Where Did All The Bees Go? Finally Some Answers.

Over the last 10 years I had begun to notice there were less and less honey bees around. This article I found on the WSU website offers an explanation, a very disturbing one at that. It seems to me WSU is concerned more with the economics effects in the decline in bees. What about the fact that biological life depends on the cross pollination provided by bees to produce food? Here is an explanation of what is happening. And the disturbing results of trying to treat a sick hive.

Colony collapse causes

WSU, bee industry
to fund study

Friday, Apr. 25, 2008

PULLMAN - WSU scientists and Pacific Northwest beekeepers are joining forces to find out what is causing the mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder that has wiped out thousands of hives throughout the region over the past several years.

Two large beekeepers in the Pacific Northwest – Eric Olson of Yakima and Tom Hamilton of Nampa, Idaho – have made donations as seed money for the research. Noyes Apiaries in New Plymouth, Idaho, the Idaho Honey Association and the Washington State Beekeepers Registration Fund also have made contributions. With those donations and dedicated funds from the WSU Agricultural Research Center, researchers will spend nearly $200,000 over the next two years to look at causes and possible treatments for the disease.

“Hive health is critically important to the bee industry in Washington, and bees are essential to pollinate many of our important crops,” said Ralph Cavalieri, associate dean in the WSU College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences and director of the Agricultural Research Center. “The financial partnership with the beekeepers will bolster our scientists’ work on this urgently important issue. This is a great start.”

The Washington State Beekeepers Association estimates overall statewide losses to the disease at between 35 percent and 50 percent in recent years. With eight of 10 of Washington’s most valuable crops – including apples – being “bee dependent,” Colony Collapse Disorder left unchecked could jeopardize the state’s agricultural economy.

Olson, who lost 4,000 hives worth approximately $1.2 million this spring, said investing in the research and paying for any treatment that is found will be well worth the expense. “The most expensive thing I have is a dead beehive,” he said.

Olson said the “smoking gun” for CCD appears to be Nosema ceranae, a microsporidium that attacks the bee’s ability to process food. WSU entomology professor Walter (Steve) Sheppard agrees that Nosema is a likely culprit. The men are working on a large-scale colony health survey that involves testing bees every 30 days for several major pests and pathogens. They started in January.

“We checked 24 hives in January, and it was stunning what we saw,” Olson said, describing a Nosema build-up in a majority of the bees sampled. He treated the hive with a mega-dose of the antibiotic fumagillin. “That should have caused the Nosema to either disappear or at least go down, but the levels went up,” he said.

Richard Zack, chair of the WSU department of entomology, said Colony Collapse Disorder is just the latest in a number of factors that have threatened the bee-keeping industry for many years.

“This is a long-term problem that started a number of years ago,” he said. “The people who can provide commercial pollinating services are disappearing, and if we solve this specific problem, another one will come along. The goal of this research is to build a program that can help the industry become sustainable again no matter what happens in terms of disease, nutrition and a thousand other factors.”

Society of Toxicology (SOT)s, Safety of GM

The Safety of Genetically Modified Foods Produced Through Biotechnology September 25th, 2002

This is the Society of Toxicology (SOT)s, stand on the toxicology of Gm food, the standards for deciding what is substantially equivalent to non-GM food. Also this paper talks about the problems with allergies to certain proteins, for example starlink corn and brazil nuts, the problems caused by L-tryptophan that  caused eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome (EMS)  and killed  37 people. This article is cited, and written so lay people can understand, for me with the help of a dictionary. There is concern-

“The level of safety of current BD foods to consumers appears to be equivalent to that of traditional foods. Verified records of adverse health effects are absent although the current passive reporting system would probably not detect minor or rare adverse effects, nor can it detect a moderate increase in common effects such as diarrhea. However, this is no guarantee that all future genetic modifications will have such apparently benign and predictable results. A continuing evolution of toxicological methodologies and regulatory strategies will be necessary to ensure that this level of safety is maintained.”

Interview with a Food Safety Professor at WSU

Another Side of the GM Story.

Today I spoke with Professor Alan McCurdy at Washington State University, a scientist with a PhD in Food safety. He told me he is a professor who mainly teaches  food safety, how food consumption affects or does not affect humans. He also teaches a class that has a GM component. He understands that GM brings up other a whole range of issues. There are general issues, economic, political, sociological, social justice and environmental issues.  One of the main problems with GM are that people don’t know what it will do to them, and then they are easily able to access information on the internet that according to Dr. McCurdy is mostly misinformation, or information that is out of date. It is harder to find a peer reviewed journal or up to date scientific study. I went to him, because I don’t always believe what I hear or read and I wanted a real live scientist to give me his take on GM.  Here is some of what he said.

