http://beesmatter.ca/open-letter/
Read the above "open letter to Ontarians" published a couple of times over the last few weeks as a full-page ad in all the major newspapers.
Now read the following two opinion pieces.
http://goo.gl/z0Itd7
http://goo.gl/6Xso7r
What is your opinion? Post your response and make sure you site examples from the text.
Afterwards - Have fun learning more about bees!
Virtual Museum
Bees - A Honey of an Idea
http://www.bees.techno-science.ca/english/bees/default.php
36 comments:
Is this due by the end of Wednesday or the beginning of it
I think that neonicotinoids are harming bees, rather than helping them.
The first link (the open letter to ontarians) only states how many new colonies are formed and how much honey is produced, but doesn’t include how many bees actually die, which is a dangerous amount. It also states that NNIs are used safely around the world, including in Canada, even though Europe has a ban on neonicotinoids. If the letter fails to include that, what else might it fail to mention? Thankfully, the second and third links explain some of the facts they neglected.
“The fact is most bee experts agree that the top health issues for honey bees are parasites, diseases, inadequate nutrition, adverse weather and hive management practices.” (from the first letter)
“[The scientists’] conclusion, released last summer: the chemicals are causing “significant damage” to not just pollinators like honeybees but also a wide range of species, including worms, snails and possibly birds.” (from the second article)
“...Beekeepers have been able to manage mites, disease and pests for decades. Unfortunately, however, we are unable to avoid pesticide exposure.” (from the third link)
Those health issues are bad, too, but it doesn’t make using pesticides suspected to kill pollinators any less dangerous.
“The fact is, these regulations will not benefit honey bees, but they will strip farmers of a vital pest management tool.” (first letter again)
“The truth is bees are dying at an alarming rate in Ontario. Last winter, commercial beekeepers lost 58 per cent of their hives… Apiarists consider a 15-per-cent loss over winter the norm.” (second article)
“Ontario has taken a bold step to protect honey bees by setting targets to reduce the use of neonicotinoid pesticides by 80% by 2017. This step, alone, will help honey bees.” (third link)
Sounds like limiting NNIs will benefit the honey bees.
“...In 2014, the number of honey bee incidents reported during planting was down 70 percent from 2013.”
“It is true, as the letter claims, that reported deaths were down during last year’s spring planting. What it failed to mention: by the end of the year, reports of bee deaths were high again.”
“...OMAFRA reported...that pesticide poisoning incidents were actually higher in 2014 (345) compared to 2013 (320) and 2012 (240). It’s also important to note that with 58% of colonies dying over the winter there were fewer colonies exposed to pesticides..”
Still another vague ‘fact’... this letter sounds like it’s trying to avoid mentioning something.
Even if you don’t agree with the second and third articles, if you read them carefully, they do make good points. The open letter seems to mostly state facts that are either not able to be proved yet or facts that dodge anything that might oppose their opinion. I still think NNIs are dangerous.
Oops, that Anonymous was me.
My opinion to this bee craze is that neonicotinoids are killing the bees, and many facts in the letter from the bee farmers are misleading or false.
The letter from the bee farmers and Catherine Porter's opinion sound the opposite. The bee farmers state the the neonicotiniod have no effect on the bees, while Catherine Porter says the opposite. "They appear to kill pollinators, namely honeybees."
I reseached a bit, and found out that pesticides, including neonicotiniods are what cause the most deaths of honeybees.
Like Catherine said, "Most are so delicately cherry-picked they seem purposefully misleading." The writer of this letter seemed to pick out only the facts that were positive about neonicotinoids. Other facts, were "flat-out wrong."
Things Wrong Or Misleading about the Letter
Honey bee colonies and honey production have increased, not decreased in Ontario
Really? "The truth is bees are dying at an alarming rate in Ontario." Stated in the note from the Ontario Beekeepers Association, "last winter, Ontario beekeepers lost 58% of their hives." That would certainly mean that the bee colonies would've decreased, like the honey production!
Health Canada recently released a report that the number of honey bee incidents reported during planting was down 70 per cent.
Wrong! OMAFRA reported that " pesticide poisoning incidents were actually higher in 2014 (345) compared to 2013 (320) and 2012 (240)."
Last one:
Bee experts agree that the top health issues for honey bees are parasites, diseases, inadequate nutrition, adverse weather and hive management practices.
This is misleading. "Beekeepers have been able to manage mites, disease and pests for decades." The beekeepers can handle the problems just fine! Except pesticide problems. Neonicotinoids are planted over 5 million acres of soy and corn. The provincial states that NNIs were only to be used on 10%-20% of the land.
Overall, this letter is just wrong and misleading. Their interpretation is to make you change your minds about the health of the honey bees and insecticides. And I hope by 2017, we do get rid of 80% of NNIs.
~Arabella. (≧◡≦) (✿◠‿◠)
A bit of research I did:
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/pollinators/chemicals.php
I think neonicotinoids are bad for the bees.
I agree with the farmers on the letter, because farmers are the ones that grow our fruits and vegetables, but without the bees, the farmers won’t get anything out of them, so if we want our fruits and vegetables, we’d have to protect our bees. I also agree with Catherine Porter that the letter I also thought about einstein's quote that said “If the Bee Disappeared Off the Face of the Earth, Man Would Only Have Four Years Left To Live,” but there are some other pollinators too, so maybe einstein was wrong!
Neonicotinoids can last for weeks protecting the type of plant for a long time and also killing the bees for a long time. They are also toxic to other pollinators like butterflies and we have a lot of foods that need to be pollinated, like kiwis, peaches, apples, pears, bananas, strawberries and more, so basically all of our fruits and vegetables.
Since the neonicotinoids can stay on the plant for a long time, people think it is a really amazing pesticide, but when it stays too long, it can get into the soil to harm the insects or the plants around it and they probably don’t even care, because they don’t know that we could lose all of our fruits and vegetables and only care that it keeps the eating animals from touching it.
Also another reason that neonicotinoids are bad, is because 29 scientists looked at 800 papers on the neonicotinoids and their conclusion was that neonicotinoids were bad and killed more than bees, so basically more than 400 papers they read said neonicotinoids were bad for the pollinators.
So overall, I think we should do something to support the pollinators.
-Kiwi (Kieran)
And Bob too!
My Opinion on the Ad.
“If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.”
~ Albert Einstein
After reading the “Getting the facts straight on Honey Bees” ad and talking about it, I was really confused because I’ve always heard the opposite: that seed treatments and neonicotinoids kill bees. So I thought that maybe that was a myth or as the bee ad said “Changes to government reporting are misleading the public.” But after reading what Catherine Porter and the Ontario Beekeepers Association had to say, my opinion changed dramatically. I think that the neonicotinoids are harming the bees rather than helping.
