Before going on, I feel that Aaron should give Dick a gold star for one of
the longest paragraphs to be posted to the List : )

Re the photo of John Miller's hives.  I personally took that photo (John
had nothing to do with it, nor did he complain about it).  By coincidence,
I was in that orchard on that day with the filmmakers of "More than Honey"
in which they were trying to get some bee close ups, and to stage a shot of
a bee on a flower being sprayed by a fungicide (I didn't realize the intent
of the filmmaker at that time, although he had spent a month the year
before living at my home).  They were using a trigger sprayer to fake the
shot.

I told them that the fungicide sprays don't appear to cause much noticeable
harm (if any) to our colonies.  Later, when I saw the final movie, I was
appalled that they had faked the shot of a bee in death throes when
sprayed.  That scene gave an entirely incorrect image to Europeans and
others as to the reality of almond pollination, where the vast majority of
hives thrive, and growers are careful not to harm them.

Back to reality.  I got a serious spray kill in almonds a couple of years
ago, when a grower's spray rig operator blasted the fronts of some of my
hives with a spray of Roundup, with an ag oil surfactant.  The glyphosate
in Roundup is essentially nontoxic to bees, but apparently the added inert
surfactant (not an organosilicone in this case) killed lots of bees, and
damaged the brood.

As Charlie points out, it was a simple matter of me speaking with the
orchard owner to ensure that this wouldn't occur again (he was really
pissed at the employee).

Folks, we have a regulatory system charged with the impossible balancing
act of deciding the RELATIVE degrees of risk to man and environment, versus
giving growers tools for producing the cheap commodities that we Americans
expect.

Obviously, things would be better if agriculture would adopt agroecological
and integrated pest management practices.  That change is occurring
slowly.  We can help by educating the consumer and voter, since it is most
likely consumer and voter demand that will effect change, more so than the
snail's pace progress of top-down regulation (perhaps thwarted by whatever
Administration is in office).
-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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