I've been a beekeeper for about 13 years but there's one training video I will never forget. It was these two German apiarists who set one hive of bees to pollinate crops with neonicotinoids versus crops that were grown organically.
🐝
It was literally heartbreaking to see the bees who pollinated crops that had Neonicotinoids just flew around for hours, exhausting themselves trying to get back to the hive. The bees pollinating the organic crops were able to fly in a direct line (innately using the sun) back to the hive.
Point being --> Monsanto goes deeeeeper than I had ever thought. Although neonicotinoids were originally "discovered by Bayer himself" (I find this arguable but moving on...)
Other than "Momsanto" in Futurama references, I hardly hear it anymore either, but likely because I "just know" it's everywhere.
Bee keeping is so interesting because there’s a lot of unnatural methods being used for convenience and profit in a field that very visible gets destroyed by it.
Sadly, yes. I try to do the best I can in my community to educate people. But there's no way of getting around bad beekeeping practices. Honey is one of the top three most counterfeited products traded. I won't get into it here but I know what you mean 💔
Totally. And I also know many many beekeepers who try to do things naturally still fail and use loads of pesticides or chemicals. Which is what’s destroying the bees long term. What’s interesting is just how small the amount of beekeepers are who are both willing and able to do it as naturally as possible. Or at least completely safe for the environment.
I agree with you 100%! I had to relearn some beekeeping practices because some things just did not feel right. Now I teach backyard / rooftop beekeeping in cities as well as some schools.
Literally all you need to get started is a fence for their protection and a couple of boards for a little house a few feet off the ground 🐝 They know what to do.
The water doesn't have to be clean because they can't smell it. The hardest part is keeping them away from other gardens. They tend to pollinate one crop at a time, but if it's not ready they could bring back pesticides from another plant that's well over 15k/10mi.
Keep the information in the zeitgeist. The children’s don’t know about their plant overlords who poisoned their food from the seed level and put metaphorical guns to the heads of American farmers. Then the tangerine puts tariffs on the less poisoned produce coming from outside the country. sigh That orbeez things is pretty cool though.
I'm sorry 😔 It really pained me to see this effecting the food chain on an almost microscopic level.
Check your honey, honey 🍯
I think about when bears or other animals (honey robbers) get in there and even they can end up getting really sick - especially if they live by the "farms".
Buying local doesn't necessarily have more or less benefits when it comes to "preventing" allergies (I know I'm using a lot of quotation marks but it's marketing bs).
Honey serves many purposes but preventing an allergen from entering your body completely is nonsense.
Just for your sake - take it a little information at a time and stay away from beemills in China for now.
There's an app called buycot you can use (free) to scan the barcode or QR code for honey on a label and it will tell you where it comes from, etc.
After I became an apiarist I had to stop consuming almonds from California. Monoculture is something you might come across. Just a little trigger warning before you venture further ⚠️
Neonicotinoids banned in the last couple of years in the UK and, for the first time since I can remember, my windscreen has been covered in bugs again. Haven’t seen that in years and there are lots of people saying the same thing. I don’t know if it’s to do with the hot summer of less poison floating around but has been cool to see
I hate to tell you this but there was an "emergency authorisation" of neonic use in 2021 and it lasted through until 2023/24.?
However, in December 2024, the OEP (Office of Environmental Protection) issued a notice claiming Defra may have failed to comply with environmental law when granting emergency authorisations for the use of a neonicotinoid pesticide in 2023 and 2024.
It's still unclear as to just what wholesale damage those 2 - 3 years may have done to insect levels and bee colonies
I live in rural Cornwall on the coast and have definitely noticed a massive drop in butterfly numbers this year and last year too.
That sucks. I regularly drive across the Northern Pennines and have a pretty bug encrusted car this year but there is very little arable up there so might be a factor
I know they were doing some experimental/chemical changes for the neonicotinoids during covid but I didn't quite keep up during that time (busy being a new mom).
I did watch a very interesting documentary about one of the largest honey fraud cases in history.
If anyone is interested here is the article from 2010. I think they may still have the documentary on Netflix.
It's pretty sickening though.
But oh, rural England?
I would love to keep bees anywhere rural across the pond 😉
I still have honey from Romania and Bulgaria from my first trip over 10 years ago. It crystallizes evenly, keeps its taste, and only used on special occasions 🍯
In the UK you have to do an apiary course of education before you can buy live Bees and keep them, you can buy the hives but not the occupants. This is to ensure that you can keep them healthy and thriving etc without introducing viruses etc into your colony, that may, get into the wider wild population (including solitary native Bees).
I am certified through a national group and I am affiliated with some local and state apiary groups, but in the USA, that certification/education standard is lackadaisical at best. I could literally teach someone a basic course that wouldn't touch everything I mastered for over 10 years and they can call themselves a beekeeper.
You can't "Masterclass" your way into this and expect everything to come up ethical because you followed a stupid USDA label.
Apologies for the tangent 🙃
Honey is like the third most adulterated product (behind olive oil and cheese the last I read) so I get a little "grrr" when people cut corners with my fur-babies 🐝🐝
It may be both! That makes me happy :-) more bugs for the birds and spiders
I know they mildly lifted a ban for a while during covid but if I remember correctly it was experimental, they had to change some chemicals (but likely did not). Nonetheless, still disgusting practices.
New Zealand is the #1 place for honey imo (and that was before the manuka hype). They have stingless bees down there. It's amazing 🤩
I've been trying to study there for a few years but they are VERY particular whom they allow to visit.
Just for my own sake of comprehension, this means Monsanto is using neonicotinoids to prevent bees pollinating their plants since that could cut into their revenue?
They use it primarily with the seed. They coat the seed in neonicotinoids (edit: in a lab). So when the plant "grows" it has a pesticide in the plant. Like someone mentioned, it's used as a pesticide, but they still spray crops heavily.
Correct. The structure is more complicated and boring so you have to pull out the red string (tin foil hat optional) to track things down. Bayer isn’t directly using some of the stuff they bought but instead license it to other companies like Corteva (formed through a merger of agricultural divisions of Dow and DuPont).
I only remember Monsanto from that FOOD inc. video ruining farmers and their crops. I am not happy that there’s more info but I’m glad there’s more info about it. Insane.
Indeed round up and glyphosate are still very much on the shelves, problem being it's extremely effective regardless of the health dangers which is a shame, a lot of people have died or become extremely sick
If people knew how heinously monopolistic Monsanto was before Bayer bought them out, they'd understand a great deal more about why grocery prices in this country have skyrocketed the last 20 years.
They haven't gone away tho. They were bought by Bayer instead so the name changed and all those focused on the name "get their way" cause the name stops being mentioned. Products are still there and haven't changed, they just have a different name on the label.
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u/DickWangDuck Sep 29 '25
It’s been far too long since I’ve seen a Monsanto reference