Hi,
Just wanted to point out this:
http://www.commondreams.org/...
In short, and EPA approved pesticide in use since the 90's is being implicated in colony collapse disorder - the substance called imidacloprid is used worldwide, and was approved by the EPA because it was thought to persist in flowers and pollen at levels to low to affect honey bees.
Turns out they thought wrong.
Even minute chemical pesticides in the neonicotinoid family cause neruological problems in bees, new research has found. Moreover a link between vulnerability to multiple pathogens and exposure to small amounts of neonicotinoid. Death by multiple pathogens is the definition of colony collapse disorder. People, we have our culprit.
This diary is a call to action. Remember just a few weeks ago PIPA and SOPA were top-level action items, on the front page of craigslist, reddit and many other major outlets.
Well, those were very important action items. But compared to them, this is a very, very, veeerrry important action item. Why? For the simple reason that without bees, there's not a lot of food.
There is a tendency to put off very important action on human activity that effects our environment, under the claim that more research needs to be completed so that premature regulation doesn't hurt the economy, or a company's bottom line.
This time we need to short circuit that BS equation, and ban this pesticide immediately.
Please folks, contact your legislators about this issue. If they hear from you we are likely to see action on this issue now, instead of 10 years from now, when it may well be too late. I'm talking to you out there, the ones who call, write and bug their critters.
Bug your congress critters to save your bee critters!
In full disclosure, I am a backyard beekeeper and have been for 2 years now. Backyard beekeeping supplies me with a personal supply of honey. Also, I eat fruit and vegetables, therefore it is in my interest to see the continued survival of the Honey Bee and other pollinating insects.