Bees at the Brink: Fields of green are a desert for bees

[NickB79]

http://www.startribune.com/local/274225251.html

Mac Ehrhardt often feels like he has one leg on either side of a barbed-wire fence.

On one side stand the farmers who have bought seed from his family’s business for three generations, and who rely religiously on insecticides to protect their crops. On the other is Ehrhardt’s growing conviction that southern Minnesota’s two-tone landscape of corn and soybeans has become a barren and toxic place for a crucial player in the nation’s food system — the honeybee.

Ehrhardt’s uncomfortable position at the Albert Lea Seed Company reflects the powerful role that farmers could play in the plight of the bees. Though they represent just 2 percent of Minnesota’s population, farmers control half its land. And their embrace of the monocultures and pesticides that form the basis of modern industrial agriculture has been implicated in the decline of bees and pollinators.

But as long as farmers sit at the receiving end of an agri-chemical pipeline that fuels the nation’s rural economy, not much is likely to change, he said.

But hey, we need that all that monocropped corn to save 20 cents per gallon on gas! That's worth wiping out a few (billion) bees, right?

[OnlinePoker]

1. I seem to recall that bees aren't used to pollinate corn.

Am I wrong about this? Or is it that the pesticides are floating onto other crops/flowers?

[NickB79]

3. From the article

Now, most of the seed Schrad plants on his 3,500 acres comes from corporations such as Monsanto and Syngenta, and they come embedded with astonishing genetics. One type of gene makes corn, soybeans and other crops immune to herbicides, including Roundup, allowing farmers to kill weeds at will without killing their crops.

As a result, weeds and wildflowers between the rows are sparse — leaving bees and butterflies to forage in the smaller and smaller areas that are left: state parks, wildlife preserves and tiny strips of land between the roads and the fields.

Another added gene makes the plants themselves poisonous to insects such as corn rootworm that are the bane of farmers. But it’s not foolproof against all pests.

The solution? A new class of insecticides first introduced in 1994 that is relatively harmless to people and animals — neonicotinoids. Now added routinely as a coating on seeds, neonicotinoids provide additional insurance against soil pests. And, like the genetic traits, they become an intrinsic part of the plant as it grows.

[Scootaloo]

4. Bees can't live where there's no food

And these corn plants are treated to kill off plants- 'weeds" - between hte rows. Corn does not produce nectar, and is thus useless for bees. Soybeans are likewise treated against weeds, and while they produce nectar in their flowers, I think most peas and beans need a heavier body to open their flowers - like a bumblebee or some moths. Besides, they're self-pollinating, so no real loss (to the grower) by hosing them with pesticides in addition to the herbicides.

[poster123]

2. save 20 cents per gallon on gas! Too good to be true!

The article mentions soybean culture. No longer can we drive eight hours through nothing but cornfields, as was the case 30 years ago. But in any case it's all artificial, buoyed up by an enormous and complicated set of government -agribusiness fiscal programs. For the rest of us, not involved in the rural economy, it means that farming has become the same as any other racket. Whether it's contracting, trucking or whatever, the days of running a small operation have become more a matter of running a business than being dedicated to the task at hand. Sadly, the lifestyle of farming emulates investment financing. Gone are the days when questions such as weather, crop yield, safety and sustainability rule the farmer's operation. Go to the most remote place you can, a pig farm will disturb somebody. This article's point, that pure corn farming is now a "two-tone landscape of corn and soybeans" has "has been implicated in the decline of bees and pollinators" addresses the immediate and locally seen environmental downside to long-term programs. In this case, jackass investors manipulating programs for their own benefit. The article does not touch on a couple issues, viz., tortilla prices for Mexican peasants or how African farmers do not compete for cotton sales. But if we scratch too much out of our prairies, them we can pay drug companies for magical solutions for dust bowl caused epidemics! A few (billion)bees, something to read about on the hayride!

[Baitball Blogger]

5. When are they going to ban Roundup?

[Dont call me Shirley]

6. Monsanto is pure evil.