Heidi Stevenson
Years ago, Gaia Health informed that bee die-offs are a direct result of pesticide nerve agents called neonicotinoids. The term, Colony Collapse Disorder, is fraudulent, designed to direct attention from the known cause. Agribusiness, the poison manufacturers making death-producing pesticides, is the other face of Big Pharma.
The massive bee die-off is not a great mystery. Colony Collapse Disorder is poisoning with a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. Clothianidin, a neonicotinoid pesticide manufactured by Bayer, has been clearly linked to die-offs in Germany and France.
Although the bee die-offs that have occurred recently are more severe, there have been many in the past from the same and similar products. In North Dakota, a lawsuit was filed against Bayer for the loss of their bees in 1995, the result of spraying rapeseed with imidacloprid. In 1999, the same product was banned in France for use as a seed dressing for sunflowers when they lost one-third of their hives after widespread spraying. In 2004, it was banned for use on corn. Recently, France refused to approve Bayer’s request to sell clothianidin.
Clothianidin and imidacloprid are both members of a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. They are well known as insect neurotoxins, especially with regard to bees. The spokesperson for the Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, based in Germany, stated:
We have been pointing out the risks of neonicotinoids for almost 10 years now. This proves without a doubt that the chemicals can come into contact with bees and kill them. These pesticides shouldn’t be on the market.
Not a Surprise
That neonicotinoids are potent neurotoxins, especially in insects, is unsurprising. They were developed for precisely that purpose. Bayer says that their use is safe for bees, when used according to instructions. This involves using a glue that keeps the pesticides stuck to the seeds on which they’re used.
There are many problems with this. Agribusiness corporations are known to evade anything that costs them money. The glue costs money. The equipment and personnel required to apply it costs money. More careful pesticide application to try to keep it from becoming airborne costs money. Obviously, both unscrupulous Agribusiness farmers and unknowing small farmers—not to mention home gardeners—will, at least occasionally, not use the glue.
Even then, it’s impossible to believe that a fair amount of these pesticides won’t become airborne. Further, their residue will poison the soil. It will be passed on into foods, which means that insects will come into contact with it there.
Isn’t it interesting that a major pharmaceutical manufacturer, Bayer, also makes a product that is a poison by design? Bayer is not an exception. Many, if not most, do business in both arenas. That alone should give pause for thought.
Here’s a list of corporations — not expected to be complete — that profit in both pharmaceuticals and pesticides:
- American Home Products
- AMVAC
- Astra Zeneca
- Aventis
- BASF
- Bayer
- Dow Chemical
- Dupont Chemical
- Merck
- Monsanto
- Novartis
- Pharmacia
Is it an accident that most of Big Pharma also manufactures pesticides? Is there a connection between the two types of products? Do the pharmaceutical arms of these corporations profit on the illness caused by the pesticide arms? You can decide.
Disease mongering is a well-worn technique used by Big Pharma to create new diseases—define, name, and make household terms—for the purpose of selling chemicals called drugs. The same technique has been used to cloak massive bee die-offs with an air of mystery.
Colony Collapse Disorder is a false name that serves to mislead the public into believing that there’s a new, mystery disorder, probably something very complex, that needs tons of money to be thrown at it so that every possible angle can be studied. The reason is simple. By misdirecting the public, and apparently many professionals too, the real reason for bee die-offs is obscured.
This is very much like the misleading pseudo science that supposedly debunks global climate change by giving a false impression that there is no consensus among scientists. By stirring pesticides into a mix of other supposedly possible causes, such as bacterial infections, fungal infections, and environmental stress—all assuredly concerns with bees, but none of them new—a false controversy is created. That results in precious time being wasted, while we really do move into a world without bees. At the same time, money is being thrown at scientists, who should know better, but being just as human as the rest of us, they’re tempted.
Eventually, the real cause starts to become obvious, as is happening now in bee die-offs. However, the guilty party, the one making obscene profits by selling neurotoxic poisons that destroy the earth, launches a campaign of disingenuous lies, misdirection, and lawsuits to continue to sell their contaminants as long as possible.
Meanwhile, we’re being told that we must prepare to live in a world without bees, as if it’s inevitable. All because of Colony Collapse Disorder, a cleverly marketed nonexistent disease. We live in fear of the implications of no bees, when the real threat is poisons manufactured for the sole benefit of obscene profits.
How to Avoid These Neurotoxins
Neonicotinoids are used in Agribusiness and home gardens. To help the reader avoid these products, here are some of their generic names, along with as many brand names as could be found.
- The neonicotinoids include: acetamiprid, dinotefuran, clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam.
- Acetamiprid and dinotefuran are manufactured by many companies. Thiamethoxam is made by Syngenta. Only Bayer makes clothianidin and imidacloprid.
- Brand names for imidacloprid include: Kohinor, Admire, Advantage, Gaucho, Merit, Confidor, Hachikusan, Premise, Prothor, and Winner.
- Brand names for clothianidin include: Gaucho, Titan, Clutch, Belay, Arena.
- Brand names for acetamiprid include: Assail, Intruder, Adjust.
- Brand names for thiacloprid include: Calypso.
- Brand names for thiamethoxam include: Actara, Cruiser, Helix, Platinum, Centric.
- Neonicotinoids: acetamiprid, dinotefuran.
- Guardian, “Pesticides: Germany bans chemicals linked to honeybee devastation”, by Alison Benjamin
- University of Florida, “Insect Management on Landscape Plants” (Unfortunately, no longer available, which is unsurprising as university agricultural programs have been usurped by Monsanto and other Agribusiness entities.)
- Crop Protection Monthly, 31 January 2002, Issue 146
- “Poison for Profit — What A Business Plan!”, by Ashley Simmons Hotz, Red Flags Weekly (An excellent resource that is, sadly, now defunct.)
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