Those of you who believe that the catastrophic collapse of so many honey bee populations is at least partly caused by GM crops and the chemicals applied to them will be greatly cheered by the success of Polish bee activists in getting GM maize banned in Poland.
Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki told a press conference that they believed that the maize (MON810) was responsible for ‘further devastating an already dwindling bee population’ and that they were therefore banning it entirely – making Poland the first nation to formally acknowledge the link between the Monsanto’s GM maize and colony collapse disorder.
Although they have not banned MON810, Belgium, the UK, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Ireland and Slovakia successfully blocked the Danish move to allow the expansion of GM cultivation in Europe last year and France actually banned MON810. Sadly, the US continues to ‘forge ahead in the unmitigated, and largely unregulated, cultivation and use of GM crops’.
How does MON810 affect the bees? It appears that it affects their ability ‘learn’ or ‘remember’ where food/pollen may be, so that they cannot feed or make honey properly. For much more detail on this see this 2008 research report of a study done in Mexico or, rather more comprehensible to the lay reader, John McDonald’s article in The Canadian.
Monsanto is one of the wealthiest agribusiness’s in the world and links between Monsanto and its regulator, the US Foods and Drug Administration (FDA) are well known. Until an impermeable wall is constructed between the FDA and the businesses it is supposed to regulate no progress will be made.