Subject: | |
From: | |
Reply To: | |
Date: | Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:06:26 -0400 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
Dr. Dave Fischer of Bayer CropScience said:
> [ASSAil is] 1000 times less toxic than the
> nitroguanidines (imidacloprid, thiamethoxam,
> etc.). If I was a beekeeper, rather than
> pressuring growers to use something else,
> this is a product I would be encouraging
> them to use. You aren't going to find
> many alternative insecticide treatments
> safer to honey bees than ASSAIL.
It is not the pesticide itself that is
objectionable, but instead, the way the maker
plays fast and loose with the bee protection
language to make it sound like there would be
a time during bloom when bees would not be
foraging, and confusing the matter with weasel
words like "Actively Foraging", as is there
was such a thing as "inactive foraging" or a
bloom NOT being foraged by one pollinator or
another from dawn to well past dusk.
Even at 1/1000th the toxicity, the exposure
levels inherent in the practices openly
promoted in the ads (spraying during bloom!)
would perhaps be more than 1000 times that
of a pesticide applied in accordance with
both the letter and the spirit of the law.
Even if it could be shown that there was
minimal risk, we beekeepers still have to
make an example of them, as the attempt
to undermine the bee protection language
simply cannot be tolerated, no matter
what is being peddled. Given that pesticide
criminals have been perfectly willing to
try to claim that foraging bees were
TRESSPASSING by foraging areas where
pesticides are improperly applied, as they
did in the MN case, I see no reason to be
even a little bit tolerant of anything less
than strict compliance with bee protection
language, both "in letter" and "in spirit".
For the paranoid, "Fischer" is really a very
common name, and lots of us have PhDs. Dave
is not related to me.
Any similarity of our views in regard to bees
and pesticides can be blamed on the consistent
bias that reality itself shows towards the
arguments with data and facts behind them.
****************************************************
* General Information About BEE-L is available at: *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm *
****************************************************
|
|
|