Bee/Bird Toxic Wine Grape Pesticide Short Lived? Not So, Says Top UK Expert

UK Biologist Dave Goulson, of the University of Sussex, has just published research in the Journal of Applied Ecology showing that neonicotinoids - commonly used in California vineyards (as well as across the U.S. and Europe) - kill earthworms and stay in the soil for one to four years.

Goulson is one of the UK's leading conservationists and founder of the 8,000-member Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

Quoted in Nature, Goulson says. "If you apply these chemicals once a year on crops, they will accumulate. All of these studies suggest the half-life of these chemicals is between one and four years," Goulson.

While pesticide proponents often and confidently proclaim that the newer pesticides are much more targeted in their impacts, Goulson's summary states"...the current use of neonicotinoids is likely to be impacting on a broad range of non-target taxa including pollinators and soil and aquatic invertebrates and hence threatens a range of ecosystem services."

Wine grape growers used more than 47,000 pounds of neonicotinoids in California in 2011.

Just one more reason to seek out organically grown wine grapes in your wine - organic growers, unlike 90 percent of California's nonorganic growers, don't use neonicotinoids in their vineyards.

Goulson spoke at Berkeley in April of this year on the Ecology and Conservation of Bumblebees. 

He is the author of the newly published book A Sting in the Tale. You can read a review of the book from the UK's Guardian here.

The EU has imposed a two year ban on the use of neonicotinoids after initial research in Italy and other countries showed a positive impact on bee populations when the insecticides were banned. In the U.S. the EPA has decided against banning neonics.

The World's Most Beautiful Bee Movie: More Than Honey

Last night I got to see the most beautiful bee movie ever made. More Than Honey is a visual feast the likes of which you have probably never seen before. It also packs quite a wallop, in a quiet, understated, nonhysterical way about the plight of bees today - and our shared fate.

You will never look at a bee the same way - or perhaps an almond "orchard" too - the vast plantations of industrial agriculture in California where 80-90 percent of the world's almond crop is raised.

See the trailer here:

While the trailer is fascinating, I found the clip posted by the Toronto International Film Festival even more enticing - bees mating in mid-air. I can only imagine the drone set up for cameras - must have been amazing.

I could tell you more about the plot and protagonists, but I think it's best left unsaid and better off SEEN.

Markus Imhoff, Director

The director, 70-year-old Markus Imhoff, discusses how this amazing footage was shot on the film's web site:

We had our “bee whisperer” traveling with us. Without him a lot of this would not even have been possible.

We had two teams, one for the crew and one twice as big for the bees. To film the honeybees we used high-speed cameras and endoscope lenses, like the ones used for operations on humans. If you film a colony of bees at the normal tempo, all you get is a hive buzzing with nervous activity. With 70 pictures per second, meaning slowed down three times the normal tempo, the bees move about as fast as we humans do, and you can see exactly what they’re doing, their fascinating legs, their huge, hairy eyes, and their tongue.

Sometimes we used mini-helicopters for the flights. All of the bees in flight were filmed with 300 pictures per second. One second of reality amounts to 12 seconds of film, but don’t forget that I had to capture the right second. For the queen bee’s wedding flight, which was 36 seconds, we worked for more than ten days – and we only actually saw it one and a half times. After two years of shooting, we had 205 hours of footage, with which we spent one year in the editing room.

The film appears in theaters soon - or you can arrange a group or community screening. See the film web site for details.

Bees have died in China as a result of the overuse of insecticides
so humans now take bee pollen and pollinate the flowers.

The movie is subtitled when non-American or non-English speaking participants are talking which probably represents about half of the 90 minute screening time.

The stresses on bees are partly due to mites, which are displayed in dazzling detail in the film, as well as insecticides which are only briefly seen in the movie. The EU has put a two year ban on bee toxins in order to see how the bees respond whereas in the US the EPA has refused to ban the bee toxins, which are more widely applied here on corn seed.

Miller, who appears in the film, is one of the commercial
beekeepers whose hives travel to pollinate almond orchards in
California.

Across the state, California farmers used more than 290,000 pounds of imidacloprid, just one of a number of top bee toxins used here. Others include methoxyfenozide, and chlorantraniliprole along with the suspected toxin boscalid.

Commercial beekeepers have sued the EPA for failing to ban bee toxins. To see a map where the use of neonicotinoids is highest in California, check out the Pesticide Research Institute's page here as well as PRI's Bee Resource pages.

See the New York Times review here. You can listen to NPR's coverage here.

Where the Bees' Toxic Soup Is: California's Wine Growing Regions

Pesticide Research Institute, a Berkeley company founded by PANNA database creator and pesticide expert Dr. Susan Kegley, has launched a detailed map showing the townships where neonicotinoids, the pesticides linked to bee colony collapse, are located.

The map was developed for beekeepers and is part of the company's Bee Resource Center.

Red areas are for the 95th percentile; orange for 75-95% percentile

The map is similar to the State Dept. of Public Health's Agricultural Pesticide Mapping Tool (from the Environmental Health Investigations Branch) but the Pesticide Research map is visually clearer and goes to the level of the neonicotinoids (which are not presented on the state tool as a default). Both tools have 2010 data (since the state department of pesticides is changing to a new computer system and has not released stats for 2011-12 - they should be available in June).

