Good Health v/s Chronic Disease

Bayer AG and the death of the birds
by F. William Engdahl*

Source:  VoltaireNet.org

Bayer AG Drug Giant

Believed to be behind the decline in bee populations that has swept across many parts of the world, a new class of insecticides marketed by German chemicals giant Bayer AG is now suspected of causing the decimation of bird species. It is so effective at killing insects, that it has deprived birds of their basic food. F. William Engdahl points an accusing finger at a system where corporations fund the research, the scientists and government agents, thus making sure all the cards are stacked in their favor.

The German chemicals giant Bayer AG is again coming under fire for releasing chemicals onto the market with highly alarming apparent side effects. Earlier US and German authorities investigated whether Bayer CropScience brand, Poncho, their best selling pesticide, played a role in the alarming and mysterious death of entire bee colonies. Now scientists in Holland are examining what is causing the sudden decline of bird population in Europe. The prime suspect is a revolutionary new form of pesticide containing a “systemic” insect killer called neonicotinoid. The leading maker is Bayer AG’s subsidiary, Bayer CropScience, which is also the GMO division of Bayer.
( Continue Reading )

Studies being done at the Experimental Toxicology Services in Zutphen, the Netherlands, indicate that a relatively new class of insecticide, known as the neonicotinoids, may be causing the widespread death of birds as well as of insects, especially bees, which if so, is catastrophic and not just for lovers of the birds and bees.

Across Europe in recent years there has been observed a dramatic decline in bird populations. Many species of bird have suffered a population crash including house sparrow, common swift or starlings. Since 1977, Britain’s house-sparrow population has fallen by 68 per cent. The common swift has suffered a 41 per cent fall in numbers since 1994, and the starling 26 per cent. The story is similar for woodland birds and farmland birds.

The Zutphen study is being led by Henk Tennekes who has just published a book, The Systemic Insecticides: A Disaster in the Making. Tennekes draws all available scientific evidence to conclude that neonicotinoids are causing a catastrophe in the insect world, which is having a deadly effect for many sorts of birds.

Even in China?

Honey Bee's

Tennekes says, “The evidence shows that the bird species suffering massive decline since the 1990s rely on insects for their diet,” he says. He believes that the insect world is no longer thriving, and that birds that feed on insects are short on food. In the 1990’s Bayer AG and other pesticide manufacturers introduced a revolutionary new class of insecticide chemical – the neonicotinoids. Beekeepers were the first people to notice a problem, as their bees began to desert their hives and die, a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

The first cases were in France in 1994, but the bee death epidemic quickly fanned out across Europe, and by 2006 CCD reached the US too. In China reportedly the lack of bees has become so serious that farmers in some regions are already resorting to pollinating their crops by hand. Are pesticide chemicals like those of Bayer AG’s systemic neonicotinoids to blame?

Between 2006 and 2009 one third of American beekeepers reported cases of colony collapse. Aside from the loss of revenue in honey sales, this is worrying news because honey bees are one of the world’s most important pollinators, and 35 per cent of agricultural crops rely on pollinators. (Continued on Page 2)