French Honeybee Study Linking Pesticides And Colony Collapse Called Into Question

By Chris Wickham

LONDON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - British scientists have shot down a study on declining honeybee populations that triggered a French ban on a pesticide made by Swiss agrochemicals group Syngenta.

France's farm minister Stephane Le Foll withdrew Syngenta's marketing permit for the pesticide Cruiser OSR in June, citing evidence of a threat to the country's bees.

But a study by Britain's Food and Environment Agency with the University of Exeter says the results of the original research were flawed.

The study, published in the journal Science, does not deny that pesticides could be harmful to individual bees but argues there is no evidence they cause the collapse of whole colonies.

"We do not yet have definitive evidence of the impact of these insecticides on honeybees and we should not be making any decisions on changes to policy on their use," said James Cresswell, the ecotoxicologist who led the latest study.

The previous research, led by French scientist Mikaël Henry and published in Science in April, showed the death rate of bees increased when they drank nectar laced with the neonicotinoid pesticide, thiamethoxam, the active ingredient in Cruiser OSR.

Henry's work calculated this would cause a bee colony to collapse completely but Cresswell said the French study seems to have used an inappropriately low birth rate, underestimating the rate at which colonies can recover from the loss of bees.

"They modelled a colony that isn't increasing in size and what we know is that in springtime when oilseed rape is blossoming they increase rapidly," Cresswell told Reuters.

The French study has been cited by scientists, environmentalists and policy-makers as evidence of the impact of these pesticides on bees, which are declining around the world.

"We know that neonicotinoids affect honeybees, but there is no evidence that they could cause colony collapse," said Cresswell. "When we repeated the previous calculation with a realistic birth rate, the risk of colony collapse under pesticide exposure disappeared."

Cresswell said Henry's research also used a dosage of pesticide equivalent to a whole day's intake by the bees, akin to testing the effect of coffee on people by making them drink eight cups in one go, rather than spread out over the day.

Henry was not immediately available for comment.

Neonicotinoids are among the most widely-used agricultural insecticides.

"I am definitely not saying that pesticides are harmless to honeybees, but I think everyone wants to make decisions based on sound evidence, and our research shows that the effects of thiamethoxam are not as severe as first thought," the British scientist said.

(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

The GMO debate is over; GM crops must be immediately outlawed; Monsanto halted from threatening humanity

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor 

(NaturalNews) The GMO debate is over. There is no longer any legitimate, scientific defense of growing GM crops for human consumption. The only people still clinging to the outmoded myth that "GMOs are safe" are scientific mercenaries with financial ties to Monsanto and the biotech industry.

GMOs are an anti-human technology. They threaten the continuation of life on our planet. They are a far worse threat than terrorism, or even the threat of nuclear war.

As a shocking new study has graphically shown, GMOs are the new thalidomide. When rats eat GM corn, they develop horrifying tumors. Seventy percent of females die prematurely, and virtually all of them suffer severe organ damage from consuming GMO. These are the scientific conclusions of the first truly "long-term" study ever conducted on GMO consumption in animals, and the findings are absolutely horrifying. (See pictures of rats with tumors, below.)

What this reveals is that genetic engineering turns FOOD into POISON.

Remember thalidomide? Babies being born with no arms and other heart-breaking deformities? Thalidomide was pushed as "scientific" and "FDA approved." The same lies are now being told about GMO: they're safe. They're nutritious. They will feed the world!

But the real science now coming out tells a different picture: GMOs may be creating an entire generation of cancer victims who have a frighteningly heightened risk of growing massive mammary gland tumors caused by the consumption of GM foods. We are witnessing what may turn out to be the worst and most costly blunder in the history of western science: the mass poisoning of billions of people with a toxic food crop that was never properly tested in the first place.

Remember: GMOs are an anti-human technology. And those who promote them are, by definition, enemies of humankind.

GMOs are unfit for human consumption

The evidence keeps emerging, day after day, that GMOs are absolutely and without question unfit for human consumption. France has already launched an investigation that may result in the nation banning GM corn imports. It's already illegal to grow genetically modified crops in France, but the nation still allows GMO imports, meaning France still allows its citizens to be poisoned by imported GM corn grown in America.

