Illinois illegally seizes bees resistant to Monsanto’s Roundup; kills remaining queens

[forest444]

The point of this confiscation can not possibly be clearer: Monsanto wants no honeybees resistant to their Roundup product to continue to exist. The Illinois Dept. of Agriculture illegally seized privately owned bees from renowned naturalist, Terrence Ingram, without providing him with a search warrant and before the court hearing on the matter, reports Prairie Advocate News.

Behind the obvious violations of his Constitutional rights is Monsanto. Ingram was researching Roundup’s effects on bees, which he’s raised for 58 years. “They ruined 15 years of my research,” he told Prairie Advocate, by stealing most of his stock.

A certified letter from the Ag Dept.’s Apiary Inspection Supervisor, Steven D. Chard, stated:

“During a routine inspection of your honeybee colonies by … Inspectors Susan Kivikko and Eleanor Balson on October 23, 2011, the bacterial disease ‘American Foulbrood’ was detected in a number of colonies located behind your house…. Presence of the disease in some of your colonies was confirmed via test results from the USDA Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland that analyzed samples collected from your apiary….”

Ingram can prove his bees did not have foulbrood, and planned to do so at a hearing set in April; but the state seized his bees at the end of March. They have not returned them and no one at the Ag Dept. seems to know where his bees are.

The bees could have been destroyed, or they could have been turned over to Monsanto to ascertain why some of his bees are resistant to Roundup. Without the bees as evidence, Ingram simply cannot defend against the phony charges of foulbrood. Worse, all his queens died after Kivikko and Balson “inspected” his property, outside of his presence and without a warrant.

Of note, Illinois beekeepers are going underground after Ingram’s experience and refuse to register their hives, in case the state tries to steal their private property on phony claims.

At: http://herbalhouse365.com/2016/02/20/illinois-illegally-seizes-bees-resistant-to-monsantos-roundup-kills-remaining-queens/

[daleanime]

1. ........

[forest444]

3. I wish I could just dismiss this as "more SOP from Bruce Rauner's Illinois"

But as you know, it's the rule rather than the exception these days (just as the hemp growers or the raw milk people).

[Fairgo]

2. This is absolutely chilling

I do not believe in evil, but...Monsanto is evil.

[forest444]

5. They've earned their nickname:

Monsatan.

So named in honor of the place such people will end up when they eventually leave this world.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

12. absolutely chilling

yes - more and more " absolutely chilling" things are happening

[Ilsa]

4. I fear that going underground will be a situation

We will all have to apply to something eventually. They are making criminals out of people trying to do the right thing.

[forest444]

6. Worst of all, public opinion tends to enable the Monsatans of the world.

Because, as much as people claim to be "rugged individualists" who resent "impositions on their God-given liberties," the sad truth is that most of our fellow Americans mainly resent seeing people who are, or simply look, happy.

That, I believe, is what lurks behind the acquiescence of so many toward abuses like these - even a few here on DU!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. This is criminal behavior on the part of the Illinois Dept of Ag.

Can nothing be done to stop them?

Horrible behavior. HORRIBLE.

[forest444]

8. Short of an alien invasion, nothing.

Although, as the article noted, many of the state's beekeepers are now doing so clandestinely to avoid harassment.

All the best to them.

[billhicks76]

16. Lol...I Was About To Say Maybe They Are The Aliens

And this is part of their invasion. If this is true then at some point we must realize war has been declared on us an respond appropriately. If its not true then Im not sure it matters although thy couldve killed two bees with one stone.

[forest444]

33. I wouldn't put it past them.

It's clear Monsatan would like to monopolize food supply worldwide. What further motives, besides the obvious ones, lie behind that we may never know (and probably just as well).

[drm604]

9. I don't completely understand what's going on here.

Why would Monsanto be concerned about honeybees being resistant to roundup? What am I missing here?

[MisterP]

10. presumably any resistant bees will have to be on their license?

