A petition to sign (see below):
Europe has had the courage to place a moratorium on neonicotinic pesticides since many scientists suspect that the widespread use of these toxins seems to have the world’s bees dropping, er, like flies. Bayer is, like a good, immortal “corporate person,” suing the pants off Europe for placing insects, pollination and the long term health of the biosphere above Bayer’s somewhat narrower goals.
But the keepers of the coffers of the 0.00001% need not worry. There is usually some addled, bug-hating despot or dualistic believer somewhere who’s prepared to let his mega-farmers play with your poisons. Or, if not, there’s always newly Stats-Free Canada, where anything profitable, no matter how temporary, goes.
Here’s an earlier post of mine that alerted the reader when the lawsuit by Bayer and Syngenta first became news.
Now “Health Canada” (note the current irony in this Orwellian newspeak) is ruling very soon on whether to try out another unspellable Bayer systemic pesticide (a better term might be systemic killer. “Pesticide” is a narrow, misleading term because it masks the fact that other hugely important organisms in our biosphere are caught in the same “net.”). The province of Ontario is looking at possibly banning the sale of neonicotinoids here. Ontario did ban cosmetic “pesticide” sales for lawns in April 2009. Only the federal government has the power to ban toxic chemicals outright. Now, that’s a scary thought.
What does a chemical corporation do when scary evidence starts to mount against one of their insufficiently pre-tested products?
Bring out another, similar product and find some patsy willing to test it on real farms with real consequences. That’s what.
Please sign the latest petition from sumofus.org asking Health Canada to reject Bayer’s plan. In your thinking on this issue please consider the well being of seven generations of humans AND pollinators, on whom we humans depend. This should trump the well being of corporations such as Bayer, who should be serving a wider community than their shareholders.
mightyturk 