Bzzzzzz (a.k.a. F**k Monsanto)

Hear that buzzing of busy little bees pollinating the great fields of America? No? Oh, that's because all over the country, entire colonies of bees are dying off en masse. This is a huge problem for our food supply. Turns out, even that extra fancy genetically modified test-tube industrial agricultural corn needs good ole fashioned pollination (i.e., everything needs to get laid sometimes), and bees are the key to this.

Entire colonies of bees are turning up dead or missing in what has been termed Colony Collapse Disorder. No one knows what is going on with the bees or what might be causing this problem. This Pennsylvania bee keeper, John McDonald, offers his hypothesis in this article from the San Francisco Chronicle, in which he lays out the theory that it is the genetically modified crops themselves that are causing the bees to die.

Here is his explanation, and surprise, surprise, agri-business is to blame (Monsanto and Cargill being the main culprits here):

The most commonly transplanted segment of transgenic DNA involves genes from a well-known bacterium, bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which has been used for decades by farmers and gardeners to control butterflies that damage cole crops such as cabbage and broccoli. Instead of the bacterial solution being sprayed on the plant, where it is eaten by the target insect, the genes that contain the insecticidal traits are incorporated into the genome of the farm crop. As the transformed plant grows, these Bt genes are replicated along with the plant genes so that each cell contains its own poison pill that kills the target insect.

In the case of field corn, these insects are stem- and root-borers, lepidopterans (butterflies) that, in their larval stage, dine on some region of the corn plant, ingesting the bacterial gene, which eventually causes a crystallization effect in the guts of the borer larvae, thus killing them.

He links this back to bees by saying that many bee keepers have long used a spray version of Bt to help prevent moth infestations in their honeycomb, and lately there have been growing reports of bee keepers not needing the spray. That is, the honeycomb has become resistant on its own. This would signify that something about the bees has changed, and that is probably the presence of Bt in the bees. He theorizes that Bt may be doing other unknown things to the bees, perhaps immuno-suppression for example, that is resulting in CCD.

Just one more example of why we should shun agribusiness at every turn, folks. It has proven to be bad for the environment, bad for the food and those of us who eat it, bad for small farmers and rural America, and bad for bees. Genetically modified foods are creepy, and there is a very good reason why Europeans don't consume them as a general rule (which is, they are creepy and the long term effects of consumption on both humans and the environment are unknown). Luckily for us here in 'Mer'ca, our noble protectors at the FDA are not food experts but political appointees, and have since dubbed not only GM foods as safe, but also, recently, cloned food. See, isn't Democracy wonderful? All you need is a multi-billion dollar mult-national agribusiness firm and some well placed campaign contributions and you too can have a say in your country's public health policy!! Yep, Dolly the lamb may soon appear on your dinner plate at your local Applebees as a delicious roasted chop with a side of GM corn and mashed GM potatoes! Yummm! And ya know what? Maybe for my pals back in Minnesota, this is a good thing. Think about it, eat enough GM insect resistant food and maybe those damn misquitos will stop biting you all summer long!