Hope for Bees
A big Win for beekeepers as a United States appeals court voids an insecticide.
(From the New York Times) A United States appeals court recently ruled that federal regulators erred in allowing an insecticide developed by Dow AgroSciences onto the market, canceling its approval and giving environmentalists a major victory.
The ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, is significant for commercial beekeepers and others who say a decline in bee colonies needed to pollinate key food crops is tied to the widespread use of a class of insecticides known as neo nicotinoids.
The lawsuit was filed in 2013 against the Environmental Protection Agency by a number of organizations representing the honey and beekeeping industries. The groups specifically challenged the E.P.A. approval of insecticides containing
sulfox- aflor, saying studies have shown they are highly toxic to honeybees.
I can tell you one thing from personal experience. I've known John Hutchinson for several years and watched him harvest honey from the hives he has down in front of his house. "I always had two hives, I didn't want anymore because it is a lot of work. It is a hobby for me and if you get too many hives it turns into a lot of work. I always had them down in front of the house and bees travel a couple of miles to get their pollen from all over the golf course and neighbors houses. Flowers are always better when there are bees around. We don't have many this year, so outside of the West Nile virus years, this is the first year I haven't had hives."
