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RT @protesterrabbit: Always buy seeds or use your own from previous year. I get mine from Mother Nature of Powell River, B.C. ! https://t.câ€¦

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News

January 30th, 2018

| HuffPost Black Voices

Black Beekeepers Are Transforming Detroit's Vacant Lots Into Bee Farms

By Philip Lewis - A pair of Detroit natives have decided to combat neighborhood blight in a pretty sweet way â€” by transforming abandoned vacant lots in their city into honeybee farms.

January 26th, 2018

| Environmental Health News

Controversial insecticides pervasive in Great Lakes tributaries

U.S. scientists found neonicotinoid insecticides in about three-quarters of samples from 10 major Great Lakes tributaries.

January 22nd, 2018

| KQED, The California Report

Ag Industry Fights Pesticide Penalties and State Efforts to Increase Future Fines

By Ted Goldberg - Several produce and farm labor contractors are contesting fines they face in connection with two separate pesticide drifts in the Central Valley that sickened close to 130 agricultural workers last year.

October 5th, 2017

Controversial pesticides found in honey samples from six continents

By Rachel Cernansky - Honey bees on every continent except Antarctica face significant exposure to neonicotinoid pesticides â€” chemicals that some studies suggest harm beesâ€™ health. Researchers who tested honey from nearly 200 sites worldwide found that 75% of their samples contained some level of the pesticides, according to a report published on 6 October in Science.

July 20th, 2017

| High Country News

The women confronting California's farm conditions: Female farmworkers face sexual assault, pesticide exposure and low wages.

By Ruxandra Guidi - "Pesticide drift is not something that happens sometimes -- it's an issue for farmworkers every day," says Suguet Lopez, executive director of Lideres Campesinas, a statewide organization led by female farmworkers. It's the kind of issue her organization is taking on, part of a broader movement of women farmworkers in California.

| Minnesota Star Tribune

Minnesota beekeepers win a round against EPA on insecticide approval

By: Josephine Marcotty - Beekeepers have won a round against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a protracted lawsuit over a class of insecticides implicated in the decline of honeybees and other wild insects.

April 25th, 2017

That Perfect, Toxic Lawn: American Suburbs and 2,4-D

By: Chris Clarke - If youâ€™re worried about the weed-killer glyphosate, a.k.a. Roundupâ„¢, youâ€™re not alone. The herbicide is getting increasing critical exposure in the news â€” and on social media â€” as we learn more about its potential effects on the environment and human health. Roundup use is growing exponentially, so that concern is sensible…

March 31st, 2017

| Vice/Munchies

EPA Goes Against Its Own Findings and Rejects Ban on Controversial Pesticide

By: Alex Swerdloff - As the world was distracted by the news that the Energy Department's climate office banned the use of the phrases "climate change", "emissions reduction", and "Paris Agreement", Scott Pruitt, the climate-change denialist who is head of the EPA under Trump, quietly ruled not to ban a pesticideâ€”despite the EPA's own scientific findings that it causes harm in humans.

March 23rd, 2017

| The Huffington Post

USDA Drops Plan to Test for Monsanto Weed Killer in Food

By: Carey Gillam - The U.S. Department of Agriculture has quietly dropped a plan to start testing food for residues of glyphosate, the worldâ€™s most widely used weed killer and the key ingredient in Monsanto Co.â€™s branded Roundup herbicides.

March 16th, 2017

New emails complicate debate over the safety of Monsanto's weed killer

By: Eli Chen - The debate over the safety of Monsantoâ€™s weed killer Roundup has become more complicated, as newly released emails suggest the company had ghostwritten scientific research on glyphosate, the pesticideâ€™s key ingredient.

March 14th, 2017

| The New York Times

Monsanto Weed Killer Roundup Faces New Doubts on Safety in Unsealed Documents

By: Danny Hakim - The reputation of Roundup, whose active ingredient is the worldâ€™s most widely used weed killer, took a hit on Tuesday when a federal court unsealed documents raising questions about its safety and the research practices of its manufacturer, the chemical giant Monsanto.

March 10th, 2017

Bees Are Smart. Pesticides, Not So Much.

By: Larissa Walker - If f bumblebees can learn to play fetch, what else might their brains be capable of? This is just one of many questions that researchers prompted when they published a study late last month suggesting that we might have more in common with these tiny insects than we realize.

February 24th, 2017

| NPR's The Salt

Could A Bumblebee Learn To Play Fetch? Probably

By: Rae Ellen Bichell - How can bees do all this? Well, Perry says, it's not just about the number of neurons in a brain, it's the connections between them. Research is showing more and more that animals â€” including tiny insects with 100,000 times fewer neurons than a human â€” can learn new skills quickly if their brains are wired right.

February 16th, 2017

| The New York Times

A Bee Mogul Confronts the Crisis in His Field

By: Stephanie Strom - Mr. Adee (pronounced Ay-Dee) is Americaâ€™s largest beekeeper, and this is his busy season. Some 92,000 hives had to be deployed before those buds burst into blossom so that his bees could get to the crucial work of pollination. But it is notable that he has a business at all. For the last decade, a mysterious plague has killed billions of bees every year.

December 20th, 2016

| The New York Times

This Pesticide Is Prohibited in Britain. Why Is It Still Being Exported?

By: Danny Hakim - HUDDERSFIELD, England â€” The factory here, set amid a brick campus in a green and hilly industrial town, recently celebrated its centennial. It produces paraquat, one of the worldâ€™s most enduring weed killers â€” but not one that can be purchased in this part of northern England, in the rest of Britain or across the Channel in the rest of the European Union…

December 13th, 2016

Pesticides stop bees buzzing and releasing pollen, says study

By: Damian Carrington - The worldâ€™s most widely used insecticides harm the ability of bees to vibrate flowers and shake out the pollen to fertilise crops, according to preliminary results from a new study.

November 30th, 2016

Canada Just Took a Big Step Toward Banning a Nasty Pesticide

By: Tom Philpott - While President-elect Donald Trump ponders which anti-regulation stalwart to place at the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, Health Canadaâ€”our northern neighbor's version of the EPAâ€”just took a bold step toward protecting the environment…

November 25th, 2016

| High Plains Public Radio

Federal Judge Sides with Pesticide Companies Over Beekepers

By: Jonathan Baker - A federal judgeâ€™s ruling last week is being hailed as a victory for insecticide companies and lamented as a loss for beekeepers and nature advocates, reports Agri-Pulse. An insecticide seed coating called neonicotinoid is believed to be partially responsible for the disappearance in many areas of the country of bees…

November 16th, 2016

Trump's Top Environmental Adviser Says Pesticides Aren't Bad for You

By: Tom Philpott - To lead the transition of the Environmental Protection Agency, President-elect Donald Trump settled on notorious climate change denier Myron Ebell. The decision rattled climate activistsâ€”see Julia Lurie's interview with Bill McKibbon and David Roberts on Vox. But it isn't just greenhouse gas emissions that are likely to get a free ride under an Ebell-influenced EPA…

September 29th, 2016

| The New York Times

The Sweet Emotional Life of Bees

By: James Gorman - It is hard enough to figure out emotions in humans â€” but insects? Nonetheless, as far back as Darwin, scientists have suggested that insects have something like emotional states, and researchers continue, despite the difficulties, to try to pin those states down.

