Monsanto and Bees Disappearing

Actions have consequences. Call it what you will, Karma or Newton’s third law of motion: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

“Professor Einstein, the learned scientist, once calculated that if all bees disappeared off the earth, four years later all humans would also have disappeared.”
Abeilles et fleurs, June, 1965.

This quote was posited before genetically modified (GM) foods and pesticides infiltrated our food supply.

MONSANTO

Monsanto, a major biotech company, along with other companies have created a worldwide monopoly on our food supply. I don’t think we can possibly estimate the pernicious effect the pesticides and foods present to our planet. While certain factions of our world may wish to be immune to GM foods, if this monopolization continues everyone will inevitably be affected.

Genetically modifying foods occurs through engineering the DNA expression and altering the genetic makeup of the seeds, creating a new unnatural strain of plant. This is sometimes done with inserting a virus into the DNA to change the structure. Numerous food sources have become modified and patented, including, but not limited to corn (field and sweet), wheat, soybeans, cotton, canola, alfalfa, sugar beets, papaya and squash. These newly created plants are then the property of Monsanto. It’s debatable as to how healthy GM foods are and the long-term effects they can have to the human genome. “Modifying one segment of DNA does not have a single direct result; instead it can cause a spiraling effect of unintended consequences”

In places worldwide, including the US and Canada, farms that have natural and heirloom seeds have been taken over by GM production. If a Monsanto seed is found on a viable farm that is organic or not Monsanto’s, by right of their patent they sue the farmer and take over the farm’s production. There are also accusations that its patented seeds are to blame for a rise in suicides, over 290,000 within 20 years, in India, by farmers whose farms were confiscated by Monsanto. In Argentina they yield mass GM soy crops, which are sprayed heavily with pesticides. In the surrounding areas of these soy fields there are high statistics of disease and deformities in human births.

Here is a little laundry list of products Monsanto makes

Aspartame
Saccharin
Cyclamates
Bovine Growth Hormone
PCB’s
Agent Orange/Dioxin
Roundup/Glyphosate
MSG
Hydrogenated Vegetable Shortening
DDT
Phosphates
Polystyrene

BEES

It’s well known that our population is rising and world hunger is a huge issue, yet there are healthier ways to yield food production. Under the façade of solving world hunger and being sustainable, Monsanto’s profit driven scheme is counterproductively causing damage to our earth. In the past 30 years there has been a dramatic decline in honeybee colonies in America, Europe and Asia. This epidemic is termed “Colony Collapse Disorder”.

These tiny creatures are exceptionally important pollinators and colony builders, highly intelligent, eloquent conductors, stringing our biosphere together. Our natural ecosystem is completely reliant upon their pollination and their magnificent work feeds everything from plants, insects, reptilians to animals and us. If we lose the bees, we lose our natural ecosystem.

Roundup, one of Monsanto’s most well known pesticides was created in the 1970’s. Introduced into the US food supply was their “Roundup Ready” glyphosate-resistant modified seeds. Since then Roundup has been sprayed massively “A report by the organic center shows that farmers applied an additional 318 million pounds of pesticides in the first 13 years GM crops were grown in the US” Research shows that exposure to a particular class of pesticides, neonicotinoids, causes an increase in Nosema virus in honeybee colonies.

“Neonicotinoid pesticides kill bees. In the US, 90% of corn is treated with neonicotinoids. 88% of Corn is GM. Monsanto controls 80% of GM corn. Monsanto promotes Acceleron as a designer seed treatment for its GM products – Corn, Soy, and Cotton. Acceleron contains neonicotinoids (imidacloprid and Bayer’s clothianadin (Poncho/Votivo)) and a fungicide – both culprits in Collony Collapse Disorder.”

Systemic pesticides, created for the patented GM foods, are applied directly to the soil and leaves and deliver the neonicotinoids to the bees. Even further, in 2007 a new class of fungicide was introduced as a growth enhancer to the corn production, corn being a major source of food for the bees. Synergizing with neonicotinoids this increased the toxicity up to 1,000 times to the honeybees.

“Clothianidin entered the U.S. market under conditional registration in 2003, and in 2004 corn seed companies began marketing seeds treated with a 5X level of neonicotinoids (1.25 mg/seed vs. .25).”

Inductive reasoning leads one to believe that the bees disappearing and contracting Nosema virus has to do with fungicides and pesticides being sprayed on GM seeds, especially corn, in sub-lethal doses.

If the bees continue to decline it is a domino effect that will be paramount in ways I don’t think we can fathom. We are failing as the guardians of our earth if we let this continue. This is an alarm going off, one that must be heard.
This is a crime not only against humanity but upon all prevailing earthlings. A heavy subject, yet if not addressed and rectified the ramifications could be earth shattering.

If the bees are dying from this massive onset of pesticides, how is it affecting us?

Why is this ok?

What can be done?

xo,

Nicole

http://www.atyourpalate.com/blog/2013/08/gmos-101-1-pesticides-roundup-and-monsanto/#axzz3OZGskhhG

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/eat-it-up-monsanto/blog/39002/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder

https://www.organicconsumers.org/essays/us-and-monsanto-dominate-global-market-gm-seeds

http://www.panna.org/blog/ge-corn-sick-honey-bees-whats-link

http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/pages/why-does-monsanto-sue-farmers-who-save-seeds.aspx

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/25122-exposing-monsanto-herbicide-linked-to-birth-defects-the-vitamin-a-connection