Bayer on defensive in bee deaths

[babsbunny]

http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1193866.html

German authorities look into allegation that RTP maker's pesticide harms environment

Sabine Vollmer, Staff Writer

Bayer CropScience is facing scrutiny because of the effect one of its best-selling pesticides has had on honeybees.

A German prosecutor is investigating Werner Wenning, Bayer's chairman, and Friedrich Berschauer, the head of Bayer CropScience, after critics alleged that they knowingly polluted the environment.

The investigation was triggered by an Aug. 13 complaint filed by German beekeepers and consumer protection advocates, a Coalition against Bayer Dangers spokesman, Philipp Mimkes, said Monday.

The complaint is part of efforts by groups on both sides of the Atlantic to determine how much Bayer CropScience knows about the part that clothianidin may have played in the death of millions of honeybees.

Bayer CropScience, which has its U.S. headquarters in Research Triangle Park, said field studies have shown that bees' exposure to the pesticide is minimal or nonexistent if the chemical is used properly.

[islandmkl]

1. nothing like a reassuring name:

Bayer CropScience...makes all those end-of-the-freedom-end-of-the-world movies (i.e. Soylent Green) seem to have known that it was all coming some day....

CropScience just doesn't sound like something the farmers i grew up with would understand...