“I spent a couple days digging into the letter’s ‘facts.’ Most are so delicately cherry-picked they seem purposefully misleading. Others, I’d say, are flat-out wrong.” stated Catherine Porter in her recent Toronto Star newspaper editorial.
I agree with Catherine Porter. I came to the conclusion that most of this ad is almost entirely false and saying the opposite of what is actually happening to the bees.
For example one of the things that the Milton beekeepers point out is “The ad claims: ‘Honey bee colonies are up almost 60% since 2003, when the use of neonicotinoid seed treatments were introduced.’ Last winter Ontario beekeepers lost 58% of their hives. The number of honey bee colonies (measured in mid summer) does not reflect the large number of colonies lost each winter, nor does it reflect the 30,000 queens or nearly 20,000 bee packages that beekeepers had to purchase to replace the unusually high number of colonies that failed in the winter and spring. We also want to stress that although honey bee colonies can be managed by beekeepers to sustain their numbers, reports indicate serious declines among wild bees and other pollinators.” That is just one of the things they point out.
Why are they lying? Well Ontario wants to cut the use of pesticides and neonicotinoid because scientists see that they are killing bees and many other creatures. And the pesticide companies made this ad full of lies to convince people that the government is wrong when it isn’t; because the pesticide companies think that they are going to lose profits. So they are killing bees, and eventually humans, for money. That is just wrong.
One bee dies, one step closer to the finish line of the human race. We need bees. As Albert Einstein once said “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.” I’m glad that these scientists are researching more about neonicotinoid to see why they affect soybeans and corn and don’t affect canola. I am also glad that the Ontario government decided to do something about it. And I hope that no pesticide marketer stands in the way of saving bees and humankind.
My opinion on the ad is that it’s misleading and dishonest and that neonicotinoids are harming the bees rather than helping.
The End
I think that NNIs (neonicotinoids) are harmful to bees, and are not helping them. In the open letter to Ontarians, (Link #1) it does tell how the number of colonies are increasing, which we don’t need to know, and how much honey is made, which we don’t need to know as well.
What we do need to know, is how many bees are dying, and at this rate, when will they be extinct. The letter says that NNIs are used safely around the world, but in Europe, NNIs are banned. The OBA (Ontario Beekeepers’ Association) and the other link show facts that the letter doesn’t.
“A group of 29 scientists reviewed 800 scientific papers on the pervasive insecticide. Their conclusion, released last summer: the chemicals are causing “significant damage” to not just pollinators like honeybees but also a wide range of species, including worms, snails and possibly birds.” (From the third article) The third article compares the NNIs to DDT which means this pesticide must be very dangerous. The chemicals are going into the streams that flow into the sea.
“The threat, they said, was akin to that of DDT, the cancer-causing insecticide that was finally phased out in Canada during the 1970s, after a decade of scientific alarms.” Catherine Porter was the writer of this article and took her facts from 800 scientific papers, not chemical salespeople.
“There are lots of outstanding questions, such as why treated corn and soybean seeds seem to be toxic to bees, while NNI-coated canola seeds are not. (This is why there are few reports of honeybee deaths in Western Canada, the land of canola but little corn or soybeans.)” This is another fact not put into the letter to Ontarians.
The OBA document says,“Last winter Ontario beekeepers lost 58% of their hives.” This is Over half of the hives they previously had. I think the open letter to Ontarians is wrong and that
Without bees, “man would have no more than four years to live.” as Albert Einstein said. That is the main reason bees need to stay with us.
~Noah
I Believe that the Bees matter Advertisement was false.
I think that these companies only care about the money and do not really care about the bees. All the facts included in the Letter seem very deceiving. or said to make you BElieve that Neonicotinoids are good for bees. Lets look at some facts and Quotes. Albert Einstein claimed that “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no longer than 4 years to live” (Albert Einstein). One of the many companies that support the open letter (CropLife) is representing some farmers that use these pesticides.
Many of the “facts” from the Open letters are fake, misleading, and they are denying any facts to go against them. As Catherine Porter said “most are so delicately cherry-picked they seem purposefully misleading. Others, I’d say, are flat-out wrong” (Toronto Star). Here are some of the facts. They said that 85% of honey is made in Western Canada. They also said that death rates are down there. Here is one of the many facts that are misleading if you didn’t read the article and the editorial.
Scientists proved that the Canola plant is not killing bees when they pollinate it. It just so happens that the Canola plant is mainly grown in Western Canada, and there aren’t much Corn and soybeans which are the main plants the Government wants the NNI’s to get off of. Another reason why the Advertisement is lying is because when Catherine Porter contacted CropLife and Grain Farmers they didn’t respond. This could mean they are busy, but the are likely neglecting any people going against them, as seen with their facts.
The Advertisement failed to deliver some important information that goes against their beliefs. The didn’t say that NNI’s are banned in Europe which is a big point. They also didn’t mention that scientists relate this to a very harmful substance called DDT. It is the main cause of the perlen Falcon’s cause of being Endangered. It also can cause cancer to the people that around it and use. Lastly it said that bee deaths were low at spring planting. What the advertisement failed to say was they were high death rates at the end of the year.
For people that believe in the advertisement I say you do some research about these Neonicotinoids . I think they are harming the bees, and of course they pesticide lobby is worried. They will lose Profits and, “They sense winds of change that will blow away a lot of their profits.” (Toronto Star). In my opinion the Neonicotinoids are harming bees and killing bee colonies at an alarming rate. The government Should cut Neonicotinoid use by 80% by 2017.
~Ronan
♩Its been so long since I've last done a blog response!♩
When I first read the Open Letter to Ontarians ad, I thought, “This is a big problem!” I thought that we were banning a product that helps farmers grow crops and does no harm to bees. In fact, according to the ad, “honey bee colony numbers are up almost 60 per cent since 2003, when the use of neonicotinoids seed treatments were introduced.” (So basically, they’re saying that neonicotinoid seed treatments are helping the bees). But then we looked at the other links, that said things like, “their presentation of isolated ‘facts’ are designed to mislead the public into false conclusions about pesticides and honey bee health.” (Ontario Beekeepers’ Association (OBA) media release), and, “The truth is bees are dying at an alarming rate in Ontario.” (Catherine Porter’s article).
In Catherine Porter’s article, she says, “I spent a couple days digging into the letter’s “facts.” Most are so delicately cherry-picked they seem purposefully misleading. Others, I’d say, are flat-out wrong.” Basically, that means that some of the facts in that letter are chosen specifically because they are misleading, such as, “Health Canada recently released a report indicating that, in 2014, the number of honey bee incidents reported during planting was down 70 per cent from 2013.” (although that was during planting), and some of them are just lies, such as, “these regulations will not benefit honey bees...”
