Hello Brian & All,
I also deal with many people directly though my direct sales and get asked
the same questions. I simply be honest about my situation and like you say
to disregard the cell phone stories and the Einstein supposedly quote as
myth.

The site you posted had sound reasoning but still lacks front line CCD
information.

Most news media simply contact a beekeeper and seek his or her opinion. The
reason things get out of hand.

I spent all last week in bee yards. The farming world has went crazy over
the price of corn. They think they are all now going to get rich on corn
production. Last year they were going to get rich on Soy beans!
Finally be able to quit the day city job and the wife quit her city job so
they can farm full time!

 I chased an outlaw sprayer with unmarked containers and truck with no
placards but lost him when he turned down a dirt road trying to lose me this
week. Highly illegal with containers of chemical without markings of any
kind. I had a load of honey supers and did not want to deal with the dust.

The local spray outfits are booked weeks ahead so he thinks he is filling a
niche and is going to get rich. Many farmers complaining they have not got
their planting done do to chemical sprayers not being able to keep up with
demand.

I looked at a new John Deere combine a farmer bought ( actually financed but
easy he said to pay off with his corn profits)which is supposed to collect
every kernel of corn.

 Farmers never used to care about the small amount of field corn the corn
worm ate or was left for the deer and wild turkeys after combining but they
do now.

As I drive through hundreds of thousands of acres of corn I wonder what
chemicals have been used. Policing pesticide use by the government is (for
the most part) not done unless a problem arises. All honor system.

Commercial beekeepers are busy people but the burden of proof of a pesticide
problem falls on us. We have to bring the litigation.

One of the cases I have spoke about on BEE-L from the past involved five
beekeepers which paid over $250,000 in lawyers fees against pesticide kill
in
Florida and lost. They had the proof and thought they would win but not in
Miami Dade against the city of Miami!

Ariel spraying of pesticide against label in the middle of day across the
tops of bee hives. The beekeepers had the records to prove their case!

Justice is the will of the stronger it seems in the U.S. many times.

Many people have said about the North Dakota losses of CCD that no pesticide
problems exist in North Dakota. Nothing but fields of Clover. Not!

The below site is 10 year old information but a site I refer to for quick
pesticide information but will give an idea of the scope of the pesticide
issue beekeepers face.

We need serious enforcement of pesticide laws and the government to enforce
existing laws with stiff penalties and not slaps on the wrist!

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/pests/e494w.htm

bob


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