> It's amazing the blinders money can create. 

It’s also amazing the blinders that hatred for Monsanto can create. A quick Google of that name turns up a vast web of bloggers blaming Monsanto for virtually every evil that plagues the world today. When Monsanto first purchased Beeologics, these folks quickly concocted a story that it was because that company was about to expose them as the cause for CCD and so Monsanto had to buy them to shut them up. No evidence was presented, or necessary, but this story keeps popping up on social media and even beekeeping sites.

Among other things, these people believe that Monsanto is out to kill all the world’s honeybees so they can develop and patent their own version, genetically engineered to be resistant to their poisons, and force the world to buy it from them. Some even believe that Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta, etc., are in league with Big Pharma to slowly poison all the world’s population in order to force long-term dependence on their antidotes.

When Jerry Hayes took the job with Monsanto in late 2011, I heard the presidents of two St. Louis area bee clubs lament his loss to the dark side. As part of a Missouri State Beekeepers convention in March of 2012, Jerry arranged a luncheon and tour for beekeepers at Monsanto’s ag research center. I personally did not see money change hands, but within months both of the aforementioned clubs had hosted Jerry as a speaker and/or workshop trainer, and one was holding its monthly meetings on Monsanto’s premises. I guess the conclusions you draw from that are dependent upon whose blinders you are wearing.

Eugene Makovec
Eastern Missouri

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