Tom's Corner

See what the producers of the hot new bee documentary, Killing Bees, are saying in their press release

An excerpt:

The US food supply and one in twelve American agriculture jobs are directly threatened by the EPA’s decision to approve the use of a controversial pesticide that has led to the catastrophic destruction of millions of honeybees essential to the food production ecosystem, reveals a new investigative TV special Killing Bees: Are Industry and Government Responsible?, produced by Link TV’s environmental news magazine Earth Focus.

The report documents how the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave conditional approval in 2003 of the use of the pesticide Clothianidin in the US, despite concerns by EPA scientists that it may be highly toxic to pollinators and without adequate testing to ensure its safety for bees. This decision contributed to a devastating ripple effect that begins with the destruction of honeybees, which are essential pollinators for most American crops.

While the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports annual honeybee colony losses of about 30 percent annually, US beekeepers say the losses are much higher — 50 to 80 percent. According to Colorado beekeeper Tom Theobald, “We are at the tipping point, one or two years away from disaster.”

In response to a letter from several senators, Jim Jones, acting assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said that although the agency is concerned about potential pesticides’ impacts on bees, it does not intend to further accelerate its review of neonicotinoid pesticides which some beekeepers and environmental groups are blaming for bee kills …

Jones stated that these reviews will take time. “As part of advancing our understanding in the context of reevaluation, the EPA has already required six specific studies to address uncertainties related to potential honey bee exposure, and effects from imidacloprid alone,” Jones wrote. “Additional, similar studies will be required of other neonicotinoid insecticides in the near future. These studies, while underway or anticipated, will require time to complete …” – Southwest Farm Press

The EPA will not be rushed?  I hope these Senators have the backbone to respond to this insolence from public servants with some swift management action. This agency should have answered most of these questions 20 years ago, and the fact that they didn’t should lead to their removal from their jobs. Will not be rushed? They should be rushed out of public service and replaced with people who will carry out protection of the environment and the American people as they should.

Human health and global biodiversity lies in the hands of the pesticides industry (PDF).

Introduction and Summary
This document provides evidence that, unwittingly or otherwise, a long-term strategy has existed with the aim of putting the pesticides industry in charge of human health and biodiversity. In 2008, under the Editorship of Eric Chivian MD and Aaron Bernstein MD (from the Center for Human Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School) the book Sustaining Life. How human health depends on biodiversity was published by Oxford University Press. It won the award for best biology book of 2008. Sadly, it was already too late. Over the last 20 years or so, a series of new agrochemical compounds have been authorised by Regulatory Authorities around the world. Two in particular, the systemic neonicotinoid insecticides and genetically-engineered crops have caused gross contamination of the environment. These agrochemicals are the silent destroyers of human health and global biodiversity. GM crops are now being authorised at such a rate around the world that they cannot possibly have been adequately tested for their long-term effects. Independent scientists who have warned of the hazards of these chemicals have been completely ignored by governments. Those who reported inconvenient truths have lost their jobs, or had their departments closed down, or been publically vilified by the scientific community.