>Why is this research data so well veiled? They claim it is due to trade
secrets.

Todd, after the original Bayer-Beekeeper Dialog set up by Dr. Bromenshenk,
Bayer created a website specifically for beekeepers that showed all the
data from the studies they'd used to obtain registration for their neonics
at the time.

The only thing that Bayer required us beekeepers to do was to agree to not
copy the data and provide it to the competition.  When I asked why, Dr.
Dave Fischer explained to me that when a product such as imidacloprid goes
off patent, then the competition could use Bayer's hard-won data to
register a competitive product themselves, without paying for the expensive
testing themselves.

This was why (it was explained to me) Bayer withdrew their registration of
imidacloprid for almonds.  They didn't want the competition to piggyback on
their registration, and there wasn't enough expected market for the product
in almonds to maintain the registration.

Of note, is that of the large group of beekeepers invited to the Dialog, I
was the only one who ever utilized the website that Bayer painstakingly set
up for us.

I have found that if one asks nicely, one can often obtain the data from
the studies.

In real life, the registrants tend to "shop out" the trials required by EPA
to independent testing labs or university researchers (e.g., Jerry
Bromenshenk or Cynthia Scott-Dupree).  This is because the registrant is
required to pay for the requested testing--these tests are expensive, and
the taxpayer does not pay for them.

Of course, the moment that a trusted independent researcher actually
accepts reimbursement for the expenses involved in such a trial, he or she
is immediately pegged by the activists as being "on the payroll" of Bayer.

Even I have gotten flak from activists for supplying hives to Monsanto to
continue the testing of an antiviral product for honey bees.  I got paid
for my hives (I was required to destroy them after the test) as well as for
the hourly labor of my sons and I performed.  We did not make a profit, nor
do we need the hassle involved in running trials for others.  Two other
leaders of the bee industry ran concurrent trials in their yards.  Yet
because I was the only one who publicly explained what I was doing, I've
been labeled as "being on the payroll of Monsanto," which of course makes
me evil and discredits anything that I say.

Disclaimer--I was asked by an independent testing lab to supply them this
week with 20 colonies of bees for a tunnel trial that they are running for
some company. They approached me since they wanted "clean" combs free of
other pesticides.  I have no idea as to which product they are testing or
for whom.  But I am accepting payment for my hives, as a simple sale of
bees, which I do for a living.  Does that now "put me on the payroll" of
whatever company hired them?

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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