While the worst concentrations of neonicotinoids are found in the Central (San Joaquin) Valley and Salinas Valley (see the top 5% of usage in red squares on this map), our North Bay wine country is still alarmingly high.

The orange areas above show sites in the top quarter of the state from the 75th to 95th percentiles.

As you can see, a wide swath around Healdsburg and a township centered in Napa on the Rutherford-Oakville-Yountville AVAs are in this top 25% of users statewide.

In Sonoma, the state Dept. of Pesticide Research data for 2010 shows 2,362 pounds of imidacloprid (a neonicotinoid) spread at 424 sites over 8,166 acres.

In Napa, 796 pounds of imidacloprid were spread over 199 sites and 2,405 acres. From the map below, one can see that the area of highest concentration is over the AVAs of Rutherford, Oakville and Yountville.

Beekeepers and environmental groups recently sued the EPA over the use of other neonicotinoids linked to bee colony collapse. The EPA has said it will take 5 years to study the matter.

Neonicotinoids are used on more than wine grapes but wine grapes are among the top five crops in California where they are used.

FOr further reading, consult the Wines & Vines article, Wine Grape Pesticide Facing Greater Scrutiny

Read This New York Times Editorial - Please: Calamity for Our Most Beneficial Insect

If I could, I would just copy and paste this oped piece into my blog. But you're not supposed to. So please read this on their site:

New York Times Editorial: Calamity for Our Most Beneficial Insect.

And ask your local winemakers not to use neonicotinoids and ask your local, state and federal legislators to pay attention to what the EU is doing (close to banning it) and what the EPA is not doing (and has been sued by beekeepers to do).

My journalism mentor when I first entered the profession, shortly after graduating from college in 1977, was a NYTimes editorial board member, James P. Brown, a Quaker, who wrote oped pieces. (He's long since passed away.) I am proud to see them continuing to say the right thing.

Mark Moffett on Colbert Report on Bees

I had the pleasure of seeing Mark Moffett today at a conference at U.C. Berkeley today. The Indiana Jones of insect researchers, the National Geographic photographer and Smithsonian bug expert appeared recently on the Colbert Report.

Of course, wine pesticides are endangering bees...here more about why we need bees:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Mark Moffett
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

For more, see here: http://www.pollinator.org/

Greenhorns Night in SF's Hipster Heartland (The Mission)

The Greenhorns presented two short films, a three person panel, community Q and A, and social time tonight. I learned about Napa bees from Rob Keller, Mendocino Organics from Paula Manalo, and Little City Gardens (for-profit urban farm) from Brooke Budner, all embodying novel and innovative approaches to agricultural issues.

From the wine/vinelands perspective, Napa Valley Bee Company works with wineries and local municipalities to reintroduce bee-friendly plants into the landscape, where monoculture has decreased their numbers. Rob Keller, proprietor and bee expert, talked about his mobile bee education lab (in a converted Airstream) which invites public participation - and fascination.

He is currently working on breeding bees particularly suited to the local conditions.

Stanford-educated Paula Manalo, one of the editors of the new Greenhorns Book, highlighted what she and her partner Adam Gaska, a Redwood Valley native and local farmer, are doing on vineyards in Redwood Valley and Potter Valley in Mendocino (both places near and dear to my heart). The two are Mendocino Organics, which is sort of "infill" agriculture (my made-up terminology), bringing livestock and poultry into symbiotic relationships in vineyard fields. They also grow vegetables, primarily at Heart Arrow Ranch, a biodynamic vineyard and farm. Mendocino Organics is the couple's CSA, providing locally raised meat and vegetables to 22-40+ members seasonally, as well as supplying Bar Agricole, a restaurant in SF, with produce, lamb and pork.

Brooke Budner of Little City Gardens talked about her 1 acre SF garden, which is a for profit company that grows vegetables for sale. She distinguished it from other urban farms, which are run by educational or nonprofit organizations. Brooke was instrumental in getting the city to overturn and rewrite ordinances that prevented people from growing food (as a business) in residential areas.

Here's the night in pix:


The Greenhorns also released their new book (a DVD was already available) - which you can find out more about here:

Bee Colony Collapse Likely Related to Commonly Used Systemic Pesticides

I don't usually blog about pesticides unless they relate to wine grapes but this story got my attention and I wanted to share it.

Dan Rather's news reports recently (in 2011) returned to examine bee colony collapse and the use of systemic pesticides, following up on an investigation it had aired in 2006.

The pesticides are suspected as the primary culprit in bee colony collapse and have been banned in a number of countries in Europe.

 In the story, there is an interview with bee researchers at UPenn who have found that bees they are looking at have as many as 38 different pesticides in them - a chemical cocktail that scientists point out has never been studied.

See the video for more. (There are three segments - interspersed with another news story).

 Especially alarming is the fact that the EPA is not moving to take action against a substance which, experts in the video say, may be responsible for the collapse of the food chain.
 
Bee Aware from Greg Stanley on Vimeo.