 

1.        He said that farmers have been genetically modifying crops and seeds for as long as they have been selectively choosing plants for a desired characteristic. That genetic modification is a much faster way that speeds up the process.

2.       Genetically modified food is the same as any other food. Biologically, scientists can tell no difference in  Vitamin content, carcinogens, or any other way. This is why the FDA has called GM substantially the same as non GM. Bt corn and soy he said does not affect humans consuming the product. The gene affecting the Roundup Readiness of plants is found in the roots and shoots.

3.        The Crigen report done by Arnaud Pusztai was found to be a bad scientific study. Take no stock in that study he said. (maybe there is another reason Pusztai was fired, other than he found evidence that GM proponents didn’t like)

4.      Golden rice is a good product. There is enough vitamin A in the rice to help prevent blindness.  McCurdy said,  the folks(poor people) who need it can’t afford to buy it so the GM seed companies are giving it to them.

5.      Scientist are no longer using antibiotic marker genes in GM crops.

6.      Terminator technology is not being used( I knew that but I told him that I had heard that the seed companies were still doing research on it, and he didn’t disagree).

7.      Cows and animals are no longer fed antibiotics all the time only when they are actually sick and then their milk or meat can’t be used for a certain amount of time. Scientists realized that this was causing antibiotic resistance in bacteria and problems for humans.

8.      Dairy cattle produce their own “BST” (Bovine somatatropin).  rBST is recombinant BST, while BST is made by the cow. However, scientists can’t tell the difference between the 2 and therefore can’t tell them apart analytically.  We call it BST instead of BGH, but that depends on what your readers are used to.  The FDA has said there is no difference between the two milks.  He said this is why milk suppliers who mark their non-rBST milk as such have to put a little diclaimer stating that there is “NO substantial difference between rBST and non-rBST milk.  Some animal rights organizations feel that the extra milk produced from cows injected with rBST stresses the cattle too much as they produce the extra milk.

9.      Nearly all cheese today is made using GM rennet. GM rennet is made from bacteria that are like factories used to produce the rennet. It used to be made with rennet from calf’s stomachs, but there isn’t enough calf’s stomach to make enough rennet to make the amount of cheese consumed.  

10.   Aspartame is made by combining two amino acids, one of which is produced using GM bacteria to produce the amino acid Phenylalanine. (Dr. McCurdy was drinking a diet soda with aspartame in it.)

11.     There is concern about bugs becoming resistant to Bt. And the creation of “Superweeds”, weeds that cross pollinate with Roundup Ready plants and whose subsequent offspring can’t be easily killed by Roundup.

12.    A website to look at is International Food Information Council. They give the other side of the story, the benefits of GM crops. Here is a quote from that site about the reduction in pesticide use.

 

“ The National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy (NCFAP) found that in 2004, compared to 2003, the combined impact of the 11 biotech crops used in the U.S. resulted in 62 million fewer pounds of pesticides used. According to a recent, peer-reviewed study by PG Economics, biotech crops have created significant economic and environmental benefits since they were introduced in 1996. Moreover, biotech crops have reduced pesticide applications by 379 million pounds – an amount that could fill a 15-mile train of railcars. NCFAP also found that planting herbicide-tolerant crops allowed farmers to conserve soil by avoiding tilling (plowing) the soil frequently. The study by PG Economics also found that biotech crops allowed farmers to reduce tractor usage for tilling the soil, due to more effective weed control. This change in procedure saved 464 million gallons of diesel fuel and decreased greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide) by 22 billion pounds. The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is equivalent to taking five million cars off the road for a full year.”

There are many links on this site and I have not had a chance to thoroughly go through the site to look at everything. 

            Does this change my mind about GM food or crops? That is a good question. I believe I will rest a little easier about GM foods affects on the human body.  If there is no difference in the proteins or the vitamin content then I won’t worry so much about my kids and grandkids eating GM food. I am still going to be looking for evidence either way, a peer reviewed actual scientific study. I think I/we need to be careful in our assumptions either way, and most of all an open mind. This is why I spoke to Dr. Alan McCurdy. He is a scientist whose main concern is food safety. I wanted another view of the food safety picture. 

