Wednesday, November 4, 2009

BEES- Honey please don’t GO





"Honey bees…are symbols of how fragile nature is; they are the canaries in the coal mine."—Connor Lanman.



Let's try for a minute to imagine a world without honey bees, take your time, what would it look like, smell like, and taste like. You see without the honey bees, we would have very little food on earth; they are responsible for pollinating most of the foods that we humans eat. So why are we imagining this, well it appears that the populations of honey bees are dwindling at an alarming rate, they are dying off. This is indicative of a lot of problems, but mainly they are thought to be dying because of the introduction of GM and poisoning by pesticides, the same pesticides that are used on conventional produce, fruit and vegetables. This represents the biggest threat to the food chain and stability that the documented world has ever seen.


The honey bee is one of the oldest insects in existence, that are imperative for the cross pollination of most of the plants on planet earth, experts have suggested if the bees were to become extinct, then humans would survive for only four years, I talk of this to stress the vital role that bees play in our existence.


Scientist's are claiming that the widespread use of Genetically Modified crops and pesticide use as the main determining factors. This is disgusting, and also scary. Firstly let's discuss the genetically modified crops, it is apparent that not enough studies were undertaken to substantiate the widespread cultivation of these crops. For example, one of the crops of modified maize, has pollen that is toxic to insects, they have created this plant by inserting a gene from the soil bacterium was inserted into the corn!!!This genetic modification of the flower pollen means that the pollen becomes sterile and the bee's potentially become malnourished die from illnesses that interrupt the digestion. Adding to this is the fact that these crops are genetically modified to withstand copious amount of herbicides and fertilisers that would otherwise kill a normal plant, how can a little bee withstand this kind of onslaught. One of the pesticides that is greatly affecting the bees is neonicotinoids, these pesticides are the most widely used insecticides worldwide and they are known to harm the honey bee's sensitive nervous and immune systems…(Wonder what it does to humans??????)



This is really serious, but we can still make change.



The truth of the matter is that organic farming remains relatively untouched in relation to the bee crisis. Through organic farming we have diversified system that functions as nature intended, and encourage diversity of wildlife and insect life, in a balanced and sustainable ecosystem. GM crops do not ensure food safety ORGANIC FOOD does. Growing crops organically can save the world, our farmers and indeed our existence. Vote and create change with your dollars, BUY ORGANIC



I urge you to sign the truefood petition which demands that the Australian governmentundertakes more stringent safety assessments of GM crops and Labeling of all GM foods.



Plant your own garden, a bee friendly garden, use natural methods of insecticides, like companion planting, or perhaps mulch the garden to prevent weeds rather than use insecticides , a great place to start is http://www.diggers.com.au/, or if you would like some certified organic seeds, drop us an email.





For more information on the bee crisis, check out:


This documentary on the vanishing bees released this year






http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1087




BEE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THIS WORLD……


ORGANIC EMPIRE, organic home delivery melbourne