Tag Archives: Neonicotinoids

Canada and pesticides – a letter to the Health Minister

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To: Honourable Rona Ambrose rona.ambrose@parl.gc.ca

Minister of Health

Canada

Dated: Friday, May 9, 2014

Hon. Rona Ambrose

Subject: Canada’s continued approval of Pesticides that may be harmful – and a request for a talk for a podcast.

Dear Honourable Minister Amrbose,

I am a retired Marine Engineer and a citizen journalist, blogger, podcaster and a videographer that has been involved with food security and seed independence issues and their relevance to Canadian sovereignty and sustainability.

I write this to request you, or your representative, to consider speaking with me, preferably on record, to cover the issue of the Canadian Govt’s continued acceptance of potentially harmful chemicals that are banned elsewhere.

I have been speaking with and meeting relevant people across the planet that are involved in some way or another to raise awareness, or act, to protect both the environment and the food web for the world population. This act sometimes comes in conflict with the efforts of some corporations that wish to maximize profit through agriculture models that allow promotion of mono-culture crops as well as a monopoly hold on the food business through patented technology.

I write to you with regard to the Neonicotinoid pesticides and their possible link with the collapse of the bee populations, both honey bees and other bees, that are instrumental not just in honey gathering, but in pollination of plants. Apart from bees, the neonicotinoids may be involved with the death of many other kids of insects that are outside of our radar right now, but are part of the planet biomass and therefore important ingredients of our environment.

One of the key scientists that actually conducted field tests, not lab tests in artificial conditions, of effects of Neonicotinoid pesticides in bumble bees in Europe is Dr. Dave Goulson of UK. His research papers so rattled the EU government that it triggered a ban of these pesticides for at least two years, while more substantive tests are ordered to find if Neonicotinoid pesticides could be directly involved with population collapse of bees and other insects.

I have spoken with Dave Goulson personally, and have edited that talk and put it up as an audio podcast for the general public. I would encourage you to listen to it. It is at : http://www.tonu.org/2013/06/06/dave-goulson/

Now, to best of my knowledge, Canada has not conducted independent direct investigation of the effects of these pesticides on bees and how it might or might not affect Canadian Nature, its flora and fauna. Further, Canada may actually not have any institution that is capable of conducting such investigations and yet is not funded either by the corporations that have a vested interest in the outcome, or where the scientists that conduct such investigations cannot be fired or gagged by the Canadian Government that, for whatever reason, may not want to find problems with these pesticides. In other words, Canada may be incapable of finding unvarnished truth about safety concerns relating to these poisons.

As you are surely aware, several environment groups such as David Suzuki Foundation, Eco-justice etc are challenging Health Canada to review its continued acceptance of a number of potentially harmful chemicals that are banned in other parts of the world for the health risks they pose.

I am scheduled to speak with some representatives of these groups, on record, so as to edit and put up their comments as public podcasts for the people to learn. My blog and podcasts are not super popular, but they are beginning to get some traction, with between 600 and 1,000 hits a day and a fairly global reach, but more concentrated in North America, Europe and India.

I include a map of recent hits on my blogs and podcasts / videos of the last 48 hours, as provided by the built in apps of WordPress, for your reference.

So, I end this letter with a request to either speak with me at your convenience, or provide information as to how the Canadian Govt is being prudent in safeguarding interests of the people and the environment of Canada and not narrow short term economic goals of corporations at the expense of everything else. In absence of possibility of a direct talk, I should also be happy to receive a written response.

For public awareness, I intend to make this letter public, possibly on my blog or on Facebook or twitter. Should I receive a response from your Government, I shall be most glad to also put that up for public consumption, including an audio podcast, if any.

With many thanks

Tony Mitra

10891 Cherry Lane, Delta, BC, V4E 3L7, Canada

604-649 7535, tony.mitra@gmail.com, www.tonu.org

Dave Goulson on Neonicotinoid insecticide affecting wellbeing of bees

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There is a marked difference to the attitude of people across the atlantic, when it comes to acceptance of industrial chemicals into our food system, and Europe is providing to be more cautious than North America. The case of neonicotinoids insecticide is an example. The EU have imposed temporary ban on a few of these chemical, whereas there is no similar movement in the North American continent that I know of. This ban was based on a few high end research done on the effect of these insect nerve agents. There are many news articles from Europe that cover this story, as exampled here in the screen shot on the British news outlet – The Guardian. You can click on the image and go to the source.

One of the important scientific reports that was pivotal in EU reaching a decision to ban some neonicotinoids was done by Prof. Dave Goulson, currently with the University of Sussex in the UK. He was gracious enough to speak with me on phone for the purpose of this podcast.

Prof. Goulson studied Biology at Oxford University, and did a PhD on butterfly ecology at Oxford Brookes University. THen he served as a lecturer at University of Southampton for 11 years, where he specialized in bumblebee ecology and conservation. In 2006 he became Professor of Biology and Stirling University and in 2006, founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, a charity devoted to reversing bumblebee declines. In 2013 he moved to Sussex University.

Dave Goulson

Dave Goulson

Dr. Goulson has published over 200 scientific articles on the ecology of bees and other insects, and am author of “Bumblebees; their behaviour, ecology and conservation (2010, Oxford University Press)” and “A Sting in the Tale (2013, Jonathan Cape)”, a popular science book about bumblebees.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2010 I was BBSRC “Social Innovator of the Year” and in 2013 I won the Marsh Award for Conservation Biology from the Zoological Society of London. The conversation is presented here is just under 40 minutes long.

The most recent book that he wrote – A Sting in the Tale” (not tail), is available in north America as an e-book for Amazon kindle or Apple iPad as well as in hardcover. I have downloaded the first few pages of the book in my iPad as a sample, and intend to buy the full book, from what I read already. The book promises to be a good science book on the bees but with a humorous tone that attempts to keep the uninitiated reader glued to the tale, and an essential read for those concerned about ecology and sustainability the natural plant world around us and its intimate and complicated relationship with insects, and other small organisms.

 

The 40 minute conversation is converted here as a podcast. You can listen to it directly by clicking the play button at the bottom this page.

Contact Tony Mitra.