Colony Collapse Disorder Is a Myth. Neurotoxic Pesticide Causes Bee Deaths.

The proof that a neurotoxic pesticide causes bee die-offs has existed for two years, but the researcher hasn't been able to get it published.

by Heidi Stevenson

20 January 2011

Colony Collapse Disorder does not exist. The reason bees are dying is clear. A neurotoxic pesticide promoted by Bayer weakens bees, making them susceptible to problems they would otherwise survive. The vast amount of money made on the pesticide has controlled the story, even to the point of preventing journal publication of research that proves it.

Even when the truth starts to come out, it's mixed with falsehoods. Even as The Independent reports on research proving that neonicotinoid pesticides cause bee die-offs, it promotes the false claim that bees in the UK haven't been affected. The paper reports that Dr. Jeffrey Pettis, the US government's research leader at the Beltsville, Maryland bee lab, completed his research two years ago, but has been unable to get it published, quoting him as saying:

[It] was completed almost two years ago but it has been too long in getting out. I have submitted my manuscript to a new journal but cannot give a publication date or share more of this with you at this time.

In the same article, The Independent claims that the UK has not suffered from a bee die-off. DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) has been investigating the problem, acknowledging its existence since 2007 in the UK.

Dr. Pettis was able to get information about his research out when he was interviewed by filmmaker Mark Daniels for the film "The Strange Disappearance of The Bees". He and his team exposed two groups of bees to the nosema, a common bee disease. One of the groups was also given infinitesimally small doses of Bayer's imidacloprid pesticide. The doses were so small that they were undetectable in the bees. The pesticide-fed bees were more strongly affected by nosema. This study has been repeated by French researchers at the National Institute for Agricultural Research in Avignon, and they were able to publish their results in Environmental Microbiology.

I reported on this issue more than two years ago, stating that Colony Collapse Disorder is a fraud, intentionally misleading away from the obvious and known cause of bee die-offs: neonicotinoids, neurological poisons used as pesticides. The primary offender is Bayer's imidacloprid. You can read about it in Colony Collapse Disorder Is a Fraud - Pesticides Cause Bee Die-Offs. (It was first published by Natural News and became Gaia Health's maiden article.)

More recently, I reported on the EPA's (Environmental Protection Agency)'s sellout of bees in EPA May Allow Extinction of Bees: Supports Bayer's Profits from Nerve Poison.

The Independent reports that Matt Shardlow, the director of Buglife, a UK organization for the protection of invertebrates, stated:

This new research from America confirms that at very, very low concentrations neonicotinoid chemicals can make a honeybee vulnerable to fatal disease. If these pesticides are causing large numbers of honeybees, bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies and moths to get sick and die from diseases they would otherwise have survived, then neonicotinoid chemicals could be the main cause of both colony collapse disorder and the loss of wild pollinator populations. The weight of evidence against neonicotinoids is becoming irresistible. Government should act now to ban the risky uses of these toxins.

The real question, though, is why we waited for the weight of evidence against neonicotinoids to become irresistible. Why have we allowed corporate profits, in this case Bayer's, to control the discourse on something as critical as the existence of bees? It should be obvious that the burden of proof belongs on Bayer to first prove beyond any doubt that their product is safe before it's allowed on the market. Let's hope that we aren't too late to save the bees and get a second chance to get it right.

It's long past time to take another look at genetically modified organisms, the manner in which drugs are approved, the nature of petroleum-based fertilizers, and many other products that have been unleashed with untold damage to life on this planet. This recklessness is destroying our lives, the quality of our lives, and the rest of life on earth.

We must assure that the burden of proof is placed on the profiteers before their products ever make it to market. Colony Collapse Disorder was never anything but a ploy, a means to reframe the discussion away from the cause for as long as possible, to redirect attention from the obvious cause of bee die-offs.

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