ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

GMO Crops and Bee Population

GMO Crops and Bee Population

Introduction

You can call a number of reasons that could cause population declines of bees. But anyway, the most important of them - is the use of genetically modified organisms (GMO) seeds and grown technology Terminator (feature of this technology is to create a seed from which grow sterile, without giving the seeds of the plant, approx. Mixednews), which with the approval of the government, are widely used in our agriculture. We will try to explain how genetically modified seeds caused the collapse and death of bee colonies (Harris, 2004).

Genetically modified seeds are produced and distributed by powerful biotech corporations. They have big ambitions; they achieve dominance in the industry in agricultural and skillfully manipulated by government policies in relation to agriculture in order to achieve their goals. American corporations such as Monsanto and Pioneer Hybrid created seeds that germinate only under certain conditions, often associated with the use of fertilizers and / or insecticides from the same manufacturer. Genetic modification of plants, usually accompanied by genetic modification and pollen. It becomes a "sterile" and, therefore, for the bees in it is not enough nutrients. They begin to die from disease, starvation or disorders of the digestive cycle, which involves the collection of nectar and pollen in the summer honey and food during the winter months when the bees leave the hive.

We consider four main reasons, which, according to different opinions, are responsible for the deaths of bees: Varroa mites are parasites, cell phones, and the seeds were grown on the technology Terminator.

Varroa Mites

Many experts really believed the main cause of varroa mites mass death of bees in the winter of 2005. However, when researchers from the Laboratory for the Study of Bees Department of Agriculture went to Oakdale (California) to investigate the situation on the ground, they could not find any correlation between the level of mite infestation and the state of bee colonies.

"We could not find a single reason that caused the mass death of bees" - confessed to Jeff Pettis, an entomologist, a scientist research laboratory in Beltsville (Md.). In addition, treatment of mites can lead to the fact that the hive would be defenseless against the onslaught of pathogenic bacteria. As well as the abuse of antibiotics leads to difficulty today the treatment of infectious diseases and an increased risk of death in humans (McHughen, 2000).

Parasites

Today, not only the crops, but even the hedges and forest edges are sprayed with pesticides or herbicides. These chemicals - a symbol of our relationship to nature as an enemy. But be that as it may, the treatment of poison that eventually will be on our table - it is a very simplistic way of solving problems. Not to mention that, so we ignore them the real reason. Creation of new genetically modified crops resistant to certain pesticides and herbicides has led to what chemicals were used more actively. Contact the death of the bees with pesticide use on the basis of nicotine ...