Also, in the ad, they said, “Changes to government reporting are misleading the public.” I thought that if they were bold enough to make that statement, then they were probably right, because I would never put that in a letter if it was wrong. But, Catherine’s letter had proof that neonicotinoids were bad. She said, “A group of 29 scientists formed the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides to examine neonicotinoids. They reviewed 800 scientific papers on the pervasive insecticide. Their conclusion, released last summer: the chemicals are causing “significant damage” to not just pollinators like honeybees but also a wide range of species, including worms, snails and possibly birds.”
Also, her article said, “The federal government’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency, which registers commercial pesticides, was worried enough about the bee deaths to conduct some field studies in 2012 and 2013. It discovered neonicotinoid residue on 70 to 75 per cent of dead bees.” If that isn't proof that neonicotinoids are bad, then I don’t know what is. So, with that proof, then how much trouble will the people who wrote the ad be in? Probably A LOT!
So, my opinion is that neonicotinoids are harming bees, and that they need to be banned as soon as possible, because if bees no longer can pollinate flowers, then, “man would have no more than four years live.”
Bees do Matter
I almost entirely disagree with the ad that was in most of the major newspapers. Here are some of the reasons I disagree:
1.It failed to include that in late 2014 honey bee deaths were high again.
2.Honey bee colonies are rapidly decreasing, although the letter said that they were growing.
3.The letter told us that neonicotinoids (NNIs) are used safely around the world. The truth is, they aren’t used to safe. NNIs are actually the most widely used pesticide in the world.
Those are just some of the reasons I disagree with the advertisement.
The opinion piece written by the Ontario Beekeepers Association (OBA) practically disagreed with everything the ad had to say. They told us that last winter Ontario beekeepers lost about 58% of their hives. Also they told us that in 2014 345 bees died from pesticide poisoning, compared to 2013 (320) and 2012 (240). The OBA disagreed with about 5-6 other things in the ad. But they did agree with one thing: “Bees matter to agriculture. Bees matter to us all.”
The opinion piece written by Catherine Porter also disagrees with the advertisement. She says NNIs are killing honey bees at an alarming rate. She also said that soybeans and corn are coated in 60% NNIs. The Ontario government wants to cut this by 80% in the next 2-3 years. Catherine Porter included that Europe is in the middle of a two-year NNI ban.
I agree with the OBA and Catherine Porter’s opinions, not the ad. Because we need to remember, if all the bees in the world die, we will have 4 years to live, as Albert Einstein once said. ”If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.”
Catherine Porter included how 29 scientists formed the Task Force on Systemic Pesticides to investigate NNIs. They read 800 scientific papers on the persuasive insecticide. Their conclusion, released in the summer of 2014, concluded that the chemicals are causing “significant damage” to not just honey bees, but worms, snails, and possibly birds. The threat was alike to that of DDT, a cancer-causing insecticide that was finally phased out of Canada in the 70s.
The conclusion of all of these three opinion pieces / advertisements, is that honey bees are dying at an alarming rate in Ontario and how we should try to ban NNIs, so honey bees can live peacefully. -Lucas
Bees do matter.
In my opinion Bees do matter and that the government should put the ban on neonicotinoids. These pesticides are “not harming the bees” so the open letter to Ontarians says, but whats really happening is that the neonicotinoids are harming the bees, how, well the neonicotinoid treated seeds are said to not wash into streams, but they actually do wash into streams and they do harm the bees. The federal government’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency, which registers commercial pesticides was worried about the bee deaths, enough that they conducted some field studies in 2012 and 2013, said in Catherine Porters editorial “It discovered neonicotinoid residue on 70 to 75 per cent of dead bees.
The reason the pesticide lobby posted this campaign is because they are worried that they will lose this money making pesticide. Catherine Porters editorial explains that “The global industry made $2.6 billion U.S in neonicotinoids sales in 2011.”
“The open letter to Ontarians” states that the number of bee deaths were down during spring planting, but what it didn’t mention was that by the end of the year the bee deaths were high again.
“Today, virtually all corn grown in Ontario and 60 per cent of soybeans sprout from NNI-treated seeds. By 2017, the Ontario government wants that to be cut by 80 per cent.”
Europe is in the middle of a 2 year ban on this pesticide and if Canada put this ban on neonicotinoids it would be the first of its kind in north America. This I think will benefit the bees. As stated in the editorial “bees are dying at an alarming rate in Ontario. Last winter,commercial beekeepers lost 58% of their hives.”
Lot’s of these facts are missing the other part of the story and like Catherine Porter said “Most are so delicately cherry-picked they seem purposefully misleading. Others, I’d say, are flat-out wrong.”
Another misleading statement from “The open letter to Ontarians” is “Health Canada recently released a report that the number of honey bee incidents reported during planting was down 70 per cent.” As stated in the Media release from The OBA (Ontario Beekeepers Association), “Ontario’s Ministry of Agriculture, Farming and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) reported (see link to PA report below) that pesticide poisoning incidents were actually higher in 2014 (345) compared to 2013 (320) and 2012 (240).”
Another misleading statement. “Beekeepers have been able to manage mites, disease and pests for decades.” This statement from the OBA is very interesting, “Unfortunately, however, we are unable to avoid pesticide exposure. In Ontario, neonics are used to treat over 5 million acres of soy and corn, when even our own provincial crop specialists say that they are only needed on 10% – 20% of these acres.”
As albert einstein stated “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live” I agree with this quote If there are no more bees there is no pollination. no pollination no more plants, no more plants no more animals, no more animals no more humans! We should keep a close eye on this situation and make sure that we don’t lose the bees because they are crucial to our survival
Save The Bees!
~~ Daniel Poradzisz
My opinion is that neonicotinoids may be killing bees, not helping them. I also think that many of the Open Letter to Ontarians’ facts are probably, as Catherine Porter wrote in her recent editorial for the Toronto Star, "so delicately cherry-picked that they seem purposefully misleading. Others, I'd say, are flat-out wrong."
For one thing, the Open Letter to Ontarians states that the bees population has been growing since 2003, while the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association (OBA) claims that, in reality, the population has been decreasing a lot. They claim that "Last winter, Ontario beekeepers lost 58% of their hives." In fact, the OBA contradicts every claim in the Open Letter, except for the claim that “Bees Matter.”
The Open Letter claims that “Other countries, including England and Australia, that rely on science-based regulatory systems have concluded that any risk to honey bee populations from neonicotinoids is low and manageable.” Their claim makes it sound like those countries are actually using neonicotinoids. That seems very misleading. According to Catherine Porter’s editorial, “Europe is in the middle of a two-year ban on neonicotinoids.” If that is correct, England can’t possibly be using neonicotinoids.
