Regulate-First-Think-Later Approach to Harm Honeybees

by Angela Logomasini on May 2, 2014

European bureaucrats placed a two-year ban on a class of pesticides in the name of “protecting honeybees” when in fact, as one EU official recently admitted, they didn’t have evidence that the chemicals present a serious threat to honeybee health. According to an article in Food Chemical News, the European Commission official admitted that the government banned the chemicals simply because it was “the only factor” that the commission could quickly regulate.

It’s a case of “regulate first, think later.” That’s not only dumb; it’s dangerous, because it threatens farmers’ ability to provide affordable food and may harm honeybees rather than help them.

As noted in earlier posts (here and here) and on SafeChemicalPolicy.com and all the many articles linked therein, mystery surrounds periodic disappearances of honeybee hives. It appears that numerous factors, including cold weather, new and old diseases, nutritional issues, and potentially some chemicals affect hive health, making the hives more susceptible when certain diseases strike.

Mother Nature and hive management appear to play critically important roles in honeybee health, but all the focus has been on one class of pesticides called neonicotinoids, even though they have not been shown of the source significant problems in real life settings. Randomly banning these pesticides simply harms farmers’ ability to produce food and may force them to switch to other chemicals that pose even greater risks to honeybees.....To Read More.....

 

My Take – We can thank Angela for once again focusing on the fact that knee jerk regulations are inspired by emotional speculative ravings from the lunatic green movement - not science. As for legislators looking for solutions; my view is the bee keepers will find the solution if left alone because it's in their best economic interest to do so.

The way we transport bees from one location to another - especially after spending a great deal of time pollinating almond trees in California which provide poor nutritional nectar - along with the many parasites and diseases are factors the regulatory state is inadequate to solve. The best thing government can do is keep the bee keepers ‘truthfully’ informed what’s going on based on actual worldwide observations, and work to provide chemistry that will cure diseases, prevent or cure parasitization by various pests, the bee keepers will find their own solutions regarding transportation and nutrition.

There is one thing we must come to understand. No matter what is actually going on in their real world, no matter how much science confirms reality, no matter how accurate you may be about what is really causing CCD the activists will shrilly claim the real cause is manmade via chemistry, GMO's, or whatever strikes them as an emotional hook to snare the public.

We must win this war at the emotional level, and we can only do that if we can categorically demonstrate what danger the greenies represent to humanity - especially the children!  They constantly claim we must adopt their schemes ‘because it’s for the children’, but in the real world their solutions are detrimental to the children we have to ask; are they attempting to do things “for” the children or “to” the children?