Pesticides and Honeybee Crisis in Canada

Canada has joined the growing list of countries with honeybee crises. See:

http://www.bclocalnews.com/okanagan_similkameen/vernonmorningstar/business/30437074.html

It is unlikely that mites or a virus are responsible for trans-oceanic spreads of Colony Collapse Disorder. The practice of using systemic pesticides during flowering is a more probable reason. 

It is possible that many countries are under threats of losing their honeybees, though their regulators have not recognized it as yet. There is not a day to lose in conserving this vital resource. Drastic farm production losses await nations that neglect their honeybees.

The Endogram-Endocel and Endosulfan tolerant Chrysoperla triad is an assertive way of protecting crops at flowering and honeybees at the same time. Rabi crops will be sown in India during the next 60 days. This is a crucial time to plan for the proper pollination of oilseeds and fruit trees. 

I hope India will not join the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany, and Canada in recrimination over avoidable loss of honeybees. 

Please add your voice and influence to conserve Indian honeybees. Support the Endogram-Endocel and Endosulfan tolerant Chrysoperla  system for IPM at flowering.

A Pesticide Safety Blind Spot

Society depends on regulators and the industry for pesticide safety. Environmental activists may throw mud at pesticides, and work on some African governments to influence biased bans, but the vast majority of farm produce and vector management remains under pesticide covers. Pesticides, food security, and the management of flying insects, are factually inter-linked.

Pesticide safety efforts focus on manufacturing and application. Storage, transport, and disposal receive less attention than they deserve. This is probably because pesticides are sold in the same ways as other consumer goods. Anyone can buy them, and the brand owner's responsibilities are limited to meeting label specifications.

Here is a link to the implications of neglecting the safe disposal of pesticides:

http://www.watertechonline.com/news.asp?N_ID=70642

North Carolina has uncovered a global issue. Pesticides will continue to contaminate wells and public water bodies everywhere unless we have procedures and means in place to contain this deadly form of pollution. Endosulfan in water and soil can and should be degraded chemically or through microbes after field application. This applies to other pesticides as well.

Please post your opinion below.

Pakistan Beats India in Pesticide Safety

We are better at cricket, movies, and currying favor with the Americans, but have fallen behind in pesticide safety terms. Read the news at the following link:

http://thepost.com.pk/BizNewsT.aspx?dtlid=185743&catid=7

The empowerment of rural women and pesticide safety are best linked. After all, gynecological cancer threats from drift and dermal toxicity make females unwitting victims of pesticide abuse by their men. Besides, who is better placed than mothers and sisters to look after children, and to ensure their pesticide safety?

Beneficial insect rearing is a top way to involve women in pesticide safety. Endogram and Endosulfan-tolerant Chrysoperla can improve pesticide safety levels significantly. This is apart from the benefit of providing income and independence to rural women.

Pakistan has been nominated for an award in 2008. You can win in future by supporting the Endogram, Endocel, and Endosulfan-tolerant Chrysoperla triad. Please start today. Post below if you need help.

A Burning Pesticide Safety Question

Obsolete pesticides deserve special attention. They can negate all the good work done to promote pesticide safety. Consider the information at the following link:

http://milieukontakt.net/en/?p=547

The issue requires a series of preventive and contingent actions. The best manufacturers have integrated systems in place to manage obsolete pesticides in their systems of logistics. However, smaller units lack the resources and technology to dispose off obsolete pesticides without polluting the environment.

Obsolete pesticide management requires a multi-disciplinary approach. High peak formulation capacities help to prevent piling up of finished goods stocks. Marketing expertise is required to follow FIFO (first in first out) practices from factory to farm. Finally, all high-use areas need impervious holding areas in which unconsumed stocks can be degraded safely. These should be operated on industry bases, since it is not economically feasible for each brand to be sequestered separately. Incineration is also a capital-intensive process, and requires appropriate technology as well. 

Please post below if you have experience with obsolete pesticides, or if you can offer help to dispose them without harming people and the environment.

