Bayer corporation censors honeybee science

This video from Britain says about itself:

Who Killed The Honey Bee? (BBC Documentary)

Nov 19, 2012

Bees are dying in their millions. It is an ecological crisis that threatens to bring global agriculture to a standstill. Introduced by Martha Kearney, this documentary explores the reasons behind the decline of bee colonies across the globe, investigating what might be at the root of this devastation.

Honey bees are the number one insect pollinator on the planet, responsible for the production of over 90 crops. Apples, berries, cucumbers, nuts, cabbages and even cotton will struggle to be produced if bee colonies continue to decline at the current rate. Empty hives have been reported from as far afield as Taipei and Tennessee. In England, the matter has caused beekeepers to march on Parliament to call on the government to fund research into what they say is potentially a bigger threat to humanity than the current financial crisis.

Investigating the problem from a global perspective, the programme makers travel from the farm belt of California to the flatlands of East Anglia to the outback of Australia. They talk to the beekeepers whose livelihoods are threatened by colony collapse disorder, the scientists entrusted with solving the problem, and the Australian beekeepers who are making a fortune replacing the planet’s dying bees. They also look at some of the possible reasons for the declining numbers – is it down to a bee plague, pesticides, malnutrition? Or is the answer something even more frightening?

Translated from Trouw daily in the Netherlands:

Bayer wants judge to stop publishing studies about bee poisoning

By Joop Bouma – 25/03/13, 11:00

Bayer, manufacturer of pesticides, goes to court in an attempt to prevent disclosure of nearly forty studies that have been used in the registration of agents lethal to bees.

Ctgb, the organisation deciding about permits for pesticides on the Dutch market, decided last week to make a pile of scientific studies of Bayer and other manufacturers available to the public. The Bee Foundation had asked for that. The foundation wants to get to know about the quality of the registration examination.

Bayer said to the Ctgb that they opposed disclosure, invoking protection of copyrights and trade secrets. At first, the Ctgb rejected the request of the Bees Foundation. The Bees Foundation objected to that, and that objection was accepted partly.

“Possibly relevant information”

This involves a total of more than 120 studies. Some thirty studies have been already published. Of the remaining studies, in about fifty cases, the Ctgb refuses disclosure in order to to protect manufacturers’ copyrights and business interests. Among those are also studies which the Ctgb considers to contain “potentially relevant information” on the toxicity of the insecticides (known as neonicotinoids) to bees.

Yesterday, Bayer decided to appeal to the Board of Trade and Industry against the intention of the Ctgb to make the studies available to the public. The Bees Foundation is appealing as well, against the decision of the Ctgb to keep fifty studies secret.

Bayer had previously offered the Bees Foundation to make the reports available in an enclosed space. This has recently happened to a similar request from the Foundation for Nature and Environment. But the Bees Foundation believes that is no solution: the advocacy group believes that everyone should be able to see the studies.

Not Just the Bees: Bayer’s Pesticide May Harm Birds, Too: here.

About Bayer, from Wikipedia:

The Bayer company then [after World War I] became part of IG Farben, a German chemical company conglomerate. During World War II, the IG Farben used slave labor in factories attached to large slave labor camps, notably the sub-camps of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.^[2] IG Farben owned 42.5% of the company that manufactured Zyklon B,^[3] a chemical used in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and other extermination camps. After World War II, the Allies broke up IG Farben and Bayer reappeared as an individual business. The Bayer executive Fritz ter Meer, sentenced to seven years in prison by the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, was made head of the supervisory board of Bayer in 1956, after his release.^[4]

Multi-country loss rates of honey bee colonies during winter 2016/2017 from the COLOSS survey: here.

Honeybees abandoning hives and dying due to insecticide use, research finds. Harvard study shows neonicotionoids are devastating colonies by triggerring colony collapse disorder: here.

Related articles

• Bayer CropScience and Bee Deaths (fromthetrenchesworldreport.com)
• Without honeybees, we may cease to be (salon.com)
• Pro-honeybee Internet petition (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Beekeepers Sue EPA Over Pesticide Approvals – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• Save honeybees, Internet petition (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Groups sue EPA over honeybee deaths, blame some insecticides (science.nbcnews.com)
• Domesticated and Wild Bees Are Both in Trouble (readersupportednews.org)
• Who Will Save The Honey Bee? EU Mulls Pesticide Ban While US Set to Approve More (wakingtimes.com)