>Please note that despite my polite and reasonable request

> to David Fischer of Bayer Crop Science last fall on this list, he did NOT
> post the study that they conducted on soil persistence on PEI


Hi Stan,

I hesitate to step into the middle of someone else's brawl, but since this
is a point that you have repeatedly raised, I initiated an investigation.  I
do not wish to bore the List with details, but there are a few points of
general interest.

It appears that the samples in question were collected by an independent
research team not under the control of Bayer.  The purpose of the study was
to do a multifactorial investigation of bee health in the maritime
provinces.  Bayer did contribute money to this project, along with the
governments of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.  But the
money was contributed no strings attached.

I then corresponded with the independent researcher in charge.  Due to the
number of samples, analysis of every single beekeeper's samples was cost
prohibitive, so I am not sure that every one of your samples has indeed been
analyzed.

Some of the results of the study have been reported at Canadian beekeeper
conferences, and some are in prep for publication.

Stan, if you wish further resolution on this issue, if you will privately
email me the sample dates and locations for which you are wanting analysis,
I will see if I can determine their fate.

Let me say that in my experience, analysis of single samples often is not
all that instructive.  We generally learn more from a more complete data
set.

Stan, another option is to do as many of us commercial beekeepers are
doing--simply paying for analysis out of pocket.  Dr. Roger Simonds of USDA
will run the samples, and test for 170 different pesticides.

I hope that this is of some help.

Randy Oliver

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