![]() Perhaps you are thinking the people who are suing the government for their lack of protection are a bunch of bleeding-heart liberals and wild-eyed environmentalists. Specifically, the lawsuit claims that in “a vast and extremely risky experiment, EPA has allowed over two million pounds of clothianidin and thiamethoxam to be used annually on more than 100 million acres and on dozens of different plant crops without adhering to existing procedural frameworks and with no adequate risk assessments in place.” The plaintiffs also allege that the EPA approved the chemicals “without affording notice in the Federal Register and the opportunity for public comment, in violation of the FIFRA and the APA.” ![]() ![]() Beekeepers and environmentalists allege the watchdog has not done enough to test and regulate poisons, educate farmers, or protect bees. Not so much against farm corporations, though that has been happening, but, significantly, the Environmental Protection Agency has had a legal notice of complaint filed against it. Many of the beekeepers who lost bees in California will not return to pollinate almonds next year – they have had enough death and destruction to last their lifetimes. But 400,000 hives have quite a multiplier effect: they add one billion dollars to the almond producer’s crop, then the same bees (if they hadn’t been killed) would travel to pollinate blueberries, cherries, apples, cukes, melons, and squash, where, if they were undead, they would have given consumers another four billion dollars worth of food. ![]() OK, in today’s economy, that is admittedly pocket change. Sticking with the grim economics, that would be about 400,000 colonies at a cost of $200 each, an eighty-million dollar value. During the 2014 pollination season, an estimated 17,000,000,000 (17 billion) bees died from the sprays. Mixing such a toxic blend, instead of targeting specific problems with single passes, saves time and money. These farm corporations have been accused of mixing multiple toxins in a delicious cocktail that includes neonictinoids, fungicides, and various pesticides. Most almond groves are controlled by enormous agribusinesses, not ma-and-pa growers. Increasingly, something called a “toxic tank” of poisons have been blamed. The direct cause seems to be insecticides, not malnourishment or overcrowded conditions. This year, beekeepers claim a quarter of all their honey bees died during almond pollination season. So are the insecticides sprayed around California’s countryside. The unnatural diet and close proximity to millions of neighbour bees is a bit rough on them. Since most of the pollinator bees are arriving from colder climates, the California sunshine excites them, the queen lays lots of eggs, the workers head out looking for flowers (they don’t find man), and the beekeeper feeds the colonies to encourage the insects’ population growth. The flowers usually open in February and the beekeepers again load the bees and move them into the groves. The beekeepers, enticed by pollination fees now approaching $200 per hive, send the little buzzers via big trucks in December or January, parking them in huge apiaries (some ‘beeyards’ contain ten thousand hives on a few acres) where the bees are fed sugar syrup and pollen substitutes to keep them alive until the almonds blossom. Mosh pits typically occur at concerts, but California’s honey bee mosh pit includes a beehive staging area where hundreds of thousands of colonies are off-loaded from semi-trucks arriving from New York, North Carolina, the Dakotas, and perhaps every state except Alaska and Hawaii. (For those of you over 30, I’ll define mosh pit: “The controlled violence of a mindless jumble of enthralled dancers and screamers (usually experiencing a buzz) participating in a large mutually attractive event.” And so are many of the bees which made the trip to the west coast to participate in the largest honey bee mosh pit ever in the history of beekeeping. California almond pollination season is finished.
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