 

            There are still my  other concerns about the environment and the social justice issues that arise from GM food and crops.  There is still the question of large corporations owning the right to seeds that I don’t agree with. Other people may not agree with the cloning of animals for human consumption that has just been approved in the US. There is still the issue of loss of diversity necessary for survival of all species.  That has been happening anyway, but owning intellectual property rights to genetics of any kind whether animal or plant will make it worse.

 

My social justice class is over. I am happy to say I got an A. I wish I had been able to interview Dr. McCurdy about this so the other students could have had this other side of the picture. That there may be some benefit. Maybe it’s not all bad news.

 

 

SCROLL DOWN FOR THE MOVIE I MADE FOR CES 440

The US Role in Haiti’s Food Riots- GM WILL NOT SOLVE WORLD HUNGER

Amy Goodman from Democracy Now has an interview with human rights lawyer Bill Quigley. He talks about the REAL reasons for the hunger crisis going on right now in Haiti.  

Amy: ”Thirty years ago, Haiti had all the rice it needed. Then in 1986, Haiti turned to the IMF for a loan. Now, after cutting tariff protections on local rice, Haiti imports most of its rice from the United States, which in turn remains heavily subsidized. (Rice farmers in the US get paid by the US government. The US government gets the money from us, the taxpayers, to pay these subsidies.) US rice farmers get one billion dollars a year in government subsidies.  The Haitians quit growing rice because they can’t compete. They grow other crops to export.  When the price of rice doubles they can’t afford to eat. Meanwhile in Haiti, hungry people are rioting in the streets because they cannot afford to buy rice.” 

BILL QUIGLEY:

The problem really is, is that the United States and the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, all of which we, the United States, dominate, have for the last twenty-five, thirty years have insisted that in order to get the loans, Haiti had to change their economic system so that their country was open to competition from other countries on agriculture, trade, a number of other things.

The people of the United States have no idea that they are paying taxes, and our government has destroyed not just Haiti, but the agricultural bases of lots and lots of very poor countries. And so, our money is going to these huge farmers, mostly in Arkansas. They’re in about five different states, some of them getting hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. There’s one that has gotten over half-a-billion dollars over the last ten years. And so, we are directly subsidizing these huge agribusinesses which are putting the small farmers and even the regional farmers out of business and really creating this hunger problem that the world is seeing right now, because the people in Haiti, it takes awhile to irrigate, farm and all this other stuff, and the industry has been broken down. A lot of the workers moved from the country into the city, not just in Haiti, but in every place else. So it’s a great little lens for those of us in the United States who care about hunger and care about justice to look and see it’s not just mismanagement in Haiti, it’s not just the fact that they have problems, which they certainly do, but also our country plays a huge role in creating the hunger that has led to the riots.

 

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/24/the_us_role_in_haitis_food

MOVIE - THE GENE REVOLUTION

 

This video is the final project for CES 440. It is about the consequences of GM crops and food. Mainly I wanted to point out that GM and the gene revolution won’t feed the hungry any more than the Green revolution did.  So far GM crops have contaminated the environment, caused health problems and we won’t know what the full extent of the damage will be for awhile. Another thing is that congress nor the people ever got a vote on whether life should be patented or not. I think that it is a travesty to allow a corporation to own the sole right to a seed, so no one can grow it without a license. That little kernel holds so much promise, so much life, but not in the hands of those only interested in the profit from it. Genetic diversity is necessary for a species to survive. If one company has control they can give but only for money. We never got to vote on what the WTO, the IMF or the World Bank would do and how they would treat people. What I protest the most, but didn’t say in the video, is that our country is far from a true democracy. I love my country and I am grateful to be American, but we really need to do some work on the way it’s run. I am so glad I got to take this class. I feel like I will never be the same, never see the world or America with the same eyes. I took history, but now I realize that even though a lot has changed, essentially nothing has changed, just the players. In the middle ages it was the church that tried to control everything and now it’s the corporations backed by rich government.

Exposed: GM Food WILL NOT SOLVE WORLD HUNGER

Major new study shows that modified soya produces 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent.

File this under “I told you so.” An article in the Independent.

Apparently there’s a new study out that has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it increases yields.

So there goes the myth that GM food will solve the world hunger crisis. In other articles today, I see that the hunger crisis is being used in other forums to support the use of GM food.  Here’s a link to the International Heral Tribune

“In lean times, biotech grains are less taboo”

“Soaring food prices and global grain shortages are bringing new pressures on governments, food companies and consumers to relax their longstanding resistance to genetically engineered crops.”