[Old Codger]

11. Bees pollinate

Monsanto wants to own all seeds, their hybrids do not need bees they want to control all seeds in the world they are behind laws stopping people from trading heritage seeds, they are pretty much in charge if most agriculture departments, they are the chase of agriculture.

[Dragonfli]

14. I was still typing when you posted, but it sounds so crazy, nature is much larger than crop seeds

and such a short sighted plan could leave our world too barren to absorb carbon and produce oxygen sufficiently for much higher life to survive. I came up with the same theory for lack of a rational one, buy we're talking bond villain craziness here.

[Old Codger]

21. They

They want to own all seeds sales, they have worked hard at it and it is pretty bad. they sent some free seed to some country(not sure which) and the people there burned the monsanto seeds because they would not produce seed for thenexzt crop they would then have to buy new seeds every year...

[Dragonfli]

13. It doesn't make sense, our ecosystem needs bees. One shot in the dark? Maybe something to do

with their business model regarding GMO crops, the ones where you have to buy seeds from them each planting. Perhaps they think that one way to corner the market is to have all crops (that naturally pollinate and reproduce) to become irrelevant if the means of pollination is all but destroyed, then, everybody will have to buy seeds from them for every crop- period, taking natural plant reproduction out of the equation they may see as giving them an advantage in selling the crop seeds that only they can produce,

I think it as a crazy tin foil theory worthy of a fictional Bond villain, but I got nothing else for a theory at the moment for them to want to make sure there are no bees resistant to poisons they produce.

Hopefully, the reasons will be made known and they are no where near as crazy and short sighted as my only theory is, I mean, it is way too crazy and I only came up with it as a thought experiment because I can't see nor understand why they should want something like the impossibility of bees to survive roundup and I just happen to know (among the little I know about their motivations) that they do try to push seeds that do not self propagate, so that once "hooked" on them, you have to keep buying more seeds from them each planting because your crops produced by some of their GMO seeds won't provide replacement seeds for you, and they appear to have engineered them that way on purpose.

[billhicks76]

17. You Are Onto Something Maybe

[drm604]

22. Or maybe Monsanto has nothing to do with this.

It can't be about eliminating seed production.

Most of what Monsanto sells are grains. Corn, wheat, etc. Most of those don't require pollination by bees.

For crops that require pollination by bees it's not just a matter of seed production. Those plants will not produce the fruit, vegetable, or grain if they're not pollinated. So eliminating the bees would make the crops worthless and no one will buy seeds for crops that can't produce anything! Monsanto has no interest in making their products worthless.

[mopinko]

15. bullshit.

ask the google. this story is only being carried by the usual suspects. this is an old story. long ago debunked. the bees were diseased.

[Orrex]

19. Next you'll deny that the bees were vaccinated with mercury-rich Thimerosal

[drm604]

23. Of course! The bees are autistic!

It all makes sense now!

[drm604]

20. Exactly.

Monsanto would have nothing to gain by destroying honeybees.

[LiberalFighter]

18. I am thinking bad thoughts.

[PaulaFarrell]

24. roundup is an herbicide

I have no doubt that it adversely affects insects but having bees be resistant to it would be a plus for Monsanto. In terms of pollen, I ddon't think roundup would be applied at flowering stage. This story makes no sense and yes, I hate Monsanto.

[Duppers]

25. Read up-thread.

Monsanto is more evil than you're imagining.

[PaulaFarrell]

27. already did

Was hoping for something there but all there is is speculation. Don't worry , I am fully aware of the crap Monsanto pulls like suing farmers whose crops get unintentionally contaminated with their GMOs but I still think this story makes no sense.

[womanofthehills]

30. I didn't think Roundup would be applied at harvest either but it often is with wheat -

Good Idea to only eat organic wheat unless you want to eat glyphosate - the World Health Organization says it's a possible carcinogen but there are also studies about how it really can mess up your gut bacteria compromising your immunity.

