A Mysterious Killer Of Honeybees Threatens Our Food Supply by Guadamour

by Guadamour
Dandelion Salad
featured writer
originally posted: May 9, 2007
Sept 2, 2007

Albert Einstein once said, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left.”

Why? Because without bees, plants don’t get pollinated. Without pollination, say good by to fruits, nuts, and some vegetables. We also won’t have natural oils (such as olive oil, sunflower oil, hemp oil, etc.). We also won’t have many natural fibers, such as cotton.

You can see how important the bee is to our livelihood and existence.

According t o the latest report from the American Beekeeper Federation there’s been an unexplained collapse of beehives in the country and world, with entire colonies being wiped out.

Maryann Frazier, apiculture extension associate at Penn State University, says “ Since the beginning of the year beekeepers from all over the country have been reporting unprecedented losses. The losses are staggering: one beekeeper lost 11,000 of his 13,000 colonies; another virtually all of his 10,000. The problem is so large, beekeepers are starting to wonder if their industry can survive.”

Frazier calls the die off “Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).”

Dennis Van Enelsdorp is acting state apiarist with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, says, ‘Preliminary work has identified several likely factors that could be causing or contributing to the die off. Among them are mites and associated diseases, some unknown pathogenic disease and pesticide contamination or poisoning.

In other words, they don’t really know what’s killing the bees.

One local beekeeper and honey distributor said his bees had not suffered nearly as much as everyone else’s.

“The difference” he said, “Is that most beekeepers feed their bees a ‘sugar water’ syrup, but I don’t feed mine that.”

Here’s the rub: “Sugar water” nowadays means high fructose corn syrup. And nearly 100% of non-organic corn is genetically modified (GM)!

Most genetically modified corn contains Bt genes. The Bt gene is a pesticide. Its gene is inserted into corn DNA so the corn can produce Bt to kill bugs that eat the corn.

This can’t explain the widespread loss of bees. Not all beekeepers feed their bees. And bees don’t pollinate corn. So all of them can’t be dying from genetically modified corn or corn sweetener.

On November 17, 1997 the Bangkok Post reported some worrisome news. Some 30% of bees in the vicinity of a trial of Bt cotton in Thailand died.

Professor Hans-Heinrich Kaatz, a leading German zoologist, conducted a four-year study on bees picking up pollen from genetically modified rapeseed (a.k.a. canola oil). The professor examined the microorganisms in the intestinal tubes of the young bees. He found that when the bee ingested the alien gene, the gene that was in the pollen was transferred to bacteria living in the gut.

“The results indicate that we must assume that changes take place in the intestinal tubes of people and animals. The crossover of microorganism takes place and people’s make-up in terms of micro-organisms in their intestinal tract is changed. This can therefore have grave health consequences.”

The problem is only going to get worse.

A local beekeeper, Ray, told of the bitter fight the beekeepers had with the agribusiness interests over genetically modified or GMO. The big Agricultural Company, Monsanto, bamboozled the farm owners into believing that they couldn’t compete without GMO.

The beekeeper told the farmers that their farms might go under if the bees were wiped out.

Monsanto won.

Ray believes CCD is a combination of new things that are weakening the gene pool of the bees. Bees never had experienced pesticides and GM-associated substances before.

Feral (wild) bees tend to be very hardy creatures. They are now also disappearing.

Experts maintain that bees require a protein-rich diet, as found in pollen.

GMO can derange their immune systems with a cascade of proteins they’ve never before encountered. The changes can wreak havoc on their bodies and the hives.

There are other GMO agents in pollen that are foreign to bees besides Bt. Any one of them could weaken their immune systems.

They could become vulnerable to almost anything, including the mites researchers know are ravaging some hives.

Are we facing a collapse of our food production thanks to the destruction of our friendly pollinators?

It would seem likely, and GM crops are major contributor to the problem, and we just don’t know how widespread it is or how soon it will have a major impact on our worldwide food supply.

It would seem that GM crops are the greatest threat to our planet that we have ever seen. A calamity of Biblical proportions may be in its early stages.

Years ago, scientists from all over the world urged all governments to suspend all environmental releases of GM crops and to ban patents on organisms, seeds and cell lines.

If you have doubts of the crisis, please visit the website http://www.i-sis.org.uk/list.php. Also see http://www.seedsofdeception.com. You won’t have any more doubts.

Contact your elected officials and demand an immediate moratorium on planting GM crops until it can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that friendly insect populations aren’t disrupted by GMO.

Demand that all GM crops be so labeled on store shelves. Please buy organic only.

Tell Monsanto how you feel by withholding your dollars from all their products.

DO NOT consume any non-organic corn products (chips, tortillas, etc.) Or processed items which contain corn sweetener (high fructose corn syrup). You could ingest the transforming Bt gene.

Legislation must be passed holding corporations and their stockholders financially and legally responsible for all damages that result from the escape of their “patented” genes.

If they can receive the benefit of riches from a patent for their deeds, they should also have the duty to pay the piper when problems arise.

Be assure, problems are coming, whether it’s the end of honeybees or a parallel GM calamity.

Join in the fight for out food. Call your Congressman, Senator, and state representative today!

The easiest way to contact your representatives is to visit the websites http://www.house.gov/wwriterep/ (For the House) and http://www.senate.gov/gneral/contact_informatiton/senators_cfm.cfm (For the Senate). Both allow you to search (by zip code) for your representatives. They give phone numbers and addresses for both DC and local offices. They have web forms you can fill out and send for easy contact. And you can even schedule an appointment with some.

For those of you not residing in the USA, please contact the appropriate authorities in your respective countries.