It is no secret that the bee population is in serious decline.
"It is ironic to think that man might determine his own future by something so seemingly trivial as the choice of an insect spray." - Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
When the honeybees, our most important food pollinators, started dropping like proverbial flies, scientists scrambled to identify their killer (or killers). Attention eventually turned to the increased use of a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. Scientists now believe at least some of these pesticides play a major role in Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the ongoing demise of honeybee colonies.
Who makes the neonicotinoids? Syngenta, Bayer CropSciences and Dow Agrosciences.
Who's using them, and for what purpose? Companies like Monsanto, Bayer, Dow Agrosciences . . . in the herbicides and pesticides and seeds they sell to farmers who grow genetically engineered crops. Crops that eventually end up in our food, or in the feed used to fatten up animals in factory farms-animals we slaughter for food.
'Five-Alarm Threat to Our Food Supply': Monsanto-Bayer Merger Advances
"these megadeals are being made to benefit the corporate boardrooms at the expense of family farmers, ranchers, consumers and rural economies."—Andrew Johnson, National Farmers Union
Considering Monsanto has almost single-handedly caused the disappearance of the bees, I find it disgusting that Bayer has the audacity to ask, "How will you help honey bees?
May 20, 2017 is your chance to speak out and join the March Against Monsanto. This is a worldwide event and the locations are listed so you can participate.
And, while we should be speaking out against Monsanto and it's parent company Bayer, I learned listening to James Evan Pilato on #Media Monarchy we need to pay attention to the narrative because GMO 2.0: A New Kind of Modified Food Escapes Regulation
Now, a new kind of GMO is available in grocery stores, and regulators are divided on how to approach it.
The new technologies—which have gained traction in the past five years—are different from the genetic modification that is commonly used. They are more precise, and scientists say they pose a lower risk of causing unintended changes to the DNA. But they are the same in that they artificially change the DNA of organisms.
They go by many different names, often eluding the notice of a public wary of GMOs. Crispr-Cas9 and Talen are the names of two specific technologies, for example, and “new plant breeding techniques” or “gene editing” are a couple of the broad terms being used.
