This month, more than 100 natural food brands,
including Clif Bar and Stonyfield, joined together in a drive to encourage the
Obama Administration to ban pesticides linked to bee deaths. The culprit, they
say, is neonicotinoids, which is a class of chemicals commonly called neonics,
introduced in the 1990s, that are mostly coated onto seeds to help farmers
control insects……Last November, the NRDC submitted signatures from almost
275,000 of its members urging EPA to respond to its legal petition to expedite
the review of neonics……. While many environmental activists, and some
scientists, have coalesced around the belief that neonics as a likely culprit,
most mainstream entomologists disagreed [saying] “extremely dubious” that
banning neonics, as many greens are demanding, would have any positive
effect……. Cities, states and provinces in Canada, egged on by environmental
activists, are beginning to act unilaterally. Ontario voted to ban the
chemicals, as have several cities or counties, including Vancouver; Seattle,
Thurston County, Wash.; Spokane, Wash.; Cannon Beach, Ore.; and Shorewood, MN.
Oregon held a hearing
recently to consider a policy that would limit neonics use……Last fall, UK farmer Peter Kendall
said he sprayed his crop with pyrethroids three times last year before giving
up, replanting and spraying again. This increased spraying with harsher
chemicals may harm the honeybees, which the neonics ban intended to protect in
the first place. . A 2014 study by
researchers at the University of London found that exposure to pyrethroids can
reduce bee size….To Read More…...
My
Take - When are we going to stop listening to these
eco-maniacs from organizations like the NRDC? When people stop giving them
billions - the government stops awarding them grant money - when sue and settle
is dealt with legislatively - when they start being sued by those they attack
and when someone in authority somewhere in the world decides they need to be
prosecuted under criminal law for the damage they cause and the lives their
policies have cost. One more thing. I found it interesting that pyrethroids are
now being called one of those "harsher" chemicals. When did that
happen? There was a time when they were touted by activists as an alternative
to "harsher" chemicals. Now they are one! Let's try and have clarity
on this. It will never matter what "better alternative" we adopt to
appease these activists because they can't be appeased. Whatever is adopted
today will be attacked tomorrow. We really do need to get this once and for
all!
Appeasement doesn't work!!!!!!
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