September 22nd, 2016

Pesticide manufacturers' own tests reveal serious harm to honeybees

By: Damian Carrington - Unpublished field trials by pesticide manufacturers show their products cause serious harm to honeybees at high levels, leading to calls from senior scientists for the companies to end the secrecy which cloaks much of their research.

April 12th, 2016

Home And Garden Giant Ditches Class Of Pesticides That May Harm Bees

By Allison Aubrey - A leading brand of home and garden pest-control products says it will stop using a class of pesticides linked to the decline of bees. Ortho, part of the Miracle-Gro family, says the decision to drop the use of the chemicals â€” called neonicotinoids, or neonics for short â€” comes after considering the range of possible threats to bees and other pollinators.

March 3rd, 2016

| The Washington Post Magazine

Was a USDA scientist muzzled because of his bee research?

By Steve Volk - Jonathan Lundgren is buying a parcel of land â€” a scrubby, 30-acre plot just north of Brookings, S.D. â€” from which he hopes to lead a revolution.

February 3rd, 2016

Are Bee-Killing Pesticides Impacting Our Health?

By Elizabeth Grossman - Neonicotinoidsâ€”the worldâ€™s most widely used and fastest growing type of insecticideâ€”have been at the center of the conversation about bee die-offs for several years. Even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently acknowledged that very small quantities can impact pollinators. But what about human health?

February 2nd, 2016

Group urges EPA to protect waterways from pesticides

By Lydia Wheeler - The Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a legal petition Tuesday calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to better protect the nationâ€™s waterways from insecticides…

October 7th, 2015

| Center for Effective Government

Maryland County Protects Residents from Unnecessary Lawn Pesticides

by Brian Gumm - On Oct. 6, Montgomery County, Maryland, located just outside Washington, DC, became the largest county in America to ban the unnecessary use of pesticides on lawns. Passed by a vote of 6-3, the new ordinance (Bill 52-14) prohibits pesticide use for purely cosmetic purposes…

September 17th, 2015

| E-News Forest Park

New Report Shows Widespread Water Body Contamination from Neonicotinoid Insecticides

Center for Food Safety (CFS) yesterday released a new report, â€œWater Hazard: Aquatic Contamination by Neonicotinoid Insecticides in the United States,â€ showing widespread water contamination with neonicotinoid insecticides and threatening a range of aquatic invertebrates including crabs and insects.

September 11th, 2015

Court revokes EPA approval of insecticide harmful to bees - Approval of controversial insecticide revoked.

By Josephine Marcotty - In an unusual decision with wide implications for bees and other pollinators, a federal appeals court Thursday revoked federal approval of a controversial insecticide because government regulators relied on flawed and limited information about its impact on honeybees.

June 18th, 2015

| Wisconsin Gazette

Buzzkill: The race to save pollinating honeybees

By Lisa Neff - However, the administrationâ€™s strategy disappointed many in the environmental community, who said the White House isnâ€™t going far enough to halt the use of poisons on the landscape…

June 18th, 2015

Bees feeding on fungicide-dosed flowers develop health issues, studies say

By Brandon Keim -While the relationship between insecticides and bees has made headlines â€“ and controversy â€“ for years, two recent studies have shown that another class of agricultural chemicals, little-appreciated but used in ever-increasing amounts, may also pose a threat to pollinators.

June 15th, 2015

How pesticides are killing the bees

By David Schubert - We love our bees. They make honey and pollinate our flowers and crops. But bees are dying at an alarming rate. Even the White House acknowledged the dire situation and recently released a task force report about it.

Top Five Takeaways from the White House Pollinator Health Task Force Announcement

By Larissa Walker - The White House Pollinator Health Task Force has laid out a federal strategy plan to protect bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. Here are CFSâ€™s top five takeaways from this long-awaited announcement.

Plan Bee: Feds Unveil Strategy to Reverse Honeybee, Butterfly Decline

Environmental activists who wanted a ban on a much-criticized class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids said the Obama administration's bee strategy falls way short of what's needed to save the hives…

| Earth Island Journal

Where Have All the Monarchs Gone?

By Shirley G. Koelling - Herbicide use in particular has had a huge impact on the monarch, killing milkweed plants on farmland and depleting the butterfliesâ€™ primary food source…

| The New York Times

Honeybees' Mysterious Die-Off Appears to Worsen

By Michael Wines - A prolonged and mysterious die-off of the nation's honeybees, a trend worrisome both to beekeepers and to farmers who depend on the insects to pollinate their crops, apparently worsened last year.

March 7th, 2015

New Efforts to Save the Monarch Butterfly, But Do They Go Far Enough?

By Larissa Walker - If it seems like monarch butterflies have all but disappeared, you are right. Monarch butterfly numbers have declined by 90 percent since the mid-1990s. Their main population is only one extreme storm away from being wiped out. Itâ€™s obvious that we need to act swiftly, and a few weeks ago the U.S…

March 5th, 2015

| The Washtington Post

We don't know for sure that pesticides are killing the bees. But we know enough to worry.

By Puneet Kollipara - How responsible are pesticides for the plight of honeybees? We don't have much clear-cut evidence. But that lack of evidence shouldn't offer us comfort. Here's why.

February 10th, 2015

| Minnesota Public Radio

Early research links insecticide, monarch butterfly deaths

By Dan Gunderson - New, local research provides some of the first evidence that a popular group of insecticides might be killing young monarch butterflies. The milkweed plants the butterflies need to survive may also hold neonicotinoid from nearby plants, making the milkweed toxic to monarchs.

February 5th, 2015

Report: Genetically Engineered Crops Are Driving the Monarch Butterfly to Extinction

By Todd Woody - The United Statesâ€™ effort to fight climate change by producing corn ethanol is driving the iconic monarch butterfly to extinction, according to a report released Thursday by the nonprofit Center for Food Safety.

February 5th, 2015

| St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Monsanto's Roundup blamed for the decline of the monarch butterfly

By Chuck Raasch - An environmental group that opposes genetically modified crops is issuing a 77-page report on the decline of the monarch butterfly that lays much of the blame on Monsantoâ€™s Roundup Ready crops and Roundup herbicide. The Center for Food Safety will release the report Thursday and brief members of Congress on it.