PPI >PHI for Pesticide Safety

Pollinators, especially honeybees, are equal creatures with humans, before God. Even non-believers must accept that we will starve without bio-diversity. Indians are at special risks because so much of our diet requires vegetable oils. We have never achieved self-sufficiency in this vital ingredient. Major oilseeds are cross-pollinated. There is no hope for us without honeybees. That is why I feel the view at the link below is misplace, though it is factually correct:

http://www.agweb.com/get_article.aspx?pageid=145970

I have nothing personal against any Pre-Harvest Interval. Certainly, we should observe them. I do wish the Plant Protection Adviser would do more to fix PHIs for all pesticides. However, a PHI is not enough. Humans do not feed on pollen, but honeybees have no other source of nutrition. It is inhuman to poison pollen with systemic pesticides. This is a death-warrant for honeybees. It is also a prescription for the continued impoverishment of rural India.

There is no time to lose. Pre-pollination intervals should be fixed for all systemic pesticides before the next mustard crop is sown in India. No systemic pesticide should be detectable in plant tissues once flowering starts. Certainly, aphids may attack the crop at this stage. There may be lepidoptera as well. We should only use the triad of Endogram, Endocel, and Endosulfan-tolerant Chrysoperla during the reproductive stage of a crop. Contact fungicides, especially sulphur formulations are available for fungal attacks.

Please voice your opinion today.

New Technology Directions for Pesticide Safety

Drift and dermal toxicity deserve more attention and resources for better pesticide safety. The pesticide industry is the worst victim of negligence in this respect. Please read the disturbing news at the following link:

http://www.gtweekly.com/blurbs/ticker/landmark-pesticide-case-decided

The pesticide industry will suffer the fate of Wall Street banks if the practice of demanding compensation for drift continues. I do not have altruistic motives alone in pressing for time-bound action plans to manage drift and dermal toxicity during pesticide application: these are matters of vital business interests.

Endogram and Endosulfan tolerant Chrysoperla are free of drift and dermal toxicity dangers suffered by their chemical cousins. However, what about Endocel? I have plans in this respect as well, but they need to be addressed with greater senses of urgency. This will be my major focus during the month starting tomorrow.

What do you think of drift and dermal toxicity during pesticide application in the field? Please offer some solutions, or let me know if you think that the seriousness is exaggerated. You can post below without disclosing your identity.

Pesticide Industry CSR for CCD

There is a new book on honeybees that I would like to recommend. Here is a link to it:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2008202268_fruitless28.html

We do not yet have reports of CCD in India, but could become victims at any time. However, I know of at least one farm I visited in July 2008 that no longer had hives, though it was a center of excellence in honeybee rearing until 2000. The majority of farms under intense pesticide covers no longer have any honeybees or other biodiversity conservation measures. 

CCD has devastated agriculture on both sides of the North Atlantic Ocean. This has led to knee-jerk reactions in countries such as Italy, France, and Germany, which have brought abrupt public and regulatory actions against neonicotinoids. The latter are closely linked to genetically modified crops, because seed treatments with neonicotinoids help keep resurgent sucking pests at bay. This is why the Indian pesticide industry should take the lead in combating CCD in pro-active manner.

Keeping pollen free of pesticide residues is the least we can do to keep honeybee mortality at bay. It will help if all farms that use pesticides keep honeybees as well. This will help to recover ecological balances in the event of CCD. Perhaps we should have a national bank of honeybees, and invest in programs to develop hardy and tolerant selections.

IPM during flowering is another cornerstone strategy to conserve the natural honeybee wealth of India. Endogram, Endocel, and Endosulfan-tolerant Chrysoperla makes a safe and effective triad of control measures that can keep pests at bay, and conserve honeybees at the same time.

Post below if you would like to deploy the Endogram, Endocel, and Endosulfan-tolerant Chrysoperla combination to vitalize crop yields and restore your ecology to its pristine state.