“The Task Force on Systemic Pesticides,” which is a reference cited by Catherine Porter, seems to have a very reliable website. Most importantly, it is not sponsored by any seed or crop growing companies.
The most critical thing in the Open Letter is at the bottom of the page. The Open Letter is sponsored by Ontario farmers, companies that sell farming equipment and other supplies to farmers, and, most importantly, companies that manufacture and sell the neonicotinoid-containing seeds. Why is this bad? The companies that paid for the ad are obviously biased in favor of the continued use of these seeds.
"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left." -Albert Einstein
I think that the neonicotinoids are harmful to the bees. I think that the people who are making the neonicotinoids just want their industry to thrive, but aren't thinking about what harm they can do to the bees. I agree with the editorials. It just doesn’t seem natural that pesticides would help the population of bees.
The ad states that, "Honey bee colonies are up almost 60% since 2003, when the use of neonicotinoid seed treatments were introduced.”
According to the Ontario Beekeepers, this is not true. They said,
“Last winter Ontario beekeepers lost 58% of their hives. The number of honeybee colonies (measured in mid summer) does not reflect the large number of colonies lost each winter, nor does it reflect the 30,000 queens or nearly 20,000 bee packages that beekeepers had to purchase to replace the unusually high number of colonies that failed in the winter and spring. We also want to stress that although honey bee colonies can be managed by beekeepers to sustain their numbers, reports indicate serious declines among wild bees and other pollinators.” (Ontario Bee Keepers Association)
The ad also claims that, “Honey production has increased by 29% in the past year and Ontario has a successful honey beekeeping industry which earned $30 million in 2014.”
This is also not true, honey production is down 40% since the introduction of the neonicotinoids in 2003. Ontario has lost a lot of money due to a lack of honey produced from the bees.
A group of 29 scientists that researched 800 scientific papers, show that neonicotinoids are similar to DDT, a banned pesticide. In her editorial, Catherine Porter says that, “Neonicotinoids (NNIs) are the most widely used insecticides in the world. In theory, they are the perfect pesticide, coating the seeds of a crop so the growing plant is seeped in their poison, killing any nibbling critter. This means no sloppy spraying, no residue, no toxic runoff into nearby streams.
In practice, scientists warn NNIs are much less precise than advertised. They are persistent and water-soluble, so they do wash into streams. And they appear to kill more than nibbling pests. They appear to kill pollinators, namely honeybees.” (Catherine Porter’s editorial)1
The ad claims “Neonicotinoids are used safely in Canada and around the world,”. This is not true. Europe is currently having a 2-year ban on neonicotinoids. According to Catherine Porter, the neonicotinoid creators are afraid they will not make profit from it anymore. The global industry made over $2 billion USD on neonicotinoids sales in 2011. Ontario will be the first to enforce neonicotinoid safety in North America.
The ad claims, “Bee experts agree that the top health issues for honey bees are parasites, diseases, inadequate nutrition, adverse weather and hive management practices”.
This is also wrong, according to the Ontario Beekeepers Association, parasites and diseases are manageable, but pesticides are not. Pesticides kill the bees, and a lot of Ontario’s land is covered in these pesticides..
The ad claims, “The fact is these regulations will not benefit honey bees”.
This is not true, research shows that on corn and soy seeds, neonicotinoids do cause bees to die. However, on canola seeds, there seem to be less cases of bees dying.
Note: Reason why I was resposting was:
I was just fixing some quote dumps.
My opinion is that the Open letter to Ontarians is false.
If you only read the Open letter to Ontarians, you will likely think that it is correct, but if you read the other two, you will likely think that it is wrong/misleading and that the other two are correct.
The Open letter to Ontarians says that NNI’s (Neonicotinoids) are safe to use, while the Ontario Beekeepers Association (OBA) letter and the Editorial by Catherine Porter say that NNI’s are not safe and are killing the bees
The Open Letter to Ontarians says that “honey bee colony numbers are up almost 60 per cent since 2003, when the use NNI’s seed treatments were first introduced.” What it did not mention (from the Catherine Porter editorial) is that “Bees are dying at an alarming rate. Last winter, Ontario beekeepers lost 58% of their hives.” 58 PER CENT! That is more than half! That is scary, and it means that the Open letter was wrong, because if the bees are “dying at an alarming rate”, that means that bee colonies cannot be increasing.
The Open Letter to Ontarians says that “The number of honey bee incidents reported during planting was down 70 per cent from 2013.” That is true, but mainly, as the OBA letter says that “with 58% of colonies dying over the winter there were fewer colonies exposed to pesticides and, as well, due to the late planting season, many colonies had already left the province for pollination services when neonic treated corn and soy were being planted.” So no wonder the number of honey bee incidents were down! Since a lot died, a lot were out pollinating and the planting season was late, then few died because there were few remaining! And another thing, in Catherine Porters editorial, she said that “by the end of the year, reports of bee deaths were high again.” another reason that the Open Letter is false.
As a great man (Albert Einstein) once said, “If the Bee Disappeared Off the Face of the Earth, Man Would Only Have Four Years Left To Live”.
My conclusion is that the Neonicotinoids are harming the bees.
Bees matter.
2015.02.18.
Bees Do Matter
By: Natalie Nusca
Hello everyone! As we know it, the population of honeybees in Ontario is decreasing. That is not a good thing. Without bees, well, we wouldn’t have much more time to live - approximately four years. Some think that the reason for the decrease of bees is because of neonicotinoids (NNI’s): They are not only affecting honeybees but worms, snails and maybe even birds.
In my opinion, NNI’s are what is killing bees. I feel that NNI’s are really harmful.
In “An Open Letter to Ontarians,” it states that NNI’s are not affecting bees. It actually has a graph showing the population of bees in Ontario since 2003. The graph clearly shows an upward trend, which is suggesting to most people that the population of honey bees in Ontario is increasing. Now, go look at Catherine Porter’s editorial in The Toronto Star - she is suggesting the complete opposite. She says the honeybee population is decreasing. Here is something Catherine Porter said in her editorial that really caught my attention: “The truth is bees are dying at an alarming rate in Ontario. Last winter, commercial beekeepers lost 58 per cent of their hives. That was the apex of a worrying 12-year trend, during which a third of hives died off on average. Apiarists consider a 15-per-cent loss over winter the norm. (It is true, as the letter claims, that reported deaths were down during last year’s spring planting. What it failed to mention: by the end of the year, reports of bee deaths were high again.)”
The ad about honey bees is misleading the public. Like Catherine Porter said, lots of the facts seem to be just “ carefully cherry picked,” and some “just flat out wrong.” In my opinion, I think this is because they pesticide company wants farmers to think that NNI’s are safe and don’t harm pollinator’s like honeybees.