February 5th, 2015

Study links Monsanto herbicide to monarch decline

By Lydia Wheeler - Agriculture giant Monsanto's signature herbicide has nearly eradicated the monarch butterfly, according to a Center for Food Safety study.

January 5th, 2015

Monarch Butterflies Considered for Endangered Species Status

By Laura Geggel - The Center for Biological Diversity and other advocacy groups, including the Center for Food Safety, had asked the federal government to step in with a legal petition filed in August 2014.

January 5th, 2015

| St. Louis Post-Dispatch

U.S. to consider endangered species status for monarch butterfly

By Chuck Raasch - The federal Fish and Wildlife Service will conduct a â€œstatus reviewâ€ of the monarch butterfly to see if it deserves federal endangered species protection.

December 31st, 2014

| The Washington Post

The monarch butterfly might end up on the endangered species list this year

By Abby Ohlheiser - After conservationists warned that the monarch butterfly's population is declining in a "deadly free fall," the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are reviewing a proposal to include it on the endangered species list, the federal agency announced this week.

December 17th, 2014

| The Oregonian

Portland crows died from pesticide, lab tests show; federal investigation continues

By George Rede - Lab tests have confirmed that a pesticide caused the deaths of more than two dozen crows found in downtown Portland, but investigators still don't know if the birds were intentionally poisoned.

October 10th, 2014

| National Geographic

As Dwindling Monarch Butterflies Make Their Migration, Feds Try to Save Them

By Eve Conant - "Catastrophic drop" in pollinator's numbers this year means that species is "going to need all the help we can give it."

September 29th, 2014

Moby speaks for the bees: "If the bees go, we're next."

By Derek Markham - If I tell you that our food system is threatened by the potential disappearance of honeybees, due to a very real, and very alarming, phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), it feels like I'm preaching to the choir…

September 29th, 2014

Moby Says "Save Our Bees" From Neonicotinoids

By Anastasia Pantsios - Moby helped kick the electronic dance music movement into high gear in the â€™90s. Heâ€™s almost as well known for his longtime veganism and his avid support of animal rights. Originally from New York, he moved to Los Angeles several years ago, where he has a four-acre spread, to be closer to nature.

September 26th, 2014

| Associated Press

Seattle bans city use of bee-killing pesticides

The Seattle City Council has banned the municipal use of a class of pesticides that has been linked to bee deaths. The council earlier this week passed a resolution to eliminate the use of neonicotinoids on all land owned and operated by the city.

September 25th, 2014

Moby Joins the Fight to Save Our Bees

By Samantha Cowan - Moby left the often-chilly East Coast and became a nature-loving Angeleno. Inspired by the bees populating his Beachwood Canyon home, the musician was dismayed to discover that the buzzing beauties are dying at an alarming rate.

September 25th, 2014

| The New York Times

A Rising Tide of Contaminants

By Deborah Blum - Deborah Swackhamer, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Minnesota, decided last year to investigate the chemistry of the nearby Zumbro River. She and her colleagues were not surprised to find traces of pesticides in the water.

September 23rd, 2014

| National Geographic

José Andrés: Why We Need to Protect Monarch Butterflies

by José André -If you've been to my Mexican restaurant in Washington, DC, you may understand. You see, the beautiful mobiles of butterflies twirling from the ceiling represent this forest located in Central Mexico filled with Oyamel fir trees, which is also the name of my restaurant…

September 13th, 2014

| NBC Nightly News

Monarch Butterfly's Numbers Fly Dangerously Low

[VIDEO] The once common monarch butterfly finds itself in a fight for survival as its population plummets.

September 11th, 2014

What you watch does make a difference - Together with the Pesticide Action Network of North America, the Center for Food Safety, and Beyond Pesticides.

September 9th, 2014

| The Organic View

Is This The End Of The Monarch Butterfly?

By June Stoyer - While most people can recognize the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), they are unfamiliar with its diet. The monarch caterpillar can only eat the leaves of a milkweed plant. If there is no milkweed, the caterpillars will have nothing to eat and obviously there will be no monarch butterflies.

August 29th, 2014

| Des Moines Register

Monarch butterflies dying and Roundup is a suspect

Earlier in the week, a leading monarch scientist announced that the monarch may be heading closer to its death. Lincoln Brower joined three nonprofit groups in a petition of the government to save the monarch from steep population decline, saying the main cause is agricultural practices in fields - the same fields Iowa children see out their schoolroom windows.

August 27th, 2014

| Phildelphia Inquirer

Groups seek U.S. protection for monarch butterflies

Sandy Bauers - n a little less than 20 years, monarch butterflies -- those orange icons of the garden -- have declined more than 90 percent. On Tuesday, several groups and long-time monarch scientist Lincoln Brower filed a legal petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking Endangered Species Act protection for the species.

August 17th, 2014

| The Organic View

Learn What You Can Do To Help Save Our Bees

By June Stoyer - Although the pesticide industry claims that there is no evidence as to why the global population of honeybees is rapidly declining, the tremendous amount of scientific evidence proves otherwise. It started when Dutch Toxicologist, Dr. Henk Tennekes blew the whistle on the effects that neonicotinoids have on bees as well as other pollinators and published his research.

August 11th, 2014

| Rutland Herald

VLS is now bee-friendly

Vermont Law School has partnered with the Center for Food Safetyâ€™s BEE Protective Campaign, making it the first higher-education campus in the country to earn official neonicotinoid pesticide-free designation, the law school announced in a press release.

August 6th, 2014

GMO Crops, Neonicotinoids Will Be Weeded out of U.S. Wildlife Refuges

National wildlife refuges around the country are phasing out genetically modified crops and neonicotinoid pesticides in programs meant to provide food for wildlife. A July 17 letter from James W. Kurth, chief of the national refuge system, doesn't specifically mention concerns that the pesticides or crops pose risks to wildlife bees, butterflies and other pollinators…

August 4th, 2014

| Oregon Public Broadcasting

New Rule: No Bee-Harming Pesticides, GMO Crops On U.S. Wildlife Refuges

By Cassandra Profita - Last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it was phasing out a class of bee-harming pesticides on wildlife refuges in the Pacific region.

August 2nd, 2014

| Star Tribune (MN)

Shorewood passes state's first 'bee-safe' policy

By Kelly Smith - Home Local West Metro Shorewood passes state's first 'bee-safe' policy Article by: KELLY SMITH , Star Tribune Updated: August 2, 2014 - 6:38 AM Suburb will plant clover, avoid certain pesticides…

August 1st, 2014

Study finds insecticides in fruits, veggies and honey; health effects unknown

By Dave Orrick - ST. PAUL, Minn. â€” Nicotine-related insecticides widely used on crops are finding their way into the food we eat and the water we drink, two national studies published in the past two months have concluded.

