Paul said:
> So although Assail may be applied during bloom,
> it cannot be applied when bees are actively foraging.
Hey! There's a plan - make up a term that has no
meaning to excuse the criminal behavior of spraying
during bloom.
Does "actively foraging" mean "right now", "today",
or "this week"? The problem is that different plants
put out nectar and different times of day, and growers
are famous for not knowing this. How many of us have
gotten the phone call where the grower claims that
your bees are not working his crop, only to admit
that he has not been looking at what you know to
be the appropriate time of day for his plants to
be producing nectar?
But now the lowest-level employee in a farming
operation, the one least likely to even read English,
is being held responsible for either:
a) Doing his job as ordered, and thus keeping his job
b) Declining to spray because he saw bees on blooms.
Yeah, that'll work.
This, of course assumes that he can puzzle out the
wording of the label, which is made difficult by
design for even native English speakers, and is
utterly impossible to fathom for anyone with even
a tiny smattering of entomology education or the
slightest familiarity with bees.
That exact wording is exactly the same unrepentant word
game that Cerexagri, maker of Assail, has played for years.
I addressed this in the June 2007 Bee Culture:
"...it shows how laws requiring
warnings intended to protect bees
have been twisted by pesticide
ad men into phrases like:
'You can apply AssailR at any time
during the season, even during bloom
(when bees are not active).'
Is this advice to fire poison at whim
during bloom? It seems to imply the
impossible - that bees will somehow
not be 'active' during bloom! The
misleading wording cynically subverts
laws protecting pollinators."
http://bee-quick.com/reprints/serial_killer.pdf
So while the label may carefully dance around the
language with meaningless nonsense terms like
"actively foraging", the ads for the product
are what prove the criminal intent of this
company.
As soon as we have an administration in office
that will not "Actively Frustrate" the EPA, this
sort of criminal behavior will stop. Right
now, we have an administration that would
rather issue EPA permits to drill for oil
in your beeyard than enforce any EPA
environmental or safety regulation.
And this company now exports its criminal
behavior to Chile.
But there is no such thing as "actively foraging",
even if the farmer might be expected to care to
notice it happening.
There is only bloom, and any/all blooms must be
considered as being foraged, as the foraging is
exactly what the blooms provoke and encourage.
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