Randy wrote:

I am interested in actually determining which pesticides (or adjuvants) are
> causing harm to bees, as is the EPA.  The current kangaroo court in the
> media is a total distortion of the facts, and isn't helping.  This
> frustrates me.
>

I sympathize with frustration regarding the media.

But this report did NOT totally distort the facts.  It talked about virus
problems and it talked about beekeeper applied miticides and it talked
about fungicides and how they are complicating the issue.  It was very well
referenced, and in a modern style that I hope becomes more common where you
can just click to reference the original paper (where possible) and see
that the author is not biasing his use of a reference (which has been a
criticism on bee-l).

But the report may have distorted SOME facts, and I would be happy to read
the bee-l informed discussion on those distortions.

For one thing, the report has cleared up the "Harvard Study" controversy in
my mind.  I now understand how almost all the corn crop could be
neonicotinoid treated and Bayer could criticize the study saying that most
corn was not treated with imidacloprid.  It would have been much clearer to
everyone if they had just said "the authors made a serious error by testing
for imidacloprid.  The corn industry has pretty much completely switched to
clothianidin.  They should have tested that".

Anyway, I do not want to reopen discussion on that admittedly very flawed
Harvard study.  But I think this report merits more criticism than the
picture and should not be the scapegoat for your frustrations concerning
the media.

Stan

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