I guess they didn’t see the latest study done in Kansas.We can expect more of this kind of corportate massage to be applied around the globe in the times ahead.  It is an  effort to greenwash the corporate agenda of having their way with the environment and the people with GM food while covering it up with the lofty goal of solving world hunger. I wonder who pays these writers what their connection might be to a corporate seed company?

Terminator Technology- Suicide Seeds

 

Terminator technology refers to plants that have been genetically modified to render sterile seeds at harvest – it is also called Genetic Use Restriction Technology or GURTS. Terminator technology was developed by the multinational seed/agrochemical industry and the United States government to prevent farmers from saving and re-planting harvested seed.

 

Plants created using Terminator technology will produce sterile seeds, creating a monopoly and unnatural control of the seeds. Farmers will not be able to use seeds from such plants for the following season’s cultivation. The seeds will rot in the soil without producing new plants. If this technology is introduced in crops such as soya, wheat, canola and cotton it will force farmers to buy new seeds every year from the same company.

 

Terminator is a major violation of the rights of farmers to save and reuse their own seeds. Through pollen movement in the first generation, Terminator genes could contaminate farmers’ crops - farmers might then unknowingly save and reuse seeds that are contaminated and will not germinate. This could also happen if imported grain contains Terminator genes.

 

“Terminator is a direct assault on farmers and indigenous cultures and on food sovereignty. It threatens the well-being of all rural people, primarily the very poorest.”
- Rafael Alegría of Via Campesina, an organization representing over 10 million peasant farmers worldwide.

 

 

Escaped genes from GE plants are causing contamination and pose threats to agricultural biodiversity and the livelihoods of farmers. For example, Saskatchewan organic canola farmers are suing Monsanto and Bayer for GE contamination (www.saskorganic.com/oapf).

 

Industry argues that engineered sterility would offer a built-in safety feature for GE plants because if genes from a Terminator crop cross-pollinate with related plants nearby, the seed produced from unwanted pollination will be sterile – it will not germinate. But Terminator technology is a complex system involving multiple inserted genes that all work together in a sequence. Scientists warn that Terminator will not be 100% effective. The likelihood of system failure means it could never be a reliable tool for “biocontainment”. If Terminator is used for “biocontainment” and fails, it would introduce new, dangerous biosafety risks.

 

Here  is a link to http://www.banterminator.org/The-Issues/Introduction

 Ban Terminator.org. They have up to date information on this issue and links to others who are fighting this technology.

 

Also check out Greenpeace.  They exposed the patent that was applied for and obtained by Delta-Pine for this technology in 2005. Since that time Monsanto has obtained Delta-Pine Land (DPL) and their 3 patents.

 

UPDATE January 2007:

Victory! Global Moratorium Upheld!: In 2000, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity recommended that governments not approve Terminator for field tests or commercial use. This created what is now recognized as an international moratorium. It was upheld and strengthened in March 2006 thanks to pressure from Canadians and people across the world.

 

But the seed companies are still applying for patents on this technology which means they are still paying a lot to have research done. Which means they are still planning to go ahead in the future with some kind of terminator technology. They don’t spend the millions on the research if they don’t believe they will get a payoff later.

 

This video shows third world farmers who express their opinions on Terminator seeds. One other thing I want to say about third world farmers and life in general. These people by our standards are very poor. I have to remember that they don’t live by our standards. They don’t have luxuries like we do, and I sometimes wonder if they are not just as happy without what we call luxury. If they could just grow enough food, have some shelter, educate their kids, they really don’t need a lot. I don’t really need a lot, but I have grown accustomed to it. Most of the time I wonder, if we who live in the rich countries would let them be, how would their lives be? I can imagine how powerless they feel when they have unnecessary technology imposed on them against their will. I can at least identify with that. I am living with genetically modified food in the stores against my will. I don’t get a choice whether I want to eat it or not. I understand the unfairness, a little.

 

 

Vandana Shiva- Terrorism and Intellectual Property Rights

Our CES 440 class was first introduced to Vandana Shiva when we watched a movie called “This is Democracy” about the 1999 Seattle protest movement. We have also seen her in a movie about the Bolivian water war in Cochabamba. She spoke out against the comodification of water that has been going on around the world, partly as result of  third world countries indebtedness to the WTO, IMF, and the World Bank and their demands for privatization of their water and other public services. At her ZNet HomePage where many of her speeches and opinions can be found, I found this introduction.

