Jim said:

"Let's also remember that raising money to oppose new agricultural technology
is a very profitable undertaking for the architects of the shrill voices and
those who deliberately misinform the good-hearted people who feel so
strongly about what they do not understand, fear, and then hate because they
fear."

Let us also be careful not to paint everyone on the "concerned citizen" side with the same glib brush.  There are plenty of reasons to investigate the consequences of the practices endorsed by for-profit enterprises.  Sometimes it takes a shrill voice to be heard above the ad campaigns and "expert" brush-offs.   Corporations are not afflicted with a moral conscience.

It is easy to be dismissive and create wrong impressions.  Pete recently said "Anyone and everyone can speculate. However, many of us have looked at the research on gut microbiota and seen nothing conclusive nor of note."  Who is "many of us"?  Nothing of note?  Very dismissive.  Other biology interests Pete more...like recombinant viruses.  We don't even have a handle on dealing with the garden variety viruses afflicting bees, and we don't even understand completely how they work...but we should now turn our attention to maybe scenarios of recombinant ones?

Personally, I find the research on gut microbiota and the gut environment generally to be far more compelling and potentially informative in the near-term.  Others on the list do too, looking at the archives....many have been thinking about the interactions between viruses and microbes in the gut.  A couple of examples:

http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A2=ind0801E&L=BEE-L&P=R344&1=BEE-L&9=A&I=-3&J=on&X=1A1E8C6A57D47A19F4&Y=cwahl%40wells.edu&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches&z=4

http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A2=ind9612C&L=BEE-L&P=R2881&1=BEE-L&9=A&I=-3&J=on&X=1A1E8C6A57D47A19F4&Y=cwahl%40wells.edu&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches&z=4

There is very compelling work out there right now on gut microbiomes.  Just google "gut microbiome".  Incredible and fascinating work pops up.  Sorry, Pete, this is not "nothing of note".  For bees as for people, the health of the gut affects the health of the whole organism, and imbalance in the gut (missing microbes, wrong microbes, etc) can deteriorate the health of the whole organism, and ultimately cause such things as depression of the immune system, etc.

I'd put my research money into learning more about gut biology first.  If lots of cash were around, maybe some would be left over for recombinant viruses.

Christina

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