (I guess this is what Carol means), then what do we do about other honeys that are high in fructose? In Dr. Eva Crane’s comprehensive textbook, “HONEY,” the range of fructose in natural honeys is 27.2 to 44.3%. Glucose varies from 22.0 to 40.7%. So, the chemistry of honey and HFCS is extremely similar.
Whether or not HFCS somehow might be related to the ability of the bees to fend off mite infestations has not been studied or determined, to my knowledge.
Remember, too, that this material was posted at a website directed toward vegans. Generally, vegans will not use honey since they feel that we are “using” bees for our purposes to obtain it and that is not an acceptable practice.
QUERY:
I would like to ask you if the statements made in this article about honey and HFCS are true or not: http://www.vegsource.com/talk/awakening/messages/18304.html.
ANSWER: There is enough woefully inaccurate information in this material, written 12 years ago, to demonstrate a person who needs to be informed of the truth. Beekeepers in the United States do not feed crystallized high fructose corn HFCS) syrup to honey bees with the goal of having the bees manipulate the syrup as they do nectar, then sell the product as honey. Honey bees are not “force fed.” That suggests putting tubes through their mouthparts and injecting syrup. They take HFCS, willingly, from feeders, but only as a syrup, not as crystals.
The next inaccurate statement is that the bees somehow “enzymatically flavor it.” The enzymes introduced into sugar syrups by honey bees reduce sucrose to fructose and glucose and may change some of the sugar to hydrogen peroxide. The flavor of honey comes from the nectar and the flowers from which the nectar is obtained, not from anything introduced by the bees.
Many honeys crystallize, naturally – some, like cotton, canola, and sunflower, very quickly (days), and a few like tupelo and California sage that stay liquid for years. Often the reason a honey granulates quickly is because the glucose to fructose ratio is HIGHER than in the average honeys.
Fructose is metabolized in the livers of mammals and can be converted into fat and triglycerides. There is no indication that such a biochemical transformation occurs in a honey bee. The amount of fructose in HFCS fed to honey bees basically mimics the amount found in table sugar or honey. If sucrose or honey were to be named the same way that HFCS is named, they would be called “Type 50.” That means that 50 percent of the sugar in the syrup is glucose and 50 percent is fructose. Honey breaks down pretty much the same, except the fructose concentration often is a bit higher than the glucose. So, chemically, there is extremely little difference between the HFCSs and honey or table sugar.
Beekeepers tend to purchase and feed Type 42 (42% fructose and 58% glucose) and type 55 (55% fructose and 45% glucose) as well as 50/50 blends of HFCS and sucrose syrup, to their colonies, if the bees need to be stimulated to rear brood or if the bees did not store enough honey to get through the winter. Feeding bees costs a lot of money and beekeepers do not feed any more than they have to.
An analysis of honey and HFCS by HPLC (high pressure liquid chromatography) reveals very similar output data, since the sugars are the same. If the USDA allows “almost 40% fructose by weight” in honey (I guess this is what Carol means), then what do we do about other honeys that are high in fructose? In Dr. Eva Crane’s comprehensive textbook, “HONEY,” the range of fructose in natural honeys is 27.2 to 44.3%. Glucose varies from 22.0 to 40.7%. So, the chemistry of honey and HFCS is extremely similar.
Whether or not HFCS somehow might be related to the ability of the bees to fend off mite infestations has not been studied or determined, to my knowledge.
Remember, too, that this material was posted at a website directed toward vegans. Generally, vegans will not use honey since they feel that we are “using” bees for our purposes to obtain it and that is not an acceptable practice.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Drowning Government in Antibiotic Tainted Chinese Honey
Search
« Jets, Pats & Other Pro Trash Bibi, Albright (and Warrick) on Iran Nuke Report: “But Wait, There’s More!” »
Drowning Government in Antibiotic Tainted Chinese Honey
Posted on November 14, 2011 by emptywheel
Marion Nestle describes that the USDA is cutting back on basic research.
This decision, Neuman reports, “reflects a cold-blooded assessment of the economic usefulness”—translation: lack of political clout in the affected industry—of the 500 or so reports issued by the National Agriculture Statistics Service each year.
I was struck, in particular, by this report on the cutting block.
Annual Bee and Honey Report – Eliminate
Which I believe is this report:
This file contains the annual report of the number of colonies producing honey, yield per colony, honey production, average price, price by color class and value; honey stocks by state and U.S.
Why, at a time when people are struggling to understand colony collapse, would the government eliminate a report on how many colonies are producing honey? This is like eliminating a report on how many canaries die in coal mines just to make sure people don’t become worried about imminent explosions.
There’s another reason they might not want anyone tracking honey: because people are just copping onto the way producers hide the source of honey. (h/t RC)
I’ve been meaning to link to this story since it came out: it shows how producers are ultra filtering honey to hide that it comes from China–which also serves to hide possible illegal antibiotics.
More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores isn’t exactly what the bees produce, according to testing done exclusively for Food Safety News.
The results show that the pollen frequently has been filtered out of products labeled “honey.”
The removal of these microscopic particles from deep within a flower would make the nectar flunk the quality standards set by most of the world’s food safety agencies.
[snip]
In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration says that any product that’s been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen isn’t honey. However, the FDA isn’t checking honey sold here to see if it contains pollen.
Ultra filtering is a high-tech procedure where honey is heated, sometimes watered down and then forced at high pressure through extremely small filters to remove pollen, which is the only foolproof sign identifying the source of the honey. It is a spin-off of a technique refined by the Chinese, who have illegally dumped tons of their honey – some containing illegal antibiotics – on the U.S. market for years.
