Saw this article and thought it would be a great item to pass along!
A growing number of bee specialists have concluded that a new class of pesticides, first approved for use in the past decade, is partly to blame for the sudden and dramatic loss of one-third of America's bee colonies, referred to as colony collapse disorder. Over the past two years, beekeepers have reported unexplained losses of 30 to 90 percent of their hives. Now the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is taking the issue to federal court, demanding that the Bush Administration release records about the risks of the widely used pesticides and their toxicity to bees. As much as $15 billion worth of U.S. crops - from apples to avocados to onions - depend on bees for pollination. Yet the Bush Administration is refusing to tell the American public what it knows about the role of pesticides in the bees decline!
In July, NRDC asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to turn over public records regarding its approval of clothianidin, a pesticide manufactured by Bayer CropScience that has been temporarily banned in Germany after being linked to a massive bee die-off. But the agency failed to disclose whether Bayer submitted a series of required studies about the impacts of clothianidin on bees and if so, what they show. As NRDC fights in court to force the EPA to come clean, we are building public pressure on the Department of Agriculture to determine the root causes of the bees' distress and to find solutions. The 2008 Farm Bill awarded the department $20 million annually for 5 years to help unlock the bee mystery!
Just another example of how these dangerous chemical pesticides are damaging our whole eco-system!
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