Kill a Bee, Make a Buck!

Isn´t this old news?  Nope.  You might remember the shocking news of massive sudden deaths of bee colonies back in 2006 ...but it is much worse now in 2013.

So what exactly is new about this?  The new thing is: the reason for the deaths has been discovered ...and it's money, big money, Big Ag Money.  Good luck, bees!  It was nice having youse guys around.

Wait a minute!  Won't we all die of starvation without bees?  Aren´t all foods pollinated by bees?

Nope.  Only about 1/3 of all food crops are pollinated by bees.

WTF?  What crops are not pollinated by bees?

Answer: most famously, corn and soybeans.

Where's the big, easy money for Big Ag Money?

Answer: most famously, corn and soybeans.

As I've said for a long time, "the day is going to come when the only thing for dinner will be a Cargill Soya Burger and a glass of Archer Daniel Midland Vodka ...when all I really want is a glass of malbec and a grass-fed steak."

Well, my friends, we appear to be much, much closer to that dinnertime than I ever imagined.  Strangely, relief from that monoculture meal headache could come from the same folks that gave you that headache: Bayer Crop Science.

Personally, like you, I never thought you could could make a buck in agriculture if you were in favor of killing bees.  Like you, I thought that bees pollinated everything.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my hundreds of deeelicious organically-grown hybrid tomatoes were probably NOT pollinated by bees!

Tomatoes, like corn and soy, are New World plants ...and bees are not native to the Americas.  Those plants pollinate themselves, usually with no more help than the breeze. Fans of berries, fruits, nuts, and melons will lose to Big Ag Money.

Big Ag Money will not care.
Big Ag Money will make even more money
once the bees are gone.

It's not just Big Ag Money.  It's a United States Department of Agriculture that has been bought and paid for ...and neutered like one of my calves.  At a recent USDA hearing on the effect on bees of insecticides used on GMO corn and soy, Monsanto and every Big Ag Money corporation was allowed to speak.  Only one beekeeper was granted the same privilege.

Regulating authorities in Europe might take a more strict stance ...but there is no guarantee.  Big Ag Money is big everywhere and it counts more than votes.

As you eat, US beekeepers are being crushed, non-GMO crops are being decimated, and democracy is being trumped by Big Ag Money.  If you can´t sleep well, at least eat well while you can.