The GMO industry, not surprisingly, doesn't want any independent research conducted on GMOs. They don't want long-term feeding trials, and they most certainly do not want studies conducted by scientists they can't control with financial ties.

What they want is to hide GMOs in products by making sure they're not listed on the labels. Hence the biotech industry's opposition to Proposition 37 (www.CArighttoknow.org).

The tactics of the biotech industry are:

• HIDE genetically modified ingredients in foods
• FALSIFY the research to claim GMOs are safe
• MANIPULATE the scientific debate by bribing scientists
• DENY DENY DENY just like Big Tobacco, DDT, thalidomide, Agent Orange and everything else that's been killing us over the last century

Monsanto is now the No. 1 most hated corporation in America. The company's nickname is MonSatan. It is the destructive force behind the lobbying of the USDA, FDA, scientists and politicians that have all betrayed the American people and given in to genetically modified seeds.

These seeds, some of which grow their own toxic pesticides right inside the grain, are a form of chemical brutality against children and adults. This is "child abuse" at its worst. It's an abuse of all humans. It is the most serious crime ever committed against nature and all of humankind.

Science for sale

That's what you get with payola science... science "for sale" to wealthy corporations. Nearly all the studies that somehow conclude GMO are safe were paid for by the biotech industry. Every one of those studies is unreliable and most likely fraudulent. Every scientist that conducts "research" for Monsanto is almost certainly a sellout at minimum... and more likely a jackal operative working for anindustry of death.

Corporate science is fraudulent science. When enough money is at stake, scientists can be bought off to even declare smoking cigarettes to be safe. And they did, throughout the 1950's, 60's and 70's. Some of those very same scientists are now working for the Monsantos of the world, peddling their scientific fraud to the highest bidder (which always happens to be a wealthy corporation).

There is no poison these scientists won't promote as safe -- even "good for you!" There is no limit to their evil. There are no ethics that guide their actions.

GMO-promoting scientists are the most despicable humanoid creatures to have ever walked the surface of this planet. To call them "human" is an insult to humanity. They are ANTI-human. They are demonic. They are forces of evil that walk among the rest of us, parading as authorities when in their hearts and souls they are actually corporate cowards and traitors to humankind. To pad their own pockets, they would put at risk the very future of sustainable life on our planet... and they do it consciously, insidiously. They feed on death, destruction, suffering and pain. They align with the biotech industry precisely because they know that no other industry is as steeped in pure evil as the biotech industry. GMO pushers will lie, cheat, steal, falsify and even mass-murder as many people as it takes to further their agenda of total global domination over the entire food supply... at ANY cost.

This is war at the genetic level. And this kind of war makes bullets, bombs and nukes look downright tame by comparison. Because the GMO war is based on self-replicating genetic pollution which has already been released into the environment; into the food supply; and into your body.

The hundreds of millions of consumers who eat GMO are being murdered right now, with every meal they consume... and they don't even know it. GMO-pimping scientists are laughing at all the death they're causing. They enjoy tricking people and watching them die because it makes their sick minds feel more powerful. These were the geeks in school who were bullied by the jocks. But now, with the power of genetic manipulation at their fingertips, they can invoke their hatred against all humankind and "bully" the entire world with hidden poisons in the food. That makes them smile. It's the ultimate revenge against a world that mistreated them in their youth. Death to everyone!

Society must respond in defense of life on Earth

The sheer brutality of what the GMO industry has committed against us humanity screams out for a decisive response. It is impossible to overreact to this. No collective response goes too far when dealing with an industry that quite literally threatens the very basis of life on our planet.

To march government SWAT teams into the corporate headquarters of all GMO seed companies and shut down all operations at gunpoint would be a mild reaction -- and fully justified. To indict all biotech CEOs, scientists, employees and P.R. flacks and charge them with conspiring to commit crimes against humanity would be a small but important step in protecting our collective futures. To disband all these corporations by government order have their assets seized and sold off to help fund reparations to the people they have harmed is but a tiny step needed in the defense of life.

