New information has come out that links an insecticide approved by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to killing off millions of Bees and puts the food chain at risk. In early 2011 several leaked documents obtained by a Colorado beekeeper brought light to the fact that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency‘s (EPA) illegitimate approval of Clothianidin, an extremely toxic pesticide made by Bayer CropScience, came regardless of the fact the agency knew it was capable of killing off Bees. As a new study emerges from Purdue University, not only is it 100% confirmed that Clothianidin is killing bees, but also that Clothinaidin’s toxicity is now found throughout the entire food chain.
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The study, which was published in the online journalPLoS ONE, investigated the various methods and routes by which a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids, which includes clothianidin, are harming honey bees. They discovered that both clothianidin and thiamethoxam, another component of neonicotinoid insecticides, persist in “extremely high levels” in planter exhaust material produced during the planting of crops treated with these insecticides, which runs contrary to industry claims that the chemicals biodegrade and are not a threat.
The research team also found neonicotinoid compounds in soil, including in fields where the chemicals were not even sprayed, as well as on various plants and flowers visited by bees. Based on their analysis, the researchers involved with the study determined that bees actively transfer contaminated pollen from primarily neonicotinoid-treated corn crops, and bring it back to their hives. The bees also transfer neonicotinoid compounds to other plants and crops not treated with the chemicals, which shows just how persistent these chemicals truly are in the environment.
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“This research should nail the coffin lid shut on clothianidin,” said Laurel Hopwood, chairwoman of theSierra Club‘sGenetic Engineering Action Team, who is petitioning the EPA to finally ban these chemicals after years of needless delay. “Despite numerous attempts by the beekeeping industry and conservation organizations to persuade the EPA to ban clothianidin, the EPA has failed to protect the food supply for the American people.”
Without bees, which are now dying off at an alarming rate due to exposure to clothianidin and various other insecticides and fungicides, one third or more of the food supply will be destroyed, including at least 100 varieties of fruits and vegetables that rely on bees for pollination. This is why Dr. Neil Carman, Ph.D., scientific advisor toSierra Club, has put out a call for the EPA to immediately ban the use of clothianidin and the other neonicotinoid insecticides for the sake of protecting the food supply from irreversible destruction.
As we continue to take actions like this on the planet we continue to see that how we do things simply cannot be sustained. This type of issue does not just reflect how we treat nature but also reflects how we operate as a whole. If money wasn’t so important, we wouldn’t be finding unnatural ways to do everything on this planet. If we weren’t so concerned with maintaing an economy and competition stuff like this wouldn’t affect us. This is all a perfect lesson for us to ask “what the heck are we doing to our planet?” We are at a point where our very survival is now threatened because we are fighting so hard to maintain a system we all don’t like anyway.