Good morning.

I am beginning to think, perhaps, that the problem with discussing CCD is
that people feel compelled to take positions, instead of articulating their
interests.
Let me explain what I mean by that:
We have a problem, or a combination of problems (not yet understood) which
we label 'CCD'.
As beekeepers we feel a need to 'solve' that problem, for a variety of
reasons and interests. (environmental, business, personal, health, etc)

If we discuss the problem, whatever it may be, focused on our 'positions',
then we end up in a variety of camps, since our lives are shaped by our own
needs, be they financial, conservationist, battling a disease, and on and
on.

I feel that the evidence is mounting, along many fronts (bees, hogs,
amphibians, fish, humans, etc) that we have spent several centuries merrily
discovering and using methods that 'simplify' life, only to now begin to
fully realize the potential for wide spread harm through these practices.
And to be faced with difficult choices and the possibility of no good
solutions.
Who can blame us for having done that, though? How cool is it to find
something that kills pests and allows farmers to exponentially increase crop
yields and feed masses of people? Or develop meds that save generations of
people?
However, what we have not taken into account are: a) the true price of
'nature' commodities, like water, air, honeybees.... and b) the unintended
long term consequenes of centuries of 'fiddling' on a grand scale with the
natural world.

How does this mesh with 'positions and interests'?
If we maintain our 'positions' we will argue the issue around the edges ad
infinitum.
If we take our 'interests', which in the case of beekeepers is, I assume,
the survival of honeybees, for whatever reason, then we should be able to
come to some understanding of how we work together to get there.

Fact: CCD, or some combination of events that we term 'CCD' is affecting our
bees
Fact: Chemicals are increasingly being linked, at least correlationally, to
aberrations in development, both physical and neuro/emotional
Fact: Individual chemicals currently being studied cannot be definitively,
as yet, be linked to any one presentation of disease
Fact: Chemical compounds, such as nicotine, have been with preponderance of
evidence linked to cancer over time
Fact: Incidence of autism, ADHD, infertility, 'gonad' (as someone so
eloquently stated earlier) malformation, and obesity are rising at a rate
above and beyond which can be explained by purely better testing and
identification
Fact: Fish in our rivers are lesioned and intersexed, and reproduction is
lower, and both fish fry and tadpoles exhibit ADD-like behavior after
exposure to some families of herbicides

The preponderance of evidence suggests that the chemical burden, both
collectively and on individuals, is dramatically greater across the board in
this generation than at any time in the past, and that there is some link
between chemicals and increase in disease/disability. We all will have a
position on whether these statements are true, and why they may or may not
be.

However, our interests are, I believe, collectively best served if we err on
the side of caution and take a page from the lesson book on tobacco where an
entire industry in the US has been almost effectively shut down (other than
sales oversees) because of health links and law suits, not to mention the
individual suffering to those who either willingly or unwillingly 'partook'.

Just imagine what would happen if for some reason a definitive link between
ADHD and Atrazine were to be found. Atrazine is used as an herbicide on
produce. Bees pollinate crops. It would be merely 'one web-blog posting
removed' that honey would be implicated. And honeybees.
You all know what info on a Web 2.0 platform does.

So, whatever the individual positions here are, I would like to suggest that
it might be most helpful to focus on the interests going forward:
Honeybees are either our business, hobby, or both.
SOMETHING is affecting honeybees and their ability to survive
There is significant, even if not conclusive, evidence, that chemicals,
either individually or in 'loads', are contributing either short or long
term to this problem or group of problems
Even if chemicals are not directly causing the problem, they have been shown
to lower immune responses and ability of the organism to fend off adversity.
Beekeepers need to 'get out of the weeds' (oops, forgot, none left) and
start collecting and sharing data with an open mind, even if the data
ultimately refutes one's individual position.
Beekeepers, and everyone for that matter, need to keep in touch with what is
happening in other sectors of research (aquatic, human, etc) in order to
catch parallels and cross-species links.
For example: Does anyone know of another instance in nature where something
like CCD is happening to another organism? If no, is it because we haven't
looked? It doesn't exist? etc. If yes, what can we learn from it? Can we
collaborate?

For all I know, CCD isn't linked to any of the suspected chemicals at all.
It could have to do with the type of wood we use for our frames and boxes,
or a switch to platic frames, or the fact that bees just have always done
this in cycles but data has not been kept.

However, my gut, and research in other areas, leads me to believe that chems
do play a role. How is not clear. Considering the rather ominous links
popping up all over the scientific community in all types of organisms, I'm
comfortable choosing, yes, admittedly choosing, to believe that it is in the
interest of honeybees and those who keep them to advocate removing these
chemicals from at least the environment in which we manage our hives.

Personally, I'm taking that last thought further and pushing to remove them
from any environment that affects me or those I care about.
Cheers.
:)A


-- 
"When the well runs dry, we learn the worth of water" - Benjamin Franklin

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