> ....colony loss rates began to rise in the mid 1990s. People used that observation to put the blame on their favorite bogeyman, whether it was neonics, cell phones, windmills, chemtrails, industrial agriculture or whatever.
In fairness, the inclusion of "neonics" in the list of "bogeymen" is sure to warm the hearts of corporate PR departments everywhere, as it shows just how successfully corrosive their work has been, despite the data, which still speaks clearly for itself.
The first neonic, imidacloprid, was first introduced in 1991 as "Gaucho", a seed treatment. But it did not see significant use until 1995, according to the government, who tracks these things. See link below for map and graph by year and crop:
https://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/pnsp/usage/maps/show_map.php?year=2019&map=IMIDACLOPRID&hilo=L&disp=Imidacloprid
https://tinyurl.com/2p9ysje3
So, colony loss rates and increases in neonic use rates correlate very neatly, despite the chuckling assurances of the corporate mouthpieces that anyone suggesting a connection between a persistent neurotoxin and a decrease in both managed and wild pollinator populations needs a tin-foil hat.
How persistent? Far moreso than anyone wants to openly admit - in MN, clothianidin is persistent in groundwater at low levels, firmly refuting the claims that it "quickly breaks down":
https://www.health.state.mn.us/communities/environment/risk/docs/guidance/gw/clothinfo.pdf
https://tinyurl.com/2xmj57bs
While these are low levels of contamination, the fact that the stuff gets into the groundwater and persists there refutes other chuckling assurances fed to beekeepers and environmentalists, as all systemics are invariably claimed to break down rapidly into harmless byproducts.
> Rather than demonizing farmers, consumers must financially reward growers for incorporating sustainability practices.
This is PR misdirection - no one at all blames a farmer for using the only seed he can readily obtain - the farmer is more a victim as anyone, as he is locked into buying "RoundUp Ready" seeds, which require him to use RoundUp in ever-increasing amounts as the weeds have become RoundUp resistant. As one of the few Bee-L subscribers who both farmed (boutique horse hay) and kept bees (apple pollination), I can report one's choices are often limited by purchase agreements between entities like Bayer/Monsanto and the Southern States Co-Op. Getting UNtreated seed requires a minimum order at the co-op, a cash deposit, considerable leadtime, and requires one to endure some ribbing from one's neighbors. But when the pesticide companies own all the seed companies, as is the case now, it is hard to find seed that does not include "added value" in the form of a chemical that "locks in" the farmer to using, for example, RoundUp. Bayer, Corteva, and ChemChina are not just pesticide companies, they are also the top 3 seed companies, each owning many brands that used to be independent companies. One has to get down to Limagrain to find a seed company NOT owned by a pesticide company.
In many other countries, corporations are not allowed to openly buy the fealty of elected officials, so in 2013, the EU put a moratorium on 3 neonics, banning use in flowering crops frequented by honey bees and other insects. In 2017, they expanded the ban of all 3 neonics (clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam) to forbid use on all field crops, due to the "growing evidence" that these pesticides harm domesticated honey bees and wild pollinators.
> One program that I personally support is Jon Lundgren's Ecdysis Foundation.
Yes, we now have a choice - we can listen to the entire EU, and their many commissions and studies and their battalion-strength environmental research community, and voices from the USA like Jon Lundgren and Jeff Pettis when they talk about the impact of systemics, or we can be swayed by the politics of money that tried to silence both of them, and cost them both previously sterling careers at USDA ARS.
Funny how absolutely no one has ever lost a job or been intimidated by a congresscritter for pointing out major uncertainties with existential implications, like that we still have nothing firmly conclusive to tell us if the universe is truly boundless or not, or whether it is flat, hyperbolic, or spherical (locally, it seems flat, but we are unable to measure a very slight curve in a very large universe, which would be all that would be required to make it "curved"). But when scientists start talking about things that affect corporate profits, suddenly, they are accused of nonsense violations - like not seeking travel expense approval "early enough" when flying to DC to speak at a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/was-a-usda-scientist-muzzled-because-of-his-bee-research/2016/03/02/462720b6-c9fb-11e5-a7b2-5a2f824b02c9_story.html
https://tinyurl.com/2y2vpp6m
The pesticide companies are copying the simple and effective tactics used for tobacco, guns, and oil, where the excuse is that "more studies are needed" to "prove the link" between [smoking/cancer], [guns/gunshot deaths], [oil/global warming], and any study that does show any link is dismissed as being the work of activists rather than legitimate science. This slow-walking backwards is a losing battle, but profits continue every year despite the inevitable eventual outcome. "Losing" while profiting is actually winning.
That said, tourists from the EU are easy to spot in Manhattan - they are the ones chain-smoking as they saunter down sidewalks 3 and 4 abreast, risking both lung cancer and more acute physical harm at the hands of one of the 9 to 11 million people their sauntering is slowing from getting to work/school/lunch/home.
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