Did Your Bread Die? Monster High, and Going Away Honey?

Did your Bread  Die? Monster High, and Going Away, Honey?

Heard a report on NPR about a wheat field in Oregon.  It was planted with non-GMO wheat.  But there was one plant of GMO wheat created by Monsanto in that field and no one can figure out where it came from.

All the Rest of the wheat in that field Died.  The GMO wheat Killed the non-GMO wheat.