At N. American Beekeeping Conference, Bayer Company Rep Fails To Convince On Pesticide Use

[hatrack]

Honeybees will die in greater numbers this year than ever before, and court fights over the chemicals some believe are killing them will continue to be a cat-and-mouse game. That’s the opinion of Lewisburg beekeeper Dave Hackenberg, who last week was in Orlando, Fla., at the North American Beekeeping Conference with about 750 of his peers. He’s considered by many of them, and others worldwide, as the authority on colony collapse syndrome.

EDIT

Hackenberg met Wednesday evening with a chief toxicologist from Bayer and, not surprisingly, there was no meeting of minds. We say we’re losing bees, Hackenberg said, and he says the science doesn’t show it. “No,” Hackenberg said, “reality does.”

Despite the reality, however, many beekeepers don’t grapple with the science. Some are naive, Hackenberg said, and tend to believe what they are told — whether it’s mites or mold or the phases of the moon. “They don’t understand these new systemic chemicals,” he said.

Few farmers in the Valley, he said, even know anything about the chemicals they’re using. “If you talk to them and ask them ‘Do you know what you’re using?’ or ‘Do you know how it works?’ many will say no, they pay a crop analyst for that. “The crop analyst goes out and looks at the crops and tells them what to use.” Hackenberg said if you ask the crop analyst how he knows what to recommend, he’ll say the chemical companies tell him.

http://www.dailyitem.com/0100_news/local_story_016191459.html

[Mojorabbit]

1. I skipped the conference

I am going with what the oldtimers say that are mentoring me and I am not using any pesticides on or near my bees. I have written letters but I don't have the clout to get these things banned. I am hoping some of the big guns are successful in fighting off the pesticide industry.