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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
James Fischer <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 29 Jun 2014 22:56:37 -0400
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> A network of sentinel apiaries throughout 
> typical agricultural lands across the country 
> would give us definitive data as to whether 
> poor colony survival is due to pesticide use, 
> or to something else.  

Must we waste tax dollars to gather irrefutable proof of the obvious for the satisfaction of the willfully ignorant?  Let's  not bother. Upton Sinclair said long ago: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."  There are too many people STILL pointing to the problems of bees and beekeepers, and saying "Look, the bees are dying, that means that we are right about x".

> Such data would be very useful in settling 
> some questions, and in directing the EPA 
> to pesticide use of concern.

How?  It would require the apiary beekeepers to somehow get accurate information for the acreage surrounding the sentinel apiaries, and then try to sort out the impact of one factor from another.  If field hives were good screening tools, they'd have already provided the proof you seek.  If pesticides were the issue, my hives would be thriving while yours would not.  My hives fare no better than yours, despite no detectible pesticides, year after year , in bees, wax, or honey.

What's needed is more funding for real research, not feel-good window-dressing.

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