As far back as 2005, Haefeker ended an article he contributed to the journal Der Kritischer Agrarbericht (Critical Agricultural Report) with an Albert Einstein quote: "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."
Mysterious events in recent months have suddenly made Einstein's apocalyptic vision seem all the more topical. For unknown reasons, bee populations throughout Germany are disappearing -- something that is so far only harming beekeepers. But the situation is different in the United States, where bees are dying in such dramatic numbers that the economic consequences could soon be dire. No one knows what is causing the bees to perish, but some experts believe that the large-scale use of genetically modified plants in the US could be a factor.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Germany's bees are disappearing too..
If all of them go, we have only four years left...
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Believe it or not, California has native bees. So do other states.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/21/HOGIBCQN9Q1.DTL
I hope that the European honeybees survive -- I love them, and have always been fascinated by them. However, I know from talking to local beekeepers that wild colonies of European honeybees still seem to be doing alright -- it's the colonies managed by humans that seem to be having the problems.
The suggestion in the article is to blame genetically modified crops, but I'm wondering if it's global warming. The frogs are dying about the planet because it hasn't gotten cold enough for them to shed a fungus that kills them.
Either way, it is freaky..
Oh, good to know, zut! I thought it affected all bees. But then we also have the Africanized bees as well...
Didn't I see this in one of those X-Files Movies?
The Truth is out there!!
Hi Ellroon!
ellroon, that is one scary article.
I've already long since decided that GM foods are to be avoided for a variety of reasons, but as labeling requirements in the U.S. don't even require genetic modifications to be announced in many cases, it's hard to know the consequences... and in a way, that's the point. We have no idea what catastrophes we may be unleashing. Among all the things industrialized agriculture has come up with over the past century, GM crops are the one for which there's not even a scientific basis for predicting an outcome: all of us, and everything we eat, are the experiment. If GM crops destroy bees, we may have seen the most devastating effect of genetic modification, right out of the box... and things could get really ugly.
Hiya, Spocko!
When alien bees attack! (It's been a while since I watched that X-files movie...weren't the bees creating an anti-venom serum thing... stuff...?)
Steve, the article was talking about GM crops, but upthread I was mentioning the warm winters not killing the bacterias that build up naturally.....
And I had no idea that already we had 40% GM crops in the US. Apparently once you start the crop, the mutation spreads to other crops and even weeds around the field get some variation....
Pandora's box, big time.
"the mutation spreads to other crops and even weeds around the field get some variation...." - ellroon
... and then Monsanto sues you for stealing their product. I am not making this up.
Monsanto sues? I've read where they can get you if their plant has seeds you then use, but not just wildly spread ones...
But then again, they want to own everything.
but not just wildly spread ones...
Yep, those too. There's a short documentary available on the web; I'll try to find a link.
I think it's The Future of Food, but I'm not sure. I've just been informed that I'm due at a birthday party in half an hour, so I'll just suggest that you check out the Wikipedia article on Monsanto for more links.
Thanks, will do!
Just put up this post:
http://rantsfromtherookery.blogspot.com/2007/03/death-of-bees-indian-farmers-and.html
Isn't very comprehensive. I sorta skittered over the subjects, but just google Monsanto and follow the leads.
Makes you want to eat dirt and leaves rather than anything this company has had their hand in.
Wholesale, I usually dump ad commenters but I'll let yours stand because you are doing good work. Only suggestion? Slow down the horrible scrolling header you have on your site, it's quite dizzying.
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