The truth is that humanity will never be safe until GMO seed pushers and manufacturers are behind bars, locked away from society and denied the ability to ever threaten humanity again.

What the Nuremberg trials did to IG Farben and other Nazi war crimes corporations, our own government must now do to Monsanto and the biotech industry.

It is time for decisive intervention. Monsanto must be stopped by the will of the People. The mass poisoning of our families and children by an evil, destructive corporation that seeks to dominate the world food supply must be halted.

The GMO debate is over. The horrors are now being revealed. The truth can no longer be hidden, and the reaction from the public cannot be stopped.

Prediction: Activist attacks on GM seeds and the criminals who promote them

The era of GMO deception is history. A food revolution is upon us. And if governments will not halt the mass poisoning of our world by evil corporations, I have no doubt that the People will, by themselves, eventually invoke other necessary methods of halting this great evil.

I predict a future where -- and for the record I DO NOT encourage this -- shipments of GM seeds to farmers are raided and destroyed by activists. I predict Monsanto employees being publicly named and shamed on websites. I predict -- but DO NOT CONDONE -- scientists who conduct research for Monsanto being threatened, intimidated and even physically attacked. Again, for the record, I DO NOT IN ANY WAY condone such behavior, but I predict it will emerge as an inevitable reaction to the unfathomable evil being committed by the GMO industry and all its co-conspirators. The "Army of the 12 monkeys" may become reality. (See the sci-fi movie "12 monkeys" starring Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis.)

What we are fighting for here is the protection of our species. We are fighting for the sanctity of life on our planet. Those who threaten that life must be stopped from continuing to harm us. This evil must be put back in its box and prevented from ever threatening us again.

Even Congress is starting to state the obvious on how evil Monsanto really is. Just yesterday, Congressman Dennis Kucinich demanded GMO labeling in a powerful speech. Watch that at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J_YvtbSSqg

Also, watch this video of the French scientists discussing how GMOs and Roundup caused grotesque cancer tumors to grow in mice:

