Stop Selling Poisons That Kill Honeybee Colonies

This information comes to us from one of our local Eugene Chapter members.  Please take a moment to sign a petition to two local enployee-owned stores, BiMart and Jerry’s Home Improvement Center, asking them to stop selling products that kill honeybee colonies:

Sign the Petition to BiMart and Jerry’s:
http://www.change.org/petitions/jerry-s-bi-mart-stores-stop-selling-bee-killing-neonicotinoid-insecticides

Stop selling poisons that kill honeybee colonies

By Gary Rondeau

Published: The Register Guard, March 20, 2013 12:00AM

The honeybees are going down. This year for the first time, almond growers in California were not able to get all the bees they need for pollination, and many colonies supplied were weak. Thousands of bee colonies were dead on arrival to the almond orchards.

According to conventional wisdom, the problem is a combination of Varroa mites and infectious diseases, but new evidence points to pesticides as the root cause. Chemicals known as neonicotinoids, including imidacloprid, are the problem.

It may already be too late to save the beekeeping industry in the United States. The Environmental Protection Agency has been slow to act, and the chemicals causing the destruction are extraordinarily toxic and are persistent in the environment.  read more >>

Read the full article on the Register Guard site:
http://www.registerguard.com/web/news/sevendays/29598116-47/bees-chemicals-kill-imidacloprid-bee.html.csp

Contact Jerry’s and BiMart:
After you have signed the petition, you may want to personally call or send a letter to these stores.  I shop at both of these stores and will be telling them to stop carrying these bee killing poisons.

Jerry’s Home Improvement Center:
Scott Lindstrom, VP of Operations
2600 Hwy. 99 N.
Eugene, OR 97402
541-689-1911  ext.8400

Bi-Mart:
Jim Frazier
Business Office, Eugene
220 South Seneca Road.
344-0681 ext. 261.

More info:
I wrote to Gary asking him for more info.  He says:

Please refer readers to the oregonsustainablebeekeepers.org website.  There is a link there to the petition as well as other information and links – including our letter to the stores.

Soon I will have a post with specific chemicals and brand names found at local stores.  These are the WORST because they invite overuse – treating insecticides like fertilizer.

  • Ortho Rose and Flower Insect Control Plus Miracle Grow (granular formula)
  • Bayer Advanced All-in-One Rose and Flower Care  (granular formula)

Thanks, Lisa!

Gary

More articles on on this topic are available on the SquashPractice blog:
http://squashpractice.wordpress.com/

Sign the Petition:
Once again, here is the petition link: http://www.change.org/petitions/jerry-s-bi-mart-stores-stop-selling-neonicotinoid-insecticides/

Posted Date: 03.31.13 Tags: , , , , , | Category: Articles |

Register Guard Letter

Local Eugene Chapter member, Leonard Ablieter, recently had another Letter to the Editor printed in the Register Guard.  Here he takes on the new School Lunch rules.  Way to go Leonard!

New lunch rules good for industry

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak, best known for his Monsanto connections, and first lady Michelle Obama, who made news breaking ground for an organic garden at the White House, have announced new rules governing our national school lunch program that are designed to promote health and reduce obesity.

The food industry apparently had struggled to protect its interests from the advocates of better health, which is puzzling because one might assume the dictates of health to be paramount. So what did we get? A doubling of fruits and vegetables. Good. But including tomato paste on pizza, and potatoes most likely fried in pesticide-drenched cottonseed oil, stretches the definition of vegetable.

Salt will be reduced, likely paving the way for a new chemical additive called Senomyx, a neurological agent fooling the mind to “taste” salt but unable to fulfill the body’s need for the real thing. That, in time, will result in food cravings causing subsequent overeating, as well as other salt deficiency disorders.

But never fear. Calorie reductions will be achieved by mandating low-fat milk which, when I was a kid, was fed to pigs. Its insufficient fat content impedes protein digestion with ensuing intestinal problems and related diseases, but the cream that’s skimmed off can be used to make highly profitable ice cream.

Thus, the new rules are definitely healthy for the food, dairy and pharmaceutical industries. As for the 32 million kids — well, they’re part of the 99 percent who keep the system profitable.

Leonard Ablieter

Fall Creek

http://www.registerguard.com

Leonard grew up in Germany in a town about the size of Creswell that had 4 butchers and no refrigeration!  Talk with him about traditional foods sometime if you get the chance.

Leonard also had a letter to the editor published in October 2010. We wrote about it in our newsletter here: http://www.krautpounder.com/inv-pages/09-10_newsletter.html

For more information about salt and semomyx on the Weston A. Price website see:

Posted Date: 02.04.12 Tags: , , , , | Category: Articles |