HONEY BEES AND INSECTICIDES

Despite an environmental tragedy in regards to a massive bee kill; there is a positive in the mix. Farmers and beekeepers are talking and attempting to find a solution . Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record has this story "Beekeepers meet with farmers to discuss how to avoid "bee kills". The following groups have been holding discussions since last fall namely the Ontario Beekeepers Association, Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario and Grain Farmers of Ontario. The concensus seems to be that insecticide dust released from seeds is highly toxic to bees. Apparently when the seed is handled during the planting process a dust can come off of it and be blown into the air. Also as the seeds are pretreated it pretty well removes the option of not using the insecticide if the individual farmer has reason to believe that a particular field isn't suceptible to particular insects.

While this cooperation is an excellent way to go nevertheless one must not forget past failure with insecticides such as DDT and thinning of birds' eggs or even of herbicides such as Agent Orange and the human health costs. Rachel Carson said it well when she stated that these are poisons we are producing and human intelligence is sometimes overuled by the profit factor. I'm not a farmer but clearly under certain weather and soil conditions, pests will thrive and cause crop damage. They must be controlled but hopefully not at the expense of the farmers' neighbours.