A honey industry spokesperson suggests you can assume honey that has been ultra filtered is
Removal of all pollen from honey “makes no sense” and is completely contrary to marketing the highest quality product possible, Mark Jensen, president of the American Honey Producers Association, told Food Safety News.
“I don’t know of any U.S. producer that would want to do that. Elimination of all pollen can only be achieved by ultra-filtering and this filtration process does nothing but cost money and diminish the quality of the honey,” Jensen said.
“In my judgment, it is pretty safe to assume that any ultra-filtered honey on store shelves is Chinese honey and it’s even safer to assume that it entered the country uninspected and in violation of federal law,” he added.
Richard Adee, whose 80,000 hives in multiple states produce 7 million pounds of honey each year, told Food Safety News that “honey has been valued by millions for centuries for its flavor and nutritional value and that is precisely what is completely removed by the ultra-filtration process.”
Incidentally, there’s a pretty dramatic difference in what kind of honey you get based on where you buy it:
76 percent of samples bought at groceries had all the pollen removed, These were stores like TOP Food, Safeway, Giant Eagle, QFC, Kroger, Metro Market, Harris Teeter, A&P, Stop & Shop and King Soopers.
100 percent of the honey sampled from drugstores like Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy had no pollen.
77 percent of the honey sampled from big box stores like Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart, Target and H-E-B had the pollen filtered out.
100 percent of the honey packaged in the small individual service portions from Smucker, McDonald’s and KFC had the pollen removed.
Bryant found that every one of the samples Food Safety News bought at farmers markets, co-ops and “natural” stores like PCC and Trader Joe’s had the full, anticipated, amount of pollen.
Support your local farmer’s market. They still care about birds–canaries in coal mines–and the bees.
« Jets, Pats & Other Pro Trash Bibi, Albright (and Warrick) on Iran Nuke Report: “But Wait, There’s More!” »
Drowning Government in Antibiotic Tainted Chinese Honey
Posted on November 14, 2011 by emptywheel
Marion Nestle describes that the USDA is cutting back on basic research.
This decision, Neuman reports, “reflects a cold-blooded assessment of the economic usefulness”—translation: lack of political clout in the affected industry—of the 500 or so reports issued by the National Agriculture Statistics Service each year.
I was struck, in particular, by this report on the cutting block.
Annual Bee and Honey Report – Eliminate
Which I believe is this report:
This file contains the annual report of the number of colonies producing honey, yield per colony, honey production, average price, price by color class and value; honey stocks by state and U.S.
Why, at a time when people are struggling to understand colony collapse, would the government eliminate a report on how many colonies are producing honey? This is like eliminating a report on how many canaries die in coal mines just to make sure people don’t become worried about imminent explosions.
There’s another reason they might not want anyone tracking honey: because people are just copping onto the way producers hide the source of honey. (h/t RC)
I’ve been meaning to link to this story since it came out: it shows how producers are ultra filtering honey to hide that it comes from China–which also serves to hide possible illegal antibiotics.
More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores isn’t exactly what the bees produce, according to testing done exclusively for Food Safety News.
The results show that the pollen frequently has been filtered out of products labeled “honey.”
The removal of these microscopic particles from deep within a flower would make the nectar flunk the quality standards set by most of the world’s food safety agencies.
[snip]
In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration says that any product that’s been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen isn’t honey. However, the FDA isn’t checking honey sold here to see if it contains pollen.
Ultra filtering is a high-tech procedure where honey is heated, sometimes watered down and then forced at high pressure through extremely small filters to remove pollen, which is the only foolproof sign identifying the source of the honey. It is a spin-off of a technique refined by the Chinese, who have illegally dumped tons of their honey – some containing illegal antibiotics – on the U.S. market for years.
A honey industry spokesperson suggests you can assume honey that has been ultra filtered is
Removal of all pollen from honey “makes no sense” and is completely contrary to marketing the highest quality product possible, Mark Jensen, president of the American Honey Producers Association, told Food Safety News.
“I don’t know of any U.S. producer that would want to do that. Elimination of all pollen can only be achieved by ultra-filtering and this filtration process does nothing but cost money and diminish the quality of the honey,” Jensen said.
“In my judgment, it is pretty safe to assume that any ultra-filtered honey on store shelves is Chinese honey and it’s even safer to assume that it entered the country uninspected and in violation of federal law,” he added.
Richard Adee, whose 80,000 hives in multiple states produce 7 million pounds of honey each year, told Food Safety News that “honey has been valued by millions for centuries for its flavor and nutritional value and that is precisely what is completely removed by the ultra-filtration process.”
Incidentally, there’s a pretty dramatic difference in what kind of honey you get based on where you buy it:
76 percent of samples bought at groceries had all the pollen removed, These were stores like TOP Food, Safeway, Giant Eagle, QFC, Kroger, Metro Market, Harris Teeter, A&P, Stop & Shop and King Soopers.
100 percent of the honey sampled from drugstores like Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy had no pollen.
77 percent of the honey sampled from big box stores like Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart, Target and H-E-B had the pollen filtered out.
100 percent of the honey packaged in the small individual service portions from Smucker, McDonald’s and KFC had the pollen removed.
Bryant found that every one of the samples Food Safety News bought at farmers markets, co-ops and “natural” stores like PCC and Trader Joe’s had the full, anticipated, amount of pollen.
Support your local farmer’s market. They still care about birds–canaries in coal mines–and the bees.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)