Glyphosate Used to Speed Up Wheat Harvest

Charles Benbrook, Ph.D., who published the paper on the mounting use of glyphosate, says the practice of spraying glyphosate on wheat prior to harvest, known as desiccating, began in Scotland in the 1980s.

“Farmers there often had trouble getting wheat and barley to dry evenly so they can start harvesting. So they came up with the idea to kill the crop (with glyphosate) one to two weeks before harvest to accelerate the drying down of the grain,” he said.

The pre-harvest use of glyphosate allows farmers to harvest crops as much as two weeks earlier than they normally would, an advantage in northern, colder regions.

The practice spread to wheat-growing areas of North America such as the upper Midwestern U.S. and Canadian provinces such as Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

“Desiccation is done primarily in years where conditions are wet and the crop is slow to dry down,” Joel Ransom, an agronomist at North Dakota State University, said.

http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/05/glyphosate-sprayed-crops-before-harvest/

[bhikkhu]

38. If monsanto specializes in glycophosphate resistant crops

then treating them with round-up prior to harvest wouldn't kill them.

One of many things on the threads here that makes no apparent sense.

[dhill926]

26. what in the hell of fuck?

this is simply anti-life...jaysus....

[hopemountain]

28. f******g diabolical

fuck you, monsanto

[jmowreader]

29. It takes about a minute with The Google to find out...

...that all bees, not just this guy's, are resistant to glyphosate.

https://entomologytoday.org/2015/10/13/glyphosate-acetamiprid-low-toxicity-honey-bees-2/

[womanofthehills]

31. Glyphosate harms bees spatial learning

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2985493/glyphosate_harms_bees_spatial_learning.html

A new study shows it's not just neonicotinoids that impair bees' ability to navigate to nectar and pollen sources, and to their nests: now the herbicide glyphosate has been found to have the same impact even at very low levels.

According to a new study conducted by German and Argentinian researchers, honey bees exposed to low levels of glyphosate have a hard time returning home

.

[bvar22]

34. We keep Honey Bees in Arkansas.

We almost never register anything we aren't forced to register, but we registered our colonies because no one can start a colony within 3 miles of our colonies. Its a like staking a 3 mile radius claim, and that seem worth the effort to us.

Foul Brood is very nasty, and very contagious. Arkansas has the right to seize and destroy our Bees and equipment if Foul Brood is diagnosed. It is EASY to diagnose from the smell...that is why it is called "Foul Brood". I have never smelled it, but other beekeepers have told me it is unmistakable.

Since we registered our colonies 7 years ago, we have been visited ONCE by a very nice lady who helped us separate one of our hives that was ready to swarm. Since then, no one has checked on our colonies.

ALL GMO plants, non naturally occurring pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides are forever banned from our little hilltop.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1182412

[tomsmom22]

35. Always the Money

I'm sure it has something to do with this somehow:

[link:http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/05/14/183729491/Supreme-Court-Sides-With-Monsanto-In-Seed-Patent-Case|

[McCamy Taylor]

36. Monsanto obviously plans to patent a "resistant bee" and corner the honey market.

Probably at work breeding the stolen bees. Then it can claim to have "saved" honey from itself.

[PATRICK]

37. Is that the point?

I may misremember but i thought some link was being investigated that Monsanto's Roundup had the unintentional effect of causing the current bee extinction problem, some health weakening or virus formation. That this issue is also part of a theory connected to the Zika virus carried by mosquitoes and Monsanto's might make for an interesting story. Now this would clear up the facts and motives of most concerned quite a bit. When testing the effects of Roundup of course you want your bees to survive some generations to observe the effects.

In any event it sounds like Monsanto trumped up a side issue charge to stop them and discourage others aided by the letter or ignorance of the law or by pockets full of Monsanto money. The same might be said of the media reports but we will err on the side of caution in assuming they are mainly ignorant and incompetent with whatever they parrot.