Bees, Bayer, and the Big Pharma Fakeout

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) wiped out an estimated one-third of the U.S. honeybee population, and scientists are scrambling to find out why.  A good percentage, however, seem to be able to resist the lure of Bayer, the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical company that is funding their research on viruses and fungus, but not on neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides manufactured by Bayer that many suspect is confusing bees and making them more susceptible to disease.  Here's an article that explains it all in detail, and how this important info was omitted from a front-page New York Times piece that ran last year about the breakthrough research that got everyone all excited. 

Then, in January, we learned that the U.S. Environmental Protection agency knew all along that this chemical was toxic to bees, but is allowing it to be produced and distributed anyway.  How's that for "protection"?   Their advice to growers?  "Read the labels."

Somehow, the idea of putting the planet’s growing systems at risk, so that Bayer can continue to do business irresponsibly is especially disturbing.  It’s not like the earth can choose to take a drug only after reading the studies and weighing the various risks and side effects.  We are currently experiencing a side effect that could have serious consequences on our farms and in our forests. It would be nice to see this conflict of interest exposed further in the mainstream media, and the use of this pesticide curtailed, as it has been in several European countries, until more facts are known.


There's a "buzz" about this film!

I'm looking forward to learning more on Sunday, July 17 at 2:00 pm, when "Queen of the Sun" will be shown at Fellowship of Reconciliation, 521 North Broadway, Nyack, NY. 

(This post has been re-written and re-posted.  It was originally written in Oct. 2010, but disappeared from my blog. )