 

“Dr. Vandana Shiva is a physicist, ecologist, activist, editor, and author of many books. In India she has established Navdanya, a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmers’ rights. She directs the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy. Her most recent books are Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge and Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply.

 

 

To me she represents a well respected, outspoken, passionate, but sensible purveyor of sage wisdom who stands up for what is right for the Indian people, farmers, democracy, biodiversity, and the for the poor everywhere.  In doing so she sets an example for social justice activists everywhere. Today, many times that means standing against big multinational corporations and their government backers that often leave destruction in the wake of profit pursuit.

 

In her stand for small farmers she has made a stand  against the patenting of nature, an action she terms, biopiracy.  Shiva points out that when big corporations are allowed to patent seeds and then hold the intellectual property rights to licensing fees for the use of those seeds, indigenous cultures lose the right to use the very thing they have spent 100’s if not thousands of years developing naturally. That is a seed that is genetically adapted to the environment it was developed in. A seed that doesn’t need extra water, fertilizer and pesticides to be grown as happens with genetically modified seeds. Even though the claim is often that GM seed will save money it’s usually the opposite that’s true. This has been proven over and over when Indian farmers believing the advertising buy the seed and fail so miserably they kill themselves. Over 85,000 suicides since 2002 of indebted Indian farmers who could not pay back the loans for GM seeds, because they couldn’t even cover the cost of production.

 

An article titled “Terrorism, Agriculture and U.S. India Cooperation”, 2005 Shiva who points out reasons that the Green Revolution’s industrialized agriculture and its commercial ties has hurt farmers and increased terrorism, not made it better. In her article she talks about an agricultual agreement signed by Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh’s and President Bush where they commit themselves to democratic values and to “fight terrorism relentlessly”.

• “While the two leaders resolve, “to combat terrorism relentlessly” they are promoting the technologies, and trade models, which serve the US corporate interests and destroy farmers’ livelihood security thus becoming the breeding ground for terrorism as I have shown in my book “The Violence of the Green Revolution” (Zed Books).”

 

“Why did a ‘Revolution’ awarded a Nobel Peace Prize lead to so much violence? The Green Revolution came with a promise of peace. But its crude linearity - Technology -> Prosperity -> Peace - failed. The reason for this failure was because the technologies of the Green Revolution, like technologies of war, leave nature and society impoverished. To expect prosperity to grow out of violent technologies that destroy the earth, erode biodiversity, deplete and pollute water and leave peasants indebted and in ruins was a false assumption made during the launch of Green Revolution. This false assumption is being repeated in the launch of the Second Green Revolution based on biotechnology and genetic engineering, which are at the core of the US - India agreement.”

  Picture from www.daughters-sisters.org

I believe what Shiva is saying is that industrial agriculture didn’t make life better for farmers, the genetic revolution won’t make it better either. In fact when people can’t feed themselves because the policies of technological advancement that that are forced on countries like India support the wealthy (seed patent owners and hurt the poor), the poor get angry and fight back. The military have to be called in to enforce these policies and perform government terrorism to force compliance on the citizens.

To read more of Shiva’s logic on terrorisms ties to the Green Revolution click here.

 

Here is a video of Vandana Shiva drawing the connections of globalizations advancements, that includes GM seed company’s intellectual property rights and how these rights are enforced through military terrorism. Why, because intellectual property rights take away what should be natural rights and the  people they affect naturally fight against them. For example, the right to trade and share saved seeds, the right to food unpoisoned  with pesticides and chemical fertilizers, the right to at least eke out a living without going into debt, the right to clean water and clean air, all natural right taken away by corporate globalization.

 

 Coming up, Terminator Technology.

Monsanto’s Bad Record Gets Major Publicity in Vanity Fair

Monsanoto is going to get a major spanking in May’s Vanity Fair magazine. Highlighted are their KGB tactics to investigate small town farmer’s for “stealing” Monsanto’s genetically altered seeds and the subpeopenas and  lawsuits that result. Also, I learned a little more about the history of Monsanto, the companies beginning and their deplorable record of pollution from chemical manufacturing and their bid to own the food supply.  This is one company that should get all the bad publicity they deserve. I just hope Vanity fair doesn’t get sued for their article. Monsanto obviously has the money and time to do it considering all the time they spend suing small farmers. But then again Monsanto knows many small farmers don’t have a  lot of extra money to fight a court case. So the more farmers they intimidate and scare into having to buy their seed, the more they win the battle to own the food supply.