Birds
and bees are something most of us take for granted as part of nature.
The expression “teaching about the birds and the bees” to explain the
process of human reproduction to young people is not an accidental
expression. Bees and birds contribute to the essence of life on our
planet. A study by the US Department of Agriculture estimated that
“…perhaps one-third of our total diet is dependent, directly or
indirectly, upon insect-pollinated plants.”1
The
honey bee, Apis mellifera, is the most important pollinator of
agricultural crops. Honey bees pollinate over 70 out of 100 crops that
in turn provide 90% of the world's food. They pollinate most fruits and
vegetables--including apples, oranges, strawberries, onions and
carrots.2 But while managed honey bee populations have increased over
the last 50 years, bee colony populations have decreased significantly
in many European and North American nations. Simultaneously, crops that
are dependent on insects for pollination have increased. The phenomenon
has received the curious designation of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD),
implying it could be caused by any number of factors. Serious recent
scientific studies however point to a major cause: use of new highly
toxic systemic pesticides in agriculture since about 2004.
If
governments in the EU, USA and other countries fail to impose a total
ban on certain chemical insecticides, not only could bees become a thing
of the past. The human species could face staggering new challenges
merely to survive. The immediate threat comes from the widespread
proliferation of commercial insecticides containing the highly-toxic
chemical with the improbable name, neonicotinoids. Neonicotinoids
are a group of insecticides chemically similar to nicotine. They act on
the central nervous system of insects. But also on bees and small song birds. Recent evidence suggests they could also affect human brain development in newborn.
Some
five to six years back, reports began to circulate from around the
world, especially out of the United States, and then increasingly from
around the EU, especially in the UK, that entire bee colonies were
disappearing. Since
2004 over a million beehives have died across the United States and
beekeepers in 25 states report what is called Colony Collapse Disorder.
In winter of 2009 an estimated one fifth of bee hives in the UK were
lost, double the natural rate.3 Government authorities claimed it was a
mystery.
And in the USA a fact sheet from the Environmenrtal Protection Agency (EPA) on Bayer AG’s Clothianidin, a widely used neonicotinoid, warned:
“Available
data indicate that clothianidin on corn and canola should result in
minimal acute toxic risk to birds. However, assessments show that
exposure to treated seeds through ingestion may result in chronic toxic
risk to non-endangered and endangered small birds (e.g., songbirds) and
acute/chronic toxicity risk to non-endangered and endangered mammals.”4
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