Thanks for the link Peter. After reading it I need to rant a bit.

Economic benefits and the greater common good serve as an excellent beard when using old poisons to blackmail beekeepers into drinking new poisons. 

Economic benefits can be addictive the same way smokers are addicted to nicotine.

We know from past experience that pest are good at developing resistance to pesticides. Given the way neonics are being sprinkled around like water, their targets are also likely to develop resistance. When resistance appears, the neonic dose will have to be increased to maintain current economic benefits. This is always the way with pesticides. And since neonics are toxic to bees, they can expect to pay the price. 

The tobacco industry has long known their product is killing customers, but that hasn’t stop them from selling cigarettes. They are making too much money. And yet we think the pesticide industry will turn their back on profit given enough evidence bees are dying? If that turns out to be the case, pesticide executives must be aliens. 

The tobacco industry proved that nicotine didn’t cause lung cancer by showcasing a bunch of old guys who had smoked their whole life with no ill effects. Could canola be the ancient cigarette addict of the beekeeping world? 

I remain unconvinced neonics can be considered harmless because of the recent “field” study in Ontario. Funny they picked canola to test when there have been no anecdotal reports of problems with it. Funny they placed the bees on a postage stamp of canola in the center of a pristine forest. Oh well, I guess they know what they’re doing.

Dr. Kopp, the United States Surgeon General from 1981 to 1989 died this week. You can read all about him at:


 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/us/c-everett-koop-forceful-surgeon-general-dies-at-96.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&
 


From the article:  “ As much as anyone, it was Dr. Koop who took the lead in trying to wean Americans off smoking, and he did so in imposing fashion. At a sturdy 6-foot-1, with his bushy gray biblical beard, Dr. Koop would appear before television cameras in the gold-braided dark-blue uniform of a vice admiral — the surgeon general’s official uniform, which he revived — and sternly warn of the terrible consequences of smoking.” 


Hopefully beekeepers have bees left to save if and when our own ‘Dr. Koop’ arrives to dish out some sanity. But maybe we’ll be rich by then so sanity won’t matter.

Ted

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