The results of a new risk assessment study by the Environmental Protection Agency has forced the agency to conclude that neonicotinoids have a detrimental impact on pollinators, including honey bees.
Neonicotinoids (AKA neonics) – manufactured by Bayer and Syngenta and peddled by Monsanto, Dupont and Dow — are the most widely used pesticides and can be applied as seed coatings or mixed with water used to irrigate plants. About 95 percent of all commercial U.S. corn and canola crops and most all commercial cotton, sorghum, sugar beets, fruits. vegetables, berries, leafy greens, and cereal grains are treated with neonics. The most widely used neonic is imadacloprid.
Under pressure from Big Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and the EPA have long resisted efforts to link neonics to diminishing pollinator populations. But bee growers have long blamed neonics for their declining bee populations and the dreaded colony collapse disorder. In colony collapse disorder, bees simply leave the hive and disappear. Neonicotinoids affect the bees’ central nervous system and impair their ability to navigate, which would explain why they don’t return to the hive.
The effects of neonicotinoids
Canadian beekeepers note that they experience significant loss just after corn planting season. They blame the pretreated corn seeds, stating that air seeding causes the neonicotinoid dust to fly through the air and drift onto plants near corn fields.
Researchers from American Purdue University found that bees that died or were dying as part of a die-off in the spring of 2013 demonstrated symptoms of neurotoxins and contained traces of neonicotinoids thiamethoxam and clothianidin and noted that seed treatments of field crops (primarily corn) are the only major source of these compounds.
A 2012 study by the European Food Safety Commission found that neonics pose an unacceptably high risk to bees and the industry-sponsored science upon which regulatory agency recommendations were based were flawed.
The EPA’s Assistant Administrator Jim Jones noted that if nectar brought to a bee hive contains 25 parts per billion of imadacloprid, “there is a significant effect” on the hive’s vitality. It can lead to less honey, fewer bees and a “less robust hive.”
Pollination plus superfoods
In addition to pollinating our crops, honey bees produce honey, which can be considered the ultimate superfood — and a promising cure for MRSA.
Based on the numerous health benefits, honey may provide more nutrients, vitamins and minerals than meat, eggs, milk, grains and vegetables. Plus, it contains only about 100 calories per teaspoon.
Unlike refined sugar, honey and other natural sugars — like those found in dates, figs and raisins — are live physiological sugars which contain the germs of life.
According to the Waikato Honey Research Unit, honey is now being accepted as a standard of care in treating skin ulcers as well as wounds and burns. Researchers indicate that applying honey to your skin helps reduce inflammation, swelling and pain; causes offensive odors to vanish; and promotes rapid healing of the skin, often with little scarring. In many cases, honey was more effective in treating infected lesions that were not responding to standard antibiotic and antiseptic therapy.
