I've corresponded with Jon over the years, and have told him that he
exhibits bias (to which he challenged me to point out any factual errors of
his).
I force myself to always read the "other side's" viewpoint whenever I'm
investigating any topic. Some are so extreme (Paul Driesson comes to
mind), that it's painful to read their missives. That said, I do feel that
Jon does his homework, and offers a valuable perspective. And I feel that
he tries to be honest in his assessments.
I've been in recent discussion with Jon, as well as ag scientists, about
the two recent anti-neonic papers in Science. I must agree with Jon's
assessment of the first--that the authors stretched the implications of
their findings (as most researchers do).
I'm currently going over the data of Tsvetkov's very ambitious and low-n
multiple studies all published in a single paper. She found apparent
effects of interest, but there are also a number of problems with her paper
and statistical analysis. Once again, I compare her findings to the ground
truth--for example, although all 4 of her chronically-treated hives went
queenless at least temporarily, I don't hear such reports from beekeepers
making huge honey crops from seed-treated canola.
However, the earlier foraging, as well as queen issues, have come up in
other research by other investigators (e.g., Geoff Williams with queen
issues). Tsvetkov's early-foraging workers indeed died earlier, but it
appears that they may have simply worn themselves out earlier--by flying
longer and harder. The net effect on the colony may have been a net zero,
although colony population size is very much dependent upon the worker
survivorship curve.
The neonics certainly don't deserve a clean bill of health, and are vastly
overapplied, but I can't say that they deserve blanket damnation either.
--
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com
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