August 1st, 2014

| The Oregonian / Oregon Live

Ban bee-killing insecticide on all federal land: Guest opinion

By Lori Ann Burd - When 50,000 dead bumblebees were discovered in a Wilsonville parking lot last year, Oregonians got a first-hand look at the environmental perils of the highly toxic class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids.

July 31st, 2014

| Deutsche Welle

Pollinating by hand: doing bees' work

Bee populations are in decline, forcing some farmers to pollinate crops by hand. DW spoke with Dave Goulson, a bumblebee specialist at the University of Sussex, about how to face this threat to the global food supply.

July 31st, 2014

Study says early DDT exposure may set up females for obesity, diabetes

By Melissa Healy - As they reached adulthood, female mice who were exposed in utero and just after birth to the pesticide DDT showed metabolic changes that put them at greater risk for obesity and type-2 diabetes, a new study says.

July 29th, 2014

| Santa Barbara Independent

The Fight for the Bees

By Kelsey Abkin - Bees have made their way into conversations more times in the last few months than in years past, and thereâ€™s a reason. The bees are dying, not by the hundreds or thousands, but by the critical millions. According to the Environmental Protection Agency the leading cause of this crisis is pesticide use.

July 29th, 2014

Midwestern Waters Are Full of Bee-Killing Pesticides

By Tom Philpott - A while back, I wrote about how the US Environmental Protection Agency has been conducting a slow-motion reassessment of a widely used class of insecticides, even as evidence mounts that it's harming key ecosystem players from pollinating bees to birds…

July 28th, 2014

| Environmental Health News

Songbirds dying from DDT in Michigan yards; Superfund site blamed

By Brian Bienkowski - ST. LOUIS, Mich. â€“ Jim Hall was mowing the townâ€™s baseball diamond when he felt a little bump underneath him. â€œAnd there it was, a dead robin,â€ he said. Matt Zwiernik Robins in a nine-block area next to a Superfund site are "decimated," said toxicologist Matt Zwiernik. New tests show they contain some of the highest DDT levels ever seen in birds.

July 27th, 2014

Battle for Our Hearts and minds

Story by Josephine Marcotty, photos and video by RenÃ©e Jones Schneider | Second in a series - Adversaries arenâ€™t waiting for conclusive science on whatâ€™s killing the honeybee. Theyâ€™re taking their fight straight to the public in an intensifying battle for the support of the nationâ€™s consumers.

July 25th, 2014

| Twin Cities Pioneer Press

Insecticides in our food and water, new studies find

By Dave Orrick - Nicotine-related insecticides widely used on crops are finding their way into the food we eat and the water we drink, two national studies published in the past two months have concluded.

July 15th, 2014

| Jefferson Public Radio

Feds Phase Out Bee-Harming Pesticides In Northwest Wildlife Refuges

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to eliminate the use of bee-harming pesticides on wildlife refuges in the Pacific region by 2016. Paige Tomaselli, senior attorney for the Center, said the new U.S. Fish and Wildlife rule for the Pacific region is "a responsible and necessary first step. But the agency must permanently institute this policy on all refuge lands across the country."

July 14th, 2014

| The New York Times

Our Bees, Ourselves: Bees and Colony Collapse

By MARK WINSTON - Honeybee collapse has much to teach us about how humans can avoid a similar fate, brought on by the increasingly severe environmental perturbations that challenge modern society.

| Katie Couric Show

The Plight of the Honey Bee

Find out more about how honey bees help feed America and the alarming rate they are dying off.

| National Journal

The Costly Lobbying War Over America's Dying Honeybees

By Clare Foran - The insect world's biggest murder mystery is moving to K Street.

June 30th, 2014

| The New York Times

Risking Another Silent Spring

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD - The conclusion of the most comprehensive assessment to date of a class of systemic pesticides called neonicotinoids indicates that these chemicals are wreaking much more environmental havoc than previously thought…

June 25th, 2014

Everything we know about neonic pesticides is awful

By John Upton - Neonicotinoid pesticides are great at killing insect pests, which helps to explain the dramatic rise in their use during the past 20 years. But using neonics to control pests is like using a hand grenade to thwart a bank robbery.

June 24th, 2014

| Washington Post

We all get stung by bee colony collapse

By Patterson Clark - Last week President Obama issued a memorandum directing U.S. government agencies to take additional steps to protect and restore domestic populations of pollinators, including honey bees…

June 23rd, 2014

Widespread impacts of neonicotinoids 'impossible to deny'

By Matt McGrath - Neonicotinoid pesticides are causing significant damage to a wide range of beneficial species and are a key factor in the decline of bees, say scientists. Researchers, who have carried out a four-year review of the literature, say the evidence of damage is now "conclusive".

June 18th, 2014

| Statesman Journal

Bumblebee die-off in Eugene under investigation

By Tracy Loew - Oregon regulators are investigating the first mass bee die-off of the year. Residents of a north Eugene apartment complex found sidewalks littered with dead and dying bees on Tuesday, said Rose Kachadoorian, pesticide regulatory specialist for the state Department of Agriculture. The residents said trees at the complex had been sprayed on Monday.

June 14th, 2014

| Daily Camera Boulder News

Boulder neighborhood state's first to be declared 'bee-safe'

By Charlie Brennan - It may not be a title for which there was fierce competition, but those in the roughly 200 households of the north Boulder neighborhood who signed a pledge not to use neonicotinoids or similar systemic pesticides are buzzing with excitement over earning the distinction.

Congress Wants to Save Honeybees by Banning Some Pesticides

By Anna Giaritelli - They're small and operate behind the scenes, but they're critical to agriculture - and Congress is starting to notice.

| Farmers Guardian

OSR varieties and establishment: Looking beyond neonicotinoids

The loss of neonicotinoid seed dressings should be nowhere near the issue for most British oilseed rape growers that many may have feared, according to some experts.

Monarch butterfly decline linked to spread of GM crops

By Emily Chung -

| East Bay Express

What's Poisoning the Bees

By Sam Levin - Toxic pesticides are killing honeybees and other pollinators â€” and our food supply stands to suffer.

| David Goulson, University of Sussex

USA finally considering action over neonicotinoids, spurred on by doubts as to whether they actually work

By David Goulson - In short, the most widely used pesticides in the world - prophylactically applied to arable crops across the globe - appear to be ineffective, and to have been widely miss-sold. It reminds me a little of the Payment Protection Insurance scandal â€“ farmers are advised to use seed dressings as an insurance against something which, it seems, almost never happens.

