The disappearance of honeybees is getting the exposure it needs. The bloggers are becoming aware of this unfolding disaster. This post offers some more anecdotal evidence. None of the evidence so far presented needs to be somehow verified. The paucity of bee research in America is quite appalling. Anyone with even a passing interest in how food gets into our stomachs knows how important bees are to that process.
“We have suspicions about pesticides,” he said. “We noticed most of the dead hives are close to cornfields. … And when we asked other beekeepers what was the principle crop near their hives, they said corn, corn, corn.”
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Many farmers in the United States and around the world rely on genetically engineered corn to survive the assault of crop-killing insects. The seeds are coated with a systemic pesticide that is essentially built into the corn as it grows.
One of the chief chemicals used is a neurotoxin called imidacloprid, which is manufactured by the German company Bayer CropScience. Imidacloprid works by blocking a pathway in insect brains that results in an accumulation of a neurotransmitter which, in insects, leads to paralysis and death.
At sublethal doses, however, imidacloprid is toxic to honeybees.
My emphasis.
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