MALI : Un problème économique et environnemental

Le véritable problème derrière la division actuelle du Mali est à mon humble avis moins religieux qu’il n’est environnemental. En court, le véritable problème ici était et demeure la source de vie : l’eau.
Malgré toute la rhétorique déclenchée par la prise du Nord du Mali, très peu de soi-disant experts sont allés plus loin que l’analyse politique du méli-mélo de Bamako et les déclarations enflammées des illuminés du Nord.
Il n’en demeure pas moins que l’eau demeure au centre du débat car il est aujourd’hui clair que la stratégie des salafistes a été de convaincre les Touaregs, choyés par le régime, de se révolter à nouveau pour réclamer un territoire difficile à définir car divisé entre Mali, Mauritanie, Niger et Algérie. Derrière ces revendications, les salafistes ont utilisés leur puissance de feu, hérité de la chute de Khadaffi pour s’assurer que cette fois ci, la rébellion ne serait pas noyautée par les faveurs venues de Bamako.
Cependant, il faut se demander si la classe politique de Bamako s’était attelée à développer les territoires du Nord au lieu de s’empâter  au bord du Djoliba, les salafistes auraient pu convaincre les Touaregs de servir de front à cette entreprise plus terroriste à mes yeux, que religieuse. La destruction du patrimoine mondial à l’un des premiers points de contact entre le monde arabo berbère et le monde noir est un crime des plus abominables car là demeurent les dernières traces de cette relation. Sachant que l’Afrique n’a pas vraiment su conserver les traces de son glorieux passé,  basé sur une tradition orale qui n’a pas vraiment survécu aux coups successifs de l’esclavage et de la colonisation.
Je persiste à croire que si plus de points d’eau avaient été créé dans le grand Nord Malien accompagné d’infrastructures au moins touristiques, il aurait été difficile pour les extrémistes religieux de convaincre les Touaregs de se soulever à nouveau. Les erreurs du Mali pour certains remontent plus loin, peut être au temps de Modibo Keita et de son forcing qui mènera à l’éclatement de le Fédération du Mali, qui aurait été un ensemble plus fort pour développer cet immense territoire. Cette erreur a surement été approfondie par les régimes successifs surtout par l’ex dictateur Moussa Traoré dont le manque de vision n’est plus à prouver. Mais ceux qui sont venus après lui ont aussi péché en se concentrant sur le nombril du pays, à savoir Bamako, la Belle. Au vu des avancées technologiques de nos jours, irriguer le Sahara ne relève plus de l’utopie. La construction d’usine de dessalement d’eau sur les côtes ouest  africaines (Sénégal, Mauritanie) pourrait renforcer les capacités du Fleuve Sénégal et du Fleuve Niger mais aussi aider à recréer des oasis dans des zones aujourd’hui désertiques sans parler de l’irrigation qui ressusciterait l’agriculture et l’élevage si cher aux Touaregs. A ce propos, il est drôle de constater que l’Arabie Saoudite qui est un constant soutien de nombreux pays sahéliens y compris le Mali et qui le premier pays en ce qui concerne le dessalement d’eau, ne se presse pas pour fournir cette technologie à des pays qui en besoin pour survivre, notamment les pays ou la désertification avance à grand pas.
Donc en résumé, nous nous trouvons aujourd’hui face à une crise militaro politique au nord du Mali aggravée par les errements de la CEDEAO combinés aux appétits grandissant de pouvoir des militaires de Kati. Ceux-ci font croire que juste l’équipement et la couverture aérienne suffiraient à la reconquête du Nord par les soldats maliens, ce dont je doute au vu de la puissance de feu et de l’aguerrissement des salafistes qui ont été renforcés par des vétérans de la guerre en Afghanistan et d’autres points chauds du globe.
Au passage, je trouve l’attitude misérable du Capitaine Sanogo qui attend de la CEDEAO qu’elle lui tire les marrons du feu, il pourrait ensuite avec l’aide de son compère Modibo Diarra, phagocyter le Président Diocounda Traoré fortement affaibli. Si la CEDEAO pouvait arrêter la dance du ventre devant l’homme de Kati, en lui signifiant que le danger au nord du Mali concerne l’Afrique de l’Ouest et non  juste le Mali. Il faudrait envisager avec l’accord des Nations Unies si possible, la mise sous tutelle du Mali afin de pouvoir intervenir efficacement pour extirper ce cancer qui menace un continent déjà lâché par le peloton du développement. Il ne faut pas risquer l’émergence de l’Afrique de l’Ouest à cause des ambitions démesurées d’un petit capitaine (qui n’est pas Thomas Sankara, loin de là) combinées à celle d’un homme qui il y a quelques années encore, représentait un exemple à émuler pour la jeunesse africaine, je veux parler de Cheikh Modibo Diarra dont l’irruption dans la vie politique s’est avérée une vraie catastrophe à tous les niveaux.
Deux hommes contre des millions de vie de citoyens ouest africains, je crois que le débat ne doit pas perdurer, il faut intervenir au nord du Mali sans ménagement mais aussi prévoir un plan de développement en bonne et due forme qui pourrait être basée sur l’énergie solaire et l’éolien qui abondent  dans la région. Seule cette stratégie pourrait assécher les bases des mouvements extrémistes qui se nourrissent de la pauvreté extrême des populations abandonnées par un pouvoir central lointain et clairement désintéressé.
Mais une fois cette hypothétique reconquête faite, le problème du Nord Malien demeurerait en l’état si des solutions pérennes ne sont pas promptement mises en œuvre. Ceci mettrait la bande sahélienne ainsi qu’une bonne partie de l’Afrique de l’Ouest encore à la merci de bande d’extrémistes de tout bord en mal de reconnaissance. Le développement à long terme est la seule arme réelle contre les problèmes récurrents militaro politiques qui retardent l’Afrique et sapent tous les efforts de développement sur le continent africain.