Monsanto vs. the monarchs: The fight to save the world's most stunning butterfly migration

By Lindsay Abrams - If the monarchs can be said to have a fatal flaw, itâ€™s that theyâ€™re are entirely dependent upon milkweed. And milkweed, once common in the American Midwest, has been all but eliminated from the cropland where it once thrived, the loss a side effect of our growing, and increasingly efficient, industrial agriculture system…

Ontario county bans controversial pesticide as bee health debate continues

By Kelsey Johnson - A county in southern Ontario has become the first Canadian municipality to temporarily ban a controversial insecticide believed to be killing bees. On Tuesday, officials in Prince Edward County passed a motion prohibiting the use of neonicotinoid pesticides on municipal lands, effective immediately.

How to save the world's bees before it's too late

By Lindsay Abrams - The U.S. is failling to protect one of our most valuable resources, says biologist Dave Goulson.

Honeybee Deaths Are Down, But the Beepocalypse Continues

Bryan Walsh - A new survey found that nearly a quarter of honeybee colonies died over the winterâ€”and that's an improvement over last year. Yet even if honeybees had it comparatively easy this past winter, the numbers were still much worse than the 10-15% loss rate that beekeepers used to think of as normal.

Bee Deaths Prompt Calls for U.S. to Ban Some Pesticides

By Alan Bjerga - Two years ago, Steve McDanielâ€™s bees started dropping like flies. Now he and other beekeepers blame a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids that have gained widespread use in the past decade and have been linked to a mysterious die-off of bees called Colony Collapse Disorder. They want the U.S…

| Minneapolis Star Tribune

Concerned for bees, lawmakers call for aggressive pesticide review

By JOSEPHINE MARCOTTY - Seventeen DFL legislators rebuked the state Department of Agriculture late last week over its planned review of the controversial pesticides implicated in the decline in honeybees, arguing that the study should include the possibility of restricting or even banning them in Minnesota. Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL South St…

| The New York Times

The Toxic Brew in Our Yards

By DIANE LEWIS - IN much of the country, it's time to go outside, clean up the ravages of winter and start planting. Many of us will be using chemicals like glyphosate, carbaryl, malathion and 2,4-D. But they can end up in drinking water, and in some cases these compounds or their breakdown products are linked to an increased risk for cancer and hormonal disruption.

Honeybees abandoning hives and dying due to insecticide use, research finds

By Damian Carrington - The mysterious vanishing of honeybees from hives can be directly linked to insectcide use, according to new research from Harvard University. The scientists showed that exposure to two neonicotinoids, the world's most widely used class of insecticide, lead to half the colonies studied dying, while none of the untreated colonies saw their bees disappear.

| Associated Press

Refuge revises mosquito-control strategy

By Jeff Barnard - Pressed by advocacy groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has dropped plans to spray chemical pesticides to kill mosquitoes breeding on a national wildlife refuge on the southern Oregon Coast…

Beyond Honeybees: Now Wild Bees and Butterflies May Be in Trouble

By Brandon Keim - By now you probably know about the plight of America's honeybees: the collapsed colonies and dying hives, threatening pollination services to crops and the future of a much-beloved insect. But it's not just honeybees that are in trouble. Many wild pollinators - thousands of species of bees and butterflies and moths - are also threatened…

| Oregon Public Broadcasting

Advocates Applaud Less Toxic Pesticide Use At Oregon Refuge

George Kimbrell, senior attorney with the Center for Food Safety, says earlier mosquito control plans violated environmental laws because they included more toxic pesticides. The Fish and Wildlife Service had considered options that would have allowed spraying CocoBear and methoprene…

April 30th, 2014

Smiting The Mite to Save the Bees (And The Crops They Pollinate)

By Eliza Barclay - "While some witnesses briefly addressed 'improper use' of pesticides for having detrimental impacts on pollinators, they failed to explain the full wealth of scientific knowledge on the subject," the Center for Food Safety said in a statement…

April 18th, 2014

| Minnesota Public Radio

As pesticide worries grow, 'bee safe' plants generate a buzz

By Dan Gunderson - Gardeners shopping for plants this spring at Bachman's nurseries will find some new signs in the soil. The company will begin telling customers which of its plants are safe for bees.

March 27th, 2014

Force Pesticide Makers to Release Bee Death Studies, Health Canada Told

By The Canadian Press - Four major environmental groups are demanding that Ottawa force pesticide makers to provide scientific studies looking at whether their products are killing off bees. Health Canadaâ€™s Pest Management Regulatory Agency has been asking registered pesticide manufacturers for the studies since 2004.

March 26th, 2014

Pesticides Killing Bees, But Not Pests: New Report

By Emily Main - Farmers are using bee-killing pesticides widely, but a new report shows they don't work on actual pests and they don't boost farmers' yields.

March 25th, 2014

Wait, why are we dunking so many of our seeds in neonic poison?

By John Upton - "The environmental and economic costs of pesticide seed treatments are well-known," said Peter Jenkins, one of the authors of a new report that summarizes the findings of 19 peer-reviewed studies dealing with neonic treatments and major crop yields…

March 24th, 2014

Pesticides that hurt bees don't help farmers, study finds

By JOSEPHINE MARCOTTY - The Center for Food Safety said Monday that a growing body of independent scientific evidence shows that the pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, rarely improve crop yields. They are one of the most widely used agricultural chemicals in the world and a hot-button issue in the rising public concern over the fate of the honeybee.

March 18th, 2014

Twin Cities garden centers ban pesticide thought to harm bees

BY KIM PALMER - Neonicotinoidsâ€™ role in bee decline, as well as how long the pesticide remains active and toxic, is unknown and being studied. However, some garden retailers are already taking action…

March 5th, 2014

| Minnesota Public Radio News

Beekeepers call on state to suspend corn seed pesticides said to kill bees

By Elizabeth Dunbar - A group of Minnesota beekeepers on Wednesday asked state agriculture officials to suspend the use of corn seeds treated with certain pesticides. The petition signed by 40 beekeepers blames neonicotinoid pesticides for killing honeybees…

February 19th, 2014

| Statesman Journal

Pollinator protection bill headed for final approval

By Tracy Loew - A bill that would create a task force to study pesticide effects on bees is headed for final approval. Rep. Jeff Reardon, D-Portland, proposed the bill in response to several cases of mass bee die-offs in Oregon last summer. All of the cases involved neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides that can harm bees if used improperly.

February 10th, 2014

Why the EPA Can't Manage To Block This Gnarly Herbicide

By Tom Philpott - Rachel Aviv's outstanding piece on Tyrone Hayes gives some key background on just why it's so hard for the US Environmental Protection Agency to take action on chemicals like atrazine, which in addition to harming frogs, is also suspected of causing thyroid and ovarian cancers in people at low doses.

February 10th, 2014

| The New Yorker

A Valuable Reputation

After Tyrone Hayes said that a chemical was harmful, its maker pursued him. Hayes has devoted the past fifteen years to studying atrazine, a widely used herbicide made by Syngenta. The companyâ€™s notes reveal that it struggled to make sense of him, and plotted ways to discredit him.

February 5th, 2014

First We Fed Bees High-Fructose Corn Syrup, Now We've Given Them a Killer Virus?

In the January issue of the peer-reviewed journal Ecotoxicology, UK researchers delivered yet more evidence that a widely used pesticide class called neonicotinoids might play a decisive role in declining bee health.

February 3rd, 2014

The Missing Monarchs

By Katherine Martinko - In an article called "Organic Shmorganic: Conventional fruits and vegetables are perfectly healthy for kids," writer Melinda Wenner Moyer suggests that organic produce is overrated. Parents shouldnÃ¢ï¿½ï¿½t obsess so much over whether an apple has synthetic pesticides on it and focus on making sure their kid is eating fruit…

January 29th, 2014

| Washington Post

North American monarch butterfly migration falls to record lows, report says

By Joshua Partlow - One of North Americaâ€™s most dazzling natural phenomena, the annual winter migration to central Mexico by millions of monarch butterflies from the northern United States and Canada, has shrunk to record lows and is in danger of ending, environmentalists from across the continent said Wednesday…

January 29th, 2014

Pesticides halve bees' pollen gathering ability, research shows

By Damian Carrington - Bumblebees exposed to controversial pesticides collect just half the pollen they would otherwise harvest, according to new research, depriving their growing young of their only source of protein. The work has been hailed as important by independent scientists because it sheds light on how the neonicotinoid pesticides can harm bees.

January 28th, 2014

London bee summit: pesticides or no pesticides?

By Emma Bryce - In London last Friday, research scientists, chemical industry representatives, and journalists gathered for an open discussion session that concluded a three-day summit about the impact of neonicotinoid pesticides on honeybees. The result was a rich debate about the future use of these chemicals in agriculture, and implications for food production…

January 21st, 2014

| Mother Nature Network

Bee minus: Pesticides shrink baby bumblebees

Exposure to pyrethroid pesticides stunts the growth of bumblebee larvae, a new study finds, resulting in smaller workers that may be less adept at foraging for food.

January 13th, 2014

| Minnesota Public Radio

Researchers, lawmakers see growing interest in protecting bees

By Dan Gunderson - Two Minnesota state agencies are working on ways to make the environment healthier for bees. In a report to the Legislature on Wednesday, the state Department of Agriculture will detail its plan to review the use of a popular insecticide linked to bee deaths…

January 8th, 2014

Honeybee shortage threatens crop pollination in Europe

By Matt McGrath - In more than half of European countries, there are not enough honeybees to pollinate crops, according to new research.

January 6th, 2014

Pesticide 'contaminating' Prairie wetlands: scientist

By Geoff Leo - A University of Saskatchewan biologist says many wetlands across the Prairies are being contaminated by a relatively new pesticide that is threatening the ecosystem…

December 22nd, 2013

| Washington Post

EPA's System of Tracking Pesticides Harmful to Honeybees, Critics Say

By Kendall Helblig - EPA's 'conditional registration' is designed to put pesticides on the market quickly- but environmentalists are saying the system has gotten loose and lets dangerous chemicals slip onto the market and stay there way too long. In the past 5 years, honeybee populations have declined 20-30% each year.

December 20th, 2013

Top honey-producing state North Dakota develops plan to better protect honeybees

By BLAKE NICHOLSON - North Dakota, which has long led the nation in honey production, has developed guidelines for farmers, ranchers, landowners and beekeepers to better protect honeybees and help reverse the effects of a mysterious disorder that has vastly eroded the insects' population in recent years.

December 20th, 2013

| New York Times

Setting the Table for a Regal Butterfly Comeback, with Milkweed

By Michael Wines - Dr. Laura Jackson, biologist at the University of Northern Iowa and director of the Tallgrass Prairie Center, is growing milkweed seeds to re-seed thousands of acres across the state. The Universities of Kansas and Minnesota have similar programs aimed at bolstering declining monarch numbers…

December 17th, 2013

| The New York Times

European Agency Warns of Risk to Humans in Pesticides Tied to Bee Deaths

By DANNY HAKIM - European food regulators said on Tuesday that a class of pesticides linked to the deaths of large numbers of honey bees might also harm human health, and they recommended that the European Commission further restrict their use.

December 16th, 2013

Let's put pollinators over politics

By Andrew Kimbrell - One thing everyone can agree on is that pollinators are too vital to lose. Congress now has an opportunity to take action in the farm bill, an opportunity legislators shouldnâ€™t pass up.

December 7th, 2013

Decline of bee colonies: The sting of pesticides

Editorial - There may be no single solution to the loss of bees, but these pesticides are sufficiently implicated that the EPA should match the European moratorium. The bees have already been stung enough.

December 6th, 2013

| Living on Earth

Messed Up Migrations

From the wildebeest to the monarch butterfly, this year many of the worldâ€™s great animal migrations are out of whack. Migration expert and Princeton Ecology professor David Wilcove joins host Steve Curwood to discuss whatâ€™s going on.

December 4th, 2013

| The Information Daily

EU must promote honey bees through sustainable farming model

By Marco Contiero - The EU ban on neonicotinoids is a perfect opportunity for European and UK authorities to build a robust and sustainable farming model which promotes the value of the honey bee.

November 22nd, 2013

| The New York Times

The Year the Monarch Didn't Appear

By JIM ROBBINS - This year, for or the first time in memory, the monarch butterflies didnâ€™t come, at least not on the Day of the Dead. They began to straggle in a week later than usual, in record-low numbers. Last yearâ€™s low of 60 million now seems great compared with the fewer than three million that have shown up so far this year…

November 19th, 2013

| Modern Farmer

Why Disappearing Bees Mean You'll Pay More for Almonds

By Dan Mitchell - A somewhat new family of pesticides called neonicotinoids (chemically similar to the nicotine found in tobacco) are suspected of being a major cause of dying bee populations. They have been banned in the European Union because of their possible role in colony collapse disorder (CCD), but are still used in California, where 80 percent of the worldâ€™s almonds are grown.

October 21st, 2013

| Los Angeles Times

Legislators seek to soften sting of bee die-off

By Marc Lifsher - The honey bee emergency stems from the sudden death of billions of bees in hundreds of thousands of hives since 2006. Bees are crucial to the success of California's $44-billion agricultural industry.

September 12th, 2013

| Ag Professional

Pioneer offers neonicotinoid-free corn, soybean seed in Canada

Canadian Honey Council - Pioneer, the world's largest producer of hybrid seeds is offering a neonicotinoid-free option for corn and soybean seed, but only in Canada. Dave Harwood, technical services manager for Dupont Pioneer in Eastern Canada, said the move began with a request from the Grain Farmers of Ontario. They sent a letter to the Canadian Seed Trade Association asking for the choice.

August 14th, 2013

Bee-killing pesticide found in garden store plants: What does it mean?

By Alan Boyle - "It's past time for major retailers to pull these harmful products from their shelves. Well-meaning gardeners and homeowners are being misled. There is no good reason for Lowe's and Home Depot to risk the health of our bees by selling these products," Larissa Walker, policy and campaign coordinator for Center for Food Safety, said in a statement.

August 14th, 2013

'Bee Friendly' Plants May Not Be So Friendly

by Kieran Mulvaney - n a pilot study conducted on FoEâ€™s behalf, scientists from the Pesticide Research Institute examined flowering plants such as Salvia and Gaillardia, as well as pollinator-friendly fruits and vegetables such as tomato and squash, purchased from home improvement stores in the San Francisco Bay, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Washington DC metropolitan areas…

August 12th, 2013

EPA Faces Calls For Neonicotinoids Risk Review In House GOP's FY14 Bill

Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) introduced a bill directing EPA to suspend the most toxic uses of neonicotinoid pesticides within six months and also further study how the products may be safely applied. The Center for Food Safety (CFS), Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides and the Xerces Society support the bill…

July 31st, 2013

| The Globe and Mail

No honey, more problems: A 'catastrophic' year for bee colonies

BY VIDYA KAURI AND PAUL WALDIE - Freezing temperatures, killer parasites, toxic chemicals: The plight of honey bees is getting worse in many parts of the world and no one seems to know precisely why. This past winter was one of the worst on record for bees. In the U.S., beekeepers lost 31 per cent of their colonies, compared to a loss of 21 per cent the previous winter…

July 29th, 2013

| Independent European Daily Express

Bill Seeks to Halt Bee-Killing Pesticides in U.S.

"Given that EPA allowed many of these insecticides on the market without adequate safety assessments and without adequate field studies on their impact to pollinator health, we feel it's time that Congress support a bill like the Conyers-Blumenauer bill, which would suspend the use of the neonicotinoids until EPA does the adequate science to prove that these neonicotinoids are not harmful - and if…

July 24th, 2013

Scientists discover what's killing the bees and it's worse than you thought

By Todd Woody - As weâ€™ve written before, the mysterious mass die-off of honey bees that pollinate $30 billion worth of crops in the US has so decimated Americaâ€™s apis mellifera population that one bad winter could leave fields fallow…

July 23rd, 2013

Grassland butterflies in rapid decline in Europe

Fiona Harvey - Europe's grassland butterfly population has plummeted in the past two decades, new research published on Tuesday shows, with a near halving in the numbers of key species since 1990. The precipitous decline has been blamed on poor agricultural practices and pesticides, by the European Environment Agency, which carried out the research…

July 22nd, 2013

| the New York Times

Loss of Bees Can Affect Plants' Ability to Reproduce, Study Finds

By James Gorman - The loss of bees and other pollinators around the world is already cause for concern. Now two researchers who studied bumblebees in Colorado have added a new worry, identifying the perils of bumblebee infidelity not to other bees, but to their floral partners.

July 18th, 2013

Lawmakers take action to stem decline in bees and limit toxic pesticide use

By Elizabeth Kucinich - The lawmakers, with support from Center for Food Safety and a coalition of environmental and conservation groups, introduced legislation, H.R. 2692- Saving America's Pollinators Act of 2013…

July 12th, 2013

| The Oregonian

Legislation to restrict pesticide use proposed by Rep. Blumenauer

By Elizabeth Case - After 50,000 bumblebees died in a local Target parking lot, the insects may get their day in Congress. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., introduced The Save American Pollinators Act today at a small nursery in Northeast Portland…

Ontario honey bees dropping like flies: Beekeeper blames seed pesticides

By Alex Ballingall - David Schuit routinely watches his employees die. Heâ€™s an apiarist, after all, with bees that work to make honey for him. But now he fears the bee business is losing its buzz, and he claims itâ€™s largely because of a rampantly used pesticide that he believes is killing his bees by the millions.

June 30th, 2013

| Washington Post

Butterfly decline signals trouble in environment

By Darryl Fears - Butterflies are the essence of cool in the insect world, a favorite muse for poets and songwriters, who hold them up as symbols of love, beauty, transformation and good fortune. But providing good fortune apparently goes only one way. As humans rip apart woods and meadows for housing developments and insecticide-soaked lawns, butterflies across the country are disappearing.

June 20th, 2013

| Boulder Weekly

EPA under pressure to protect pollinators

By Jessie Lucier - Boulder-area beekeeper Tom Theobald, three other beekeepers from around the country and five environmental organizations filed a joint lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency for the agencyâ€™s alleged failure to protect bees and other pollinators from systemic neonicotinoid pesticides, which are commonly applied in the U.S…

June 13th, 2013

Banned pesticides may be having wider environmental impacts

By Matt McGrath - A new report indicates that a class of pesticides linked to the deaths of bees may be harming other wildlife species. Neonicotinoids have now been banned by the European Union because of concerns over bee health. But this latest review of the scientific data suggests the chemicals pose a risk to soil, water and grain-eating birds such as partridge.

June 12th, 2013

Bee-killing pesticide companies are pretending to save bees

By John Upton - Even as bees drop dead around the world after sucking down pesticide-laced nectar, pesticide makers are touting their investments in bee research. Nearly a third of commercial honeybee colonies in U.S. were wiped out last year, for a complicated array of reasons, scientists say: disease, stress, poor nutrition, mite infestations, and â€” yes â€” pesticides…

| Minnesota Public Radio

As bees perish in large numbers, a search for causes and solutions

By Dan Gunderson - Across the nation, large numbers of bees â€” about one-third of colonies each year â€” have been dying for the past six years. Scientists believe the cause is a combination of pesticides, disease and poor nutrition, and some are concerned the annual bee losses are unsustainable. As soon as this year, some warn, there might not be enough bees to pollinate some crops.

Pesticide makers seek answers as bee losses sting agriculture

By Carey Gillam - Scientists, consumer groups, beekeepers and others blame the devastating rate of bee deaths on the growing use of pesticides sold by agrichemical companies to boost yields of staple crops such as corn. Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and other agrichemical companies say other factors such as mites are killing the bees…

| Modern Farmer

Can a Lawsuit Save America's Bees?

By Victoria Schlesinger - Beekeepers are battling the EPA over pesticides they say are killing their hivesâ€” and they're taking the fight to the courts.

| The Sacramento Bee

Editorial: Demise of pollinators demands urgent action

By the Editorial Board - Whatever the reason, the impact of bee die-offs is potentially disastrous. Very few animals are as vital to human existence as bees â€“ and none is more important to California's agriculture. Their demise demands an urgent response by government and industries that have a stake in a healthy farm economy, ranging from growers to the pesticide industry.

| The Sacramento Bee

Dying bees raise alarm for humans

By Susan Sward - To say the honeybee is under attack worldwide is not an alarmist pronouncement. It is the terrible truth, and as far as I can tell, few people outside our nation's multibillion-dollar agricultural realm have a really good understanding of the staggering importance of that pronouncement and what it could portend for our food supply and the environment.

Pesticides aren't the biggest factor in honeybee die-off, EPA and USDA say

By Alan Boyle - Last month, beekeepers and environmentalists filed a federal lawsuit calling for an immediate ban on two kinds of neonicotinoids â€” clothianidin and thiamethoxam…

April 30th, 2013

| Oregon Public Broadcasting

Washington State Pressed To Save Honey Bees By Restricting Pesticides

Northwest News Network - National environmental groups and foreign governments have the same products in their sights. On Monday, the European Commission decided to ban uses of three popular insecticides judged to pose high risk to bees. But in Washington, beekeepers propose to leave big agriculture alone…

April 17th, 2013

Bayer, Syngenta Feel Heat as U.K. Grocers Review Insecticides

By Patrick Winters - Bayer AG (BAYN) and Syngenta AG (SYNN) face more pressure over crop chemicals suspected in bee-deaths as retailers including J Sainsbury Plc (SBRY), the U.K.â€™s third largest supermarket chain, said theyâ€™re looking into the matter…

April 9th, 2013

| CBS Evening News

Pesticide blamed for declining bee population

By Bill Whitaker - For the food we eat, we depend on something else most of us don't think about -- bees. Without them, the agriculture industry estimates that one-third of the food we eat would disappear. But right now, it's the bees that are disappearing. Overall this winter time we lost close to 3,000 beehives," said commercial beekeeper Larry Pender…

April 7th, 2013

| The New York Times

Calamity for Our Most Beneficent Insect

Editorial Board - Every beekeeper, small or large, hobbyist or commercial, knows that honeybees are in trouble. Over the past decade, bee colonies have been dying in increasing numbers. Last year was especially bad. Perhaps as many as half the hives kept by commercial beekeepers died in 2012…

April 4th, 2013

Bee-harming pesticides should be banned, MPs urge

By Damian Carrington - The UK environment secretary, Owen Paterson, must end his department's "extraordinary complacency" and suspend the use of pesticides linked to serious harm in bees, according to a damning report from an influential cross-party committee of MPs.

April 3rd, 2013

| Minnesota Post

Honeybee collapse worsens; one Minnesotan's losses run to 65%

By Ron Meador - Ellis has been active in the beekeepers' campaign to ban neonics. Last year they petitioned EPA for an emergency ban, but were turned down. Two weeks ago Ellis added his name to a lawsuit asking that the courts order EPA to move more swiftly…

April 3rd, 2013

| CBS Morning News

VIDEO: Deepening honey bee crisis creates worry over food supply

Honey bees have been dying in large numbers in recent years, and there's new evidence of a drastic increase in the death rate. Some experts say the latest population drop poses a threat to our nation's food supply. According to commercial beekeeper James Doan, "A third of all our food is pollinated by honey bees."

April 2nd, 2013

| Dan Rather Reports, AXS TV

VIDEO: Dan Rather Reports "Buzzkill"

Dan Rather Reports episode on pesticides and bees, "Buzzkill." Rather takes an in-depth look at bee colony losses, the impact on beekeepers and almond growers, and the connections to pesticide use. The full episode is available on AXS TV and iTunes.

March 29th, 2013

| Huffington Post

Pesticide Lobby Spends Millions To Defend Chemicals Tied To Bee Deaths

By Christina Wilkie - WASHINGTON -- The chemical pesticide lobby is waging a multi-million dollar battle to prevent regulation of chemicals linked to the dramatic escalation in the deaths of pollinating bees over the past year…

March 28th, 2013

| The New York Times

Mystery Malady Kills More Bees, Heightening Worry on Farms

By Michael Wines - A mysterious malady that has been killing honeybees en masse for several years appears to have expanded drastically in the last year, commercial beekeepers say, wiping out 40 percent or even 50 percent of the hives needed to pollinate many of the nationâ€™s fruits and vegetables…

March 28th, 2013

| Agence France-Presse (AFP)

US regulators under fire over bee-toxic pesticides

By Kerry Sheridan - US environmental regulators are under fire from beekeepers and conservationists who say they are failing to vet risky pesticides that put people and valuable crop pollinators like bees in peril.

March 27th, 2013

Pesticide makes bees lose the scent for food, new study finds

By Damian Carrington - Widely used pesticides have been found in new research to block a part of the brain that bees use for learning, rendering some of them unable to perform the essential task of associating scents with food. Bees exposed to two kinds of pesticide were slower to learn or completely forgot links between floral scents and nectar.

March 27th, 2013

Not Just the Bees: Bayer's Pesticide May Harm Birds, Too

By Tom Philpott - Once again this spring, farmers will begin planting at least 140 million acresâ€”a land mass roughly equal to the combined footprints of California and Washington stateâ€”with seeds (mainly corn and soy) treated with a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids.

March 25th, 2013

Are Agriculture's Most Popular Insecticides Killing Our Bees?

By Dan Charles - Environmentalists and beekeepers are calling on the government to ban some of the country's most widely used insect-killing chemicals. The pesticides, called neonicotinoids, became popular among farmers during the 1990s. They're used to coat the seeds of many agricultural crops, including the biggest crop of all: corn…

March 21st, 2013

Groups sue EPA over honey bee deaths, blame some insecticides

By Carey Gillam (Reuters) - U.S. environmental regulators are failing to protect honey bees and their role in pollinating important food crops, and should immediately suspend use of some toxic insecticides tied to the widespread deaths of the bees, a lawsuit filed on Thursday charges.

March 18th, 2013

Bird group calls for halt to widely applied insecticide

By Chuck Raasch. The American Bird Conservancy is calling for a ban on using one of the globe's most widely used classes of insecticides in seed treatments and for a suspension of all other uses, pending an independent review of its impact on birds and other wildlife.

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