To use NNI’s the farmer has to spray the crop or plant he’s growing and it basically coats the seed, keeping bugs and pests away from the plant. But that’s not all it’s doing.
The OBA (Ontario Beekeepers Association) media release says, “ Ontario has taken a bold step to protect honey bees by setting targets to reduce the use of neonicotinoid pesticides by 80% by 2017. This step, alone, will help honeybees.” I am very happy to hear that. I am sure everyone is happy to hear that.
I looked at all three pieces of information: The ad or “An Open Letter to Ontarians,” Catherine Porters’ editorial, and the OBA media release. Out of those three I disagree with one: “An Open Letter to Ontarians.”
No one is completely 100% sure what the true story behind the neonicotinoids and honeybees is, but as the OBA states, “One thing we can all agree with, though, ‘Bees matter to agriculture. Bees matter to us all.’ ”
This is my good copy:
My opinion is that neonicotinoids may be killing bees, not helping them. I also think that many of “An Open Letter to Ontarians”’ facts are probably, as Catherine Porter wrote in her recent editorial for the Toronto Star, "so delicately cherry-picked that they seem purposefully misleading. Others, I'd say, are flat-out wrong."
For one thing, “An Open Letter to Ontarians” states that the bee population has been growing since 2003, while the Ontario Beekeepers Association (OBA) claims that, in reality, the population has been decreasing a lot. The OBA claims that "Last winter, Ontario beekeepers lost 58% of their hives." In fact, the OBA contradicts every claim in the “Open Letter”, except for the claim that “Bees Matter.”
The “Open Letter” claims that “Other countries, including England and Australia, that rely on science-based regulatory systems have concluded that any risk to honey bee populations from neonicotinoids is low and manageable.” Their claim makes it sound like those countries are actually using neonicotinoids. That seems very misleading. According to Catherine Porter’s editorial, “Europe is in the middle of a two-year ban on neonicotinoids.” If that is correct, England can’t possibly be using neonicotinoids. I did some research, and I found an article from 2014 that said that, in the UK, at least three types of neonicotinoids were, and possibly still are, banned.
The Task Force on Systemic Pesticides, which is a reference cited by Catherine Porter, seems to have a very reliable website. Most importantly, it is not sponsored by any seed or crop growing companies.
The most critical thing in the “Open Letter” is at the bottom of the page. “The Open Letter” is sponsored by Ontario farmers, companies that sell farming equipment and other supplies to farmers, and, most importantly, companies that manufacture and sell the neonicotinoid-containing seeds. Why is this bad? The companies that paid for the ad are obviously biased in favor of the continued use of these seeds.
"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left." -Albert Einstein
My final copy:
I believe that the ad “An Open letter to Ontarians” was false.
I think that Croplife,OBG, Ontario vegetable and fruit farmers, etc. only care about the money and do not really care about the bees. All the facts included in the ad seem very deceiving. or are said to make you believe that neonicotinoids are good for bees. Lets look at some facts and quotes. Albert Einstein claimed that “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no longer than 4 years to live” .One of the many companies that support the open letter (CropLife) is representing some farmers that use these pesticides.
Many of the “facts” from the “Open letter to Ontarians” are fake, misleading, and they are denying any facts which go against them. As Catherine Porter in the Toronto Star Editorial “most are so delicately cherry-picked they seem purposefully misleading. Others, I’d say, are flat-out wrong” -Catherine Porter . Here are some of the incorrect facts from the ad. They said that 85% of honey is made in Western Canada. They also said that bee death rates are down right now.
Scientists proved that canola is not killing bees when they pollinate it. It just so happens that the canola plant is mainly grown in Western Canada, and there aren’t many corn and soybeans which are the main plants the government wants the NNI’s to stop . Another reason why I think the advertisement is lying is because when Catherine Porter contacted CropLife and Grain Farmers they didn’t respond. This could mean they are busy, but they are likely avoiding any people going against them.
The advertisement failed to deliver some important information that goes against their beliefs. The didn’t say that NNIs are banned in Europe which is a big point. They also didn’t mention that scientists relate this to a very harmful substance called DDT. It is the main cause of the perlen falcon’s cause of being endangered. DDT can cause cancer to the people that are around it and use it. Lastly the letter (ad) said that bee deaths were low at spring planting. What the advertisement failed to say was there were high death rates at the end of the year.
For people that believe in the advertisement I say you should do some research about these Neonicotinoids .I think they are harming the bees, and of course the pesticide lobby is worried that they will lose profits , “They sense winds of change that will blow away a lot of their profits,” states Porter. In my opinion the neonicotinoids are harming bees and killing bee colonies at an alarming rate. The government should cut neonicotinoid use by 80% by 2017, as they planned.
~Ronan
This is my 3rd and final draft.
Lucas 2015.05.01
Bees do Matter
I almost entirely disagree with the "An Open Letter to Ontarians" that was in most of the major newspapers. Here are some of the reasons I disagree: It failed to include that in late 2014 honey bee deaths were high again. Honey bee colonies are rapidly decreasing, although the letter said that they were growing. The letter told us that neonicotinoids (NNIs) are used safely around the world. The truth is, they aren’t used safely. NNIs are actually the most widely used pesticide in the world. Those are just some of the reasons I disagree with the advertisement.
The opinion piece written by the Ontario Beekeepers Association (OBA) practically disagreed with everything the letter had to say. They told us that last winter Ontario beekeepers lost about 58% of their hives. Also they told us that in 2014, 345 bees died from pesticide poisoning, compared to 2013 (320) and 2012 (240). The OBA disagreed with about 5-6 other things in the ad. But they did agree with one thing: “Bees matter to agriculture. Bees matter to us all.”
The editorial written by newspaper journalist Catherine Porter also disagrees with the letter. She says NNIs are killing honey bees at an alarming rate. She also said that soybeans and corn are coated in 60% NNIs. The Ontario government wants to cut this by 80% in the next 2-3 years. Catherine Porter included that Europe is in the middle of a two-year NNI ban.
I agree with the OBA and Catherine Porter’s opinions, not the letter. Because we need to remember, if all the bees in the world die, we will have 4 years to live, as Albert Einstein once said. ”If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.” Catherine Porter included how 29 scientists formed the "Task Force on Systemic Pesticides" to investigate NNIs. They read 800 scientific papers on the pervasive insecticide. Their conclusion, released in the summer of 2014, concluded that the chemicals are causing “significant damage” to not just honey bees, but worms, snails, and possibly birds. The threat was likened to that of DDT, a cancer-causing insecticide that was finally phased out of Canada in the 70s.
The conclusion of the two opinion pieces from Porter and the OBA, is that honey bees are dying at an alarming rate in Ontario and why we should ban NNIs, so honey bees can live peacefully. "An Open Letter to Ontarians" disagrees almost entirely. My opinion is that NNIs should be banned, not just in Ontario, but across the world. Honey bees are a big part of our agriculture and if they went extinct, we would too.
- Lucas
2015/05/04
Bees do Matter!
By: Jaime Truong
After reading “An Open Letter to Ontarians”, the Ontario Beekeepers Association (OBA) media release and the Toronto Star editorial, I find myself saying, “neonicotinoids are harming the bees rather than helping them!” I don’t think that’s a good thing that bees are dying, because bees do matter, as Einstein has said, “If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth then man would only have four years of life left.”In my opinion I think the neonicotinoids are harming the bees, rather than helping them.
Catherine Porter’s editorial in the Toronto Star says, “The Open Letter was written on behalf of 28,000 farm families who plant their neonicotinoid-coated seeds in over half of the province’s productive farmland.” The farmer’s who wrote the letter use neonicotinoid treated seeds and are suggesting that neonicotinoids are not harming the bees.
Farmers use neonicotinoids because the advertising makes it look good. Here’s what Porter said “Neonicotinoids (NNIs) are the most widely used insecticides in the world. In theory, they are the perfect pesticide, coating the seeds of a crop so the growing plant is seeped in their poison, killing any nibbling critter. This means no sloppy spraying, no residue, no toxic runoff into nearby streams.” Well I don’t think that’s true! It is said by Porter that, “In practice, scientists warn NNIs are much less precise than advertised. They are persistent and water-soluble, so they do wash into streams. And they appear to kill more than nibbling pests. They appear to kill pollinators, namely honeybees.”
The reason I believe the facts that Porter reported, rather than the facts the “Open Letter” said, is because the “Open Letter” says, “Honey Bee colonies and honey production have increased, not decreased in Ontario,” while Porter said “The truth is bees are dying at an alarming rate in Ontario. Last winter, commercial beekeepers lost 58 per cent of their hives.” Wouldn't that mean colonies are dying?
Also, the “Open Letter” says neonicotinoids are used safely around the world and in Canada, even though Europe has a 2 year ban on neonicotinoids, and one of the bullets in the “Open Letter” says “85 per cent of Canadian honey is produced in western Canada where there are no known honey bee colony health issues resulting from neonicotinoid seed treatment use.” That makes sense because in the editorial, Porter says “...treated corn and soybean seeds seem to be toxic to bees, while neonicotinoid-coated canola seeds are not. (This is why there are few reports of honeybee deaths in Western Canada, the land of canola but little corn or soybeans.)”
It seems like the “Open Letter” only states facts that are positive about neonicotinoids, like Porter said, “Most [facts] are so delicately cherry-picked they seem purposefully misleading. Others, I’d say, are flat-out wrong.” So the farmers think it’s something else killing the bees, but not neonicotinoids, like Porter said,”In a nutshell, this is what their letter says: Ontario bees are not dying. Their colony numbers are up since 2003, when neonicotinoid seed treatments entered the market. When Ontario bees do die, it’s because of parasites, diseases, bad nutrition, bad management but not neonicotinoids. The science supporting the regulation is bunk. And finally, the corn and soy farmers love bees more than anyone else, as the stewards of our land.”
If that isn’t enough proof, a group of 29 scientists reviewed 800 scientific papers on neonicotinoids. Their conclusion was that the neonicotinoids are causing “significant damage” to not just pollinators but other species as well. The threat, they say, was similar to DDT, a pesticide that caused cancer!
So in short I think that neonicotinoids are hurting the bees, because there are a lot of reasons the “Open Letter” is wrong. Also, the fact that 800 scientific papers reviewed by 29 scientists, say that neonicotinoids are similar to DDT (a cancer-causing chemical pesticide), is really important!
I think neonicotinoids are bad for the bees.
I agree with the farmers who wrote “An Open letter to Ontarians”, because the farmers are the ones that grow our fruits and vegetables, but without the bees, the farmers won’t get anything out of them, so if we want our fruits and vegetables, we’d have to protect our bees. I also agree with Catherine Porter’s opinion in her Toronto Star editorial that the letter was missing a lot of information. Also, I thought about Einstein's quote that said “If the Bee Disappeared Off the Face of the Earth, Man Would Only Have Four Years Left To Live.” But there are some other pollinators too, so maybe Einstein was wrong!
Neonicotinoids can last for weeks: protecting plants for a long time and also killing the bees for a long time. They are also toxic to other pollinators like butterflies and we have a lot of foods that need to be pollinated, like kiwis, peaches, apples, pears, bananas, strawberries and more, so basically most of our fruits and vegetables.
In theory, neonicotinoids are a really amazing pesticide that keeps harmful creatures off of the crop, but when NNIs stay too long, they can get into the soil to harm the insects or the plants around it. The manufacturers probably don’t even care, because they don’t know that we could lose all of our fruits and vegetables and only care that it keeps the animals from touching it.
Also another group that suggests reasons that neonicotinoids are bad, are the 29 scientists who looked at 800 papers on the neonicotinoids and their conclusion was that neonicotinoids were harmful and killed more than bees, so basically more than eight hundred papers they read, said neonicotinoids were bad for the pollinators.
So overall, I think we should do something to help save the pollinators.
Bees and Neonicotinoids
By: Eileen
Before I say which letter I agree with, I would like to state the “facts” from both of them.
An Open Letter to Ontarians
Ontario bees are not dying
We should not ban neonicotinoids
Ontario has a very successful beekeeping industry
Ontario bee colony numbers are growing rapidly since 2003
The farmers are the ones who wrote this note, so we should believe them, because they love the bees and want to help them.
Catherine Porter's article
Ontario bees are dying
We should ban neonicotinoids
The Open letter to Ontarians is full of lies, lies, and more lies,
Scientists are saying that the first letter is wrong, and NNIs are dangerous.
We should believe 800 pages of scientific facts, not some people who are trying to sell a pesticide.
I agree with Catherine Porter. I think that she has the science to support her point, whereas the first letter has great persuasion for something that is not true. In Porter’s article, she says that she looked at “An Open Letter to Ontarians” information, and she found out that it is filled with “lies”. In the letter to Ontarians, it says that honey bee deaths were down by 29 percent in the past year. What Catherine Porter found out though, is that they were actually back up again by the end of the year. The scientists that Catherine Porter talked about said that neonicotinoids are causing a lot of damage, and that they are not just killing bees, but other things too, like worms, snails, and even birds! When I heard this I got very scared about the future of our world, but I was relieved when I read that we are banning NNIs from the crops that are killing the bees. The ban will last for 2 years, and will start in 2017.
The crops that are killing the bees are corn and soybeans (when covered in neonicotinoid). Surprisingly though, the canola seeds (when coated in NNI, and when left alone) are not killing the bees. So, I have all of these reasons, and I’m sure that some people when reading this would think, “Why would you agree with her?” (I don’t know why they would think that, but some people probably would) but there was one thing that really struck me, and that made me agree with Catherine Porter. When The federal government’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (the people who are pesticide experts) looked at the dead bees, 70-75 percent of them had neonicotinoid residue on them. In all, that “An Open letter to Ontarians” was full of lies, and Catherine Porter had all of the scientific facts.
That is all.
Thank you, thank you very much.
~Eileen
Do neonicotinoids harm bees? (opinion piece)
I think that the neonicotinoids are harmful to the bees. I think that the people who are making the neonicotinoids just want their industry to thrive, but aren't thinking about what harm they can do to the bees. I agree with the editorials. It just doesn’t seem natural that pesticides would help the population of bees. The Open Letter to Ontarians, states that “honey bee colonies are up almost 60% since 2003, when the use of neonicotinoid seed treatments were introduced.”
According to the Ontario Beekeepers Association (OBA), this is not true. The OBA stated, “Last winter Ontario beekeepers lost 58% of their hives. The number of honeybee colonies (measured in mid-summer) does not reflect the large number of colonies lost each winter, nor does it reflect the 30,000 queens or nearly 20,000 bee packages that beekeepers had to purchase to replace the unusually high number of colonies that failed in the winter and spring. We also want to stress that although honey bee colonies can be managed by beekeepers to sustain their numbers, reports indicate serious declines among wild bees and other pollinators.”
The Open Letter also claims that “Honey production has increased by 29% in the past year and Ontario has a successful honey beekeeping industry which earned $30 million in 2014.” This is also not true, honey production is down 40% since the introduction of the neonicotinoids in 2003.
A group of 29 scientists that researched 800 scientific papers, show that neonicotinoids are similar to DDT, a banned pesticide. In a recent Toronto Star editorial, Catherine Porter stated that “Neonicotinoids (NNIs) are the most widely used insecticides in the world. In theory, they are the perfect pesticide, coating the seeds of a crop so the growing plant is seeped in their poison, killing any nibbling critter. This means no sloppy spraying, no residue, no toxic runoff into nearby streams. In practice, scientists warn NNIs are much less precise than advertised. They are persistent and water-soluble, so they do wash into streams. And they appear to kill more than nibbling pests. They appear to kill pollinators, namely honeybees.”
The Open Letter claims “Neonicotinoids are used safely in Canada and around the world,”. This is not true. Europe currently has a 2-year ban on neonicotinoids. According to Catherine Porter, the neonicotinoid creators are afraid they will not make a profit from neonicotinoids anymore. The global industry made over $2 billion USD on neonicotinoids sales in 2011. Ontario will be the first to enforce neonicotinoid safety in North America.
The Open Letter claims “Bee experts agree that the top health issues for honey bees are parasites, diseases, inadequate nutrition, adverse weather and hive management practices”. This is also wrong, according to the OBA, parasites and diseases are manageable, but pesticides are not. Pesticides kill the bees, and a lot of Ontario’s land is covered in these pesticides..
The Open Letter claims “The fact is these regulations will not benefit honey bees”. This is not true, research shows that on corn and soy seeds, neonicotinoids do cause bees to die. However, on canola seeds, there seem to be less cases of bees dying.
One thing I do agree with in the Open Letter to Ontarians though, is “Bees do matter!”
3rd Copy
---------------------------------
~D
Bees Matter
(Goodcopy 2)
By: Daniel
Bees do matter.
In my opinion Bees do matter and the government should put the ban on neonicotinoids. These pesticides are “not harming the bees” so “An Open letter to Ontarians” says, but what is really happening is the neonicotinoids are harming the bees. How? Well the neonicotinoid treated seeds are said to not wash into streams, but they actually do wash into streams and they do harm the bees. The federal government’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency, which registers commercial pesticides was worried about the bee deaths, enough that they conducted some field studies in 2012 and 2013. In her Toronto Star editorial, Catherine states, “It discovered neonicotinoid residue on 70 to 75 per cent of dead bees.”
I think the reason the pesticide lobby posted this campaign is because they are worried that they will lose money making pesticide. Catherine Porters editorial explains that “The global industry made $2.6 billion U.S in neonicotinoids sales in 2011.”
“An Open letter to Ontarians” states that the number of bee deaths were down during spring planting, but what it didn’t mention was that by the end of the year the bee deaths were high again.
As stated in Catherine Porter’s editorial,“Today, virtually all corn grown in Ontario and 60 per cent of soybeans sprout from NNI-treated seeds. By 2017, the Ontario government wants that to be cut by 80 per cent.” Europe is in the middle of a two year ban on this pesticide and if Ontario put this ban on neonicotinoids it would be the first of its kind in North America. This I think will benefit the bees. As stated in Porter’s editorial “Bees are dying at an alarming rate in Ontario. Last winter,commercial beekeepers lost 58% of their hives.”
Lot’s of the facts from “An Open letter to Ontarians” are missing the other part of the story and like Catherine Porter said “Most are so delicately cherry-picked they seem purposefully misleading. Others, I’d say, are flat-out wrong.”
Another misleading statement from “An open letter to Ontarians” is “Health Canada recently released a report that the number of honey bee incidents reported during planting was down 70 per cent.” As stated in the Media release from The OBA (Ontario Beekeepers Association), “Ontario’s Ministry of Agriculture, Farming and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) reported that pesticide poisoning incidents were actually higher in 2014 (345) compared to 2013 (320) and 2012 (240).”
Another misleading statement from “An Open letter to Ontarians”, “Beekeepers have been able to manage mites, disease and pests for decades.” This statement from the OBA is very interesting, “Unfortunately, however, we are unable to avoid pesticide exposure. In Ontario, neonics are used to treat over 5 million acres of soy and corn, when even our own provincial crop specialists say that they are only needed on 10% – 20% of these acres.”
As Albert Einstein stated “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live” I agree with this quote If there are no more bees there is no pollination. no pollination no more plants, no more plants no more animals, no more animals no more humans! We should keep a close eye on this situation and make sure that we don’t lose the bees because they are crucial to our survival
Save The Bees!
~~ Daniel Poradzisz
This is my final copy of the bee letter:
Noah Michael Hess 2015/03/13
Bees do Matter
My opinion is that NNIs (neonicotinoids) are harmful to bees, and are not helping them. In an “Open letter to Ontarians” it explains how the number of bee colonies are increasing and also how much honey is being made. First of all, it doesn’t matter if the colonies are increasing because there are also colonies with few bees. Also, we shouldn’t be focusing on the number of bee colonies and honey production, we should be focusing on the number of Bees.
What we do need to know is how many bees are dying, and at this rate, when will they be extinct. An “Open letter to Ontarians states that NNIs are used safely around the world, meanwhile in Europe NNIs are banned. The OBA (Ontario Beekeepers’ Association) and Catherine Porter’s Toronto Star show facts that an “Open letter to Ontarians” doesn’t.
In the editorial by Porter it states that,“A group of 29 scientists reviewed 800 scientific papers on the pervasive insecticide. Their conclusion, released last summer: the chemicals are causing “significant damage” to not just pollinators like honeybees but also a wide range of species, including worms, snails and possibly birds.” The editorial by Porter compares the NNIs to DDT (a very dangerous insecticide that can cause cancer) which means NNIs must be very dangerous. The editorial states,”The threat, they said, was akin to that of DDT, the cancer-causing insecticide that was finally phased out in Canada during the 1970s, after a decade of scientific alarms.” Porter took her information from 800 scientific papers, not from chemical sales people.”
Another fact not put into the letter to Ontarians is,”There are lots of outstanding questions, such as why treated corn and soybean seeds seem to be toxic to bees, while NNI-coated canola seeds are not. This is why there are few reports of honeybee deaths in Western Canada, The land of canola, but little corn or soybeans.
The OBA document states,”Last winter Ontario beekeepers lost 58% of their hives.” This is over half of the hives they previously had. I think an “Open letter to Ontarians” is wrong and like Porter, I will take the complete answer from 800 scientific papers. Without bees,”man would have no more than four years to live,” as Albert Einstein said. That is the main reason bees need to stay with us. Another reason is, honey. Who can’t live without honey?
~Noah
Good Copy
By Xavier
My opinion is that “An Open letter to Ontarians” from Ontario Farmers and various companies is false.
If you only read “An Open letter to Ontarians”, you will likely think that it is correct, but if you read the Ontario Beekeepers Association (OBA) letter and the editorial by Catherine Porter, you will likely think that it is wrong/misleading and that the Ontario Beekeepers Association (OBA) letter and the editorial by Catherine Porter are correct.
“An Open letter to Ontarians” says that NNI’s (Neonicotinoids) are safe to use, while the Ontario Beekeepers Association (OBA) letter and the Editorial by Catherine Porter say that NNI’s are not safe and are killing the bees.
“An Open Letter to Ontarians” says that “honey bee colony numbers are up almost 60 per cent since 2003, when the use NNI’s seed treatments were first introduced.” What it did not mention (from the Catherine Porter editorial) is that “Bees are dying at an alarming rate. Last winter, Ontario beekeepers lost 58% of their hives.” 58 PER CENT! That is more than half! That is scary, and it means that the open letter was wrong, because if the bees are “dying at an alarming rate”, that means that bee colonies cannot be increasing.
An Open Letter to Ontarians” says that “The number of honey bee incidents reported during planting was down 70 per cent from 2013.” That is true, but mainly, as the OBA letter says that “with 58% of colonies dying over the winter there were fewer colonies exposed to pesticides and, as well, due to the late planting season, many colonies had already left the province for pollination services when neonic treated corn and soy were being planted.” So no wonder the number of honey bee incidents were down! Since a lot of bees died, a lot were out pollinating and the planting season was late, then few died because there were few remaining! And another thing, in Catherine Porter’s editorial, she said that “by the end of the year, reports of bee deaths were high again,” another reason that the open letter is misleading.
As a great man (Albert Einstein) once said, “If the Bee Disappeared Off the Face of the Earth, Man Would Only Have Four Years Left To Live”.
My conclusion is that the Neonicotinoids are harming the bees.
Bees matter.
Bees Do Matter
I think that neonicotinoids (NNIs) are harming bees, rather than helping them, and “An Open Letter to Ontarians” may not be the most truthful.
First of all, the Open Letter by ‘Ontario farmers and the agricultural industry’ only states how many new bee colonies are formed and how much honey is produced, but doesn’t include how many bees actually die, which is a dangerous amount. It also states that NNIs are used safely around the world, including in Canada, even though Europe has a temporary ban on neonicotinoids. If the letter fails to include that, what else might it fail to mention? Thankfully, Ontario Beekeepers’ Society (OBA)’s media release and Catherine Porter’s editorial in the Toronto Star explain some of the facts they neglected.
The Open Letter states, “The fact is, most bee experts agree that the top health issues for honey bees are parasites, diseases, inadequate nutrition, adverse weather and hive management practices.” This wording suggests that honey bees are threatened by parasites and diseases, the fault in the beekeeper’s planning, or weather. However, Porter suggests that those are not the only main threats to the bee population, and other species’ populations... “[The scientists’] conclusion, released last summer... the chemicals are causing “significant damage” to not just pollinators like honeybees but also a wide range of species, including worms, snails and possibly birds.” The OBA’s opinion on this is clearly stated. “Beekeepers have been able to manage mites, disease and pests for decades. Unfortunately, however, we are unable to avoid pesticide exposure.”
If it seems that the first point from the Open Letter seemed oddly dodgy, take a look at the argument over this quote from it. “The fact is, these regulations will not benefit honey bees, but they will strip farmers of a vital pest management tool.” This is what Porter has to say about it. “The truth is bees are dying at an alarming rate in Ontario. Last winter, commercial beekeepers lost 58 per cent of their hives… Apiarists consider a 15-per-cent loss over winter the norm.” I suspect that NNIs have something to do with the deaths of these bees. “Ontario has taken a bold step to protect honey bees by setting targets to reduce the use of neonicotinoid pesticides by 80% by 2017. This step, alone, will help honey bees,” the OBA says.
Here’s another vague fact from the Open Letter. “...In 2014, the number of honey bee incidents reported during planting was down 70 percent from 2013.” The editorial by Porter points out how they are excluding something again. “It is true, as the letter claims, that reported deaths were down during last year’s spring planting. What it failed to mention: by the end of the year, reports of bee deaths were high again.” The OBA, however, also directly opposes this fact. “...OMAFRA reported...that pesticide poisoning incidents were actually higher in 2014 (345) compared to 2013 (320) and 2012 (240). It’s also important to note that with 58% of colonies dying over the winter there were fewer colonies exposed to pesticides.”
Even if you don’t agree with Catherine Porter’s editorial and the OBA’s media release, if you read them carefully, they do make good points, while the Open Letter seems to mostly state facts that are either not able to be proved yet or ones that dodge anything that might oppose their opinion. I still think NNIs are dangerous.
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