Archives – May, 2013
CRE Comments to the Welsh Government on Pollinator Action Plan
Members of the Biodiversity Team:
The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness appreciates the opportunity to participate in the activities of the Welsh Government to develop an Action Plan for Pollinators.
Our comments are based upon two recently completed landmark studies conducted in the United States:
(1) A United States Government state of the science report on bee health prepared jointly by the US Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency titled Report on the National Stakeholders Conference on Honey Bee Health; and
May 31, 2013
From: WRAL/TechWire
By JIM SHAMP, NCBiotech Writer
The buzz about North Carolina’s agricultural biotechnology leadership got louder Wednesday when Bayer CropScience broke ground on its North American Bee Care Center in Research Triangle Park.
Some 80 Bayer CropScience specialists, civic leaders and industry leaders gathered to celebrate the start of the 6,000-square-foot building committed to bee health and well-being.
When completed around the end of 2013, it will be similar to a center built in 2012 at the joint headquarters campus of Bayer CropScience and Bayer Animal Health in Monheim, Germany.
May 30, 2013
From: The Ledger
By Kyle Kennedy
FORT MEADE | This past winter was a tough one for David Adams.
The Fort Meade beekeeper said he lost about 70 percent of his 1,000 or so hives, and in many cases, the adult honeybees seemingly vanished from their homes.
“We were picking up a lot of dead, empty boxes. You kind of dread going out and coming back with empty boxes on the truck,” said the owner of Adams Honey and Pollination. “It’s probably worse than the first year when all of this started.”
May 28, 2013
Editor’s Note: The story below is an example of sensationalism over science. The story ignores the latest findings of the USDA which make explicit the growing consensus of researchers in government and academia that bee health decline is the result of “a complex set of stressors and pathogens” and that “researchers are increasingly using multi-factorial approaches to studying causes” of bee health problems. The story also ignores the common sense obersvation of the Director of the University of Illinois’ Institute for Genomic Biology who explained that the farming area the University is located in is “ground zero for neonicotinoid use but we have no documented cases of Colony Collapse Disorder.”
May 23, 2013
From: NBC News/Reuters
Carey Gillam
Monsanto is hosting a “Bee Summit.” Bayer AG is breaking ground on a “Bee Care Center.” And Sygenta AG is funding grants for research into the accelerating demise of honeybees in the United States, where the insects pollinate fruits and vegetables that make up roughly a quarter of the American diet.
The agrichemical companies are taking these initiatives at a time when their best-selling pesticides are under fire from environmental and food activists who say the chemicals are killing off millions of bees. The companies say their pesticides are not the problem, but critics say science shows the opposite.
May 21, 2013
Editor’s Note: The following article further demonstrates that bee health decline issues do not have a single cause. USDA scientists have made clear “that a complex set of stressors and pathogens is associated with CCD…” Chalkbrood, a fungal disease, is one of the many ills affecting bees.
From: TheRollaDailyNews.com
By Charlotte Wiggins
It sounds like a bad movie, doesn’t it? Honeybees that turn into mummies.
There’s actually a fungus that turns bee larvae into hard, white lumps. The little bodies resemble chalk, which is where the condition, first identified in Europe, got its name.
May 20, 2013
From: Investors Business Daily
By PAUL DRIESSEN
Beekeeping is big business, and everyone loves honey and foods made possible by pollination. But “colony collapse disorder” threatens bees and crop pollination in many areas.
CCD and other bee die-offs are nothing new.
What we now call colony collapse was first reported in 1869, and many outbreaks since then have sent scientists scurrying for explanations and solutions. Fungi, varroa mites and other possible suspects have been implicated, but no definitive answer has yet been found.
May 14, 2013
Editor’s Note: Although the EU’s failure to obtain a ban on neonicotinoids was followed by a staff imposed administrative ban, the latter is of short duration and is being challenged by the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness in other European venues.
Henry Miller
Hoover Institute
The Daily Caller
On April 29, the European Commission failed for the second time to get the votes necessary to pass a proposed two-year ban on several innovative agricultural pesticides known as neonicotinoids (“neonics”). But immediately after reporting that a “qualified majority” of member states had not been reached, the Commission’s health and consumer affairs commissioner, Tonio Borg, announced that he would institute the ban administratively.
May 14, 2013
From: Farmers Guardian
By Alistair Driver
US authorities have published a report concluding ‘multiple factors’ are to blame for the decline in global bee populations.
The report by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concludes the parasitic varroa mite is ‘recognised as the major factor underlying colony loss in the US and other countries’.
Read Complete Article
May 14, 2013
Editor’s Note: The key difference between reactions in the US and the EU to unsupported assertions regarding neonicotinoids may be traced to the US Data Quality Act which requires agencies to adhere to strict standards of objectivity, utility and integrity.
From: Food Safety News
By Dan Flynn
Europe and America appear to be taking decidedly different approaches to honeybee colony collapse.
The European Union just adopted continent-wide restrictions against the neonicotinoid class of insecticides called out by the European Food Safety Authority as especially damaging to bees. In the U.S., however, a newly released comprehensive scientific report on honey bee health says multiple factors are contributing to colony decline, including parasites and disease, genetics, poor nutrition and pesticide exposure.
May 10, 2013
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