Evidence is mounting that points to the cause of the Great Bee Die-Off: a deadly cocktail of corporate pesticides. The EPA, during the 8-years of Bush-Cheney, failed to regulate the pesticide industry; this created short term profits, but created a long-term disaster that may threaten the human food chain. (Earl Nash)
AP report follows:
Beekeeper
Zac Browning shipped his hives from Idaho to California to pollinate the blossoming
almond groves. He got a shock when he checked on them, finding hundreds of the
hives empty, abandoned by the worker bees.
The
losses were extreme, three times higher than the previous year.
"It
wasn't one load or two loads, but every load we were pulling out that was dead.
It got extremely depressing to see a third of my livestock gone," Browning
said, standing next to stacks of dead bee colonies in a clearing near Merced,
at the center of California's fertile San Joaquin Valley.
Among
all the stresses to bee health, it's the pesticides that are attracting
scrutiny now. A study published Friday in the scientific journal PLOS (Public Library of Science)
One found about three out of five pollen and wax samples from 23 states had at
least one systemic pesticide — a chemical designed to spread throughout all
parts of a plant.
EPA
officials said they are aware of problems involving pesticides and bees and the
agency is "very seriously concerned."
The
pesticides are not a risk to honey sold to consumers, federal officials say.
And the pollen that people eat is probably safe because it is usually from
remote areas where pesticides are not used, Pettis said. But the PLOS study
found 121 different types of pesticides within 887 wax, pollen, bee and hive
samples.
"The
pollen is not in good shape," said Chris Mullin of Penn State University,
lead author.
None
of the chemicals themselves were at high enough levels to kill bees, he said,
but it was the combination and variety of them that is worrisome.
University of Illinois
entomologist May Berenbaum called the results "kind
of alarming."
Despite
EPA assurances, environmental groups don't think the EPA is doing enough on
pesticides.
Bayer
Crop Science started petitioning the agency to approve a new pesticide for sale
in 2006. After reviewing the company's studies of its effects on bees, the EPA
gave Bayer conditional approval to sell the product two years later, but said
it had to carry a label warning that it was "potentially toxic to honey
bee larvae through residues in pollen and nectar."
The
Natural Resources Defense Council sued, saying the agency failed to give the
public timely notice for the new pesticide application. In December, a federal
judge in New York agreed, banning the pesticide's sale and earlier this month,
two more judges upheld the ruling.
"This
court decision is obviously very painful for us right now, and for growers who
don't have access to that product," said Jack Boyne, an entomologist and
spokesman for Bayer Crop Science. "This product quite frankly is not
harmful to honeybees."
Boyne
said the pesticide was sold for only about a year and most sales were in California, Arizona and Florida. The product
is intended to disrupt the mating patterns of insects that threaten citrus,
lettuce and grapes, he said.
Berenbaum's
research shows pesticides are not the only problem. She said multiple viruses
also are attacking the bees, making it tough to propose a single solution.
"Things
are still heading downhill," she said.
For
Browning, one of the country's largest commercial beekeepers, the latest woes
have led to a $1 million loss this year.
"It's
just hard to get past this," he said, watching as workers cleaned honey
from empty wooden hives Monday. "I'm going to rebuild, but I have plenty
of friends who aren't going to make it."
___
AP
Science Writer Seth Borenstein reported from Washington, D.C.
