Wik-Bee Leaks: EPA Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Honey Bees • Hacker News Board

Re: Wik-Bee Leaks: EPA Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Honey Bees

#41

Post by stretchwithme » Tue, Dec 14, 2010, 6:58 AM UTC

btilly wrote: post #33

jcromartie wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honeybees are not native to the US. It would be odd to rely on a non-native species for our food supply.

Why would it be odd? When Europeans arrived they imported European agriculture and cuisine, most of which is non-native. For instance I had pancakes for breakfast this morning. The eggs were from non-native chickens, the milk from non-native cows, the flour from non-native wheat, the canola oil I cooked it in from non-native rapeseed, and the butter I put on it from non-native cows. However all is not lost, I used ma…

aren't all species non-native unless you'e exactly at the spot where they evolved?

Re: Wik-Bee Leaks: EPA Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Honey Bees

#42

Post by route66 » Tue, Dec 14, 2010, 7:53 AM UTC

InclinedPlane wrote: post #17

JanezStupar wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1702377/figure/f... In old days every farmer in our village had a beehive - the honey and pollination services were both much appreciated. My father has always taught me that killing a bee is a horrible crime.

This describes the important of pollinators, but honey bees are not the only pollinators. I don't see enough evidence supporting the case that honey bees exclusively are responsible for pollinating 1/3 of all food, nor that the absence of honey bees would reduce food production by the same amount (which seem to be the positions you have put forth). Can you support those claims?

Important is the life cycle of a swarm. Unlike wasps, bumble-bees and lots of other insects a bee swarm survives the winter as a whole and can start the pollination cycle earlier than other insects. Furthermore honeybees have a structured way of flying "on: plants, meaning that they do commonly not change pollination rate.

Bees are actively used for guided pollination, which is not possible with most other insects (not withstanding some experiments with bumblebees in greenhouses). Interesting fact is that you will often find the phrase "crop xxx requires yyy hives" while describing the role of bees in pollination.

hth.

Re: Wik-Bee Leaks: EPA Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Honey Bees

#43

Post by wdewind » Tue, Dec 14, 2010, 3:00 PM UTC

btilly wrote: post #33

jcromartie wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honeybees are not native to the US. It would be odd to rely on a non-native species for our food supply.

Why would it be odd? When Europeans arrived they imported European agriculture and cuisine, most of which is non-native. For instance I had pancakes for breakfast this morning. The eggs were from non-native chickens, the milk from non-native cows, the flour from non-native wheat, the canola oil I cooked it in from non-native rapeseed, and the butter I put on it from non-native cows. However all is not lost, I used ma…

I think what he means to say is there was food here before honey bees, there can be food here after honey bees.

Re: Wik-Bee Leaks: EPA Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Honey Bees

#44

Post by artmageddon » Tue, Dec 14, 2010, 4:49 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #18

alecco wrote: post #4

I don't understand how politicians are allowed to campaign with corporate money.

(I know this is naive, but) Corporations are made of people. All that money belongs to someone. So if those people decide to give that money to politicians, why does that make problems?

While you're logically correct based on that assumption, what happens when a corporation breaks a law? It's one thing if an individual within the corporation, but what a violation occurs due to a collective action taken by the company? Who goes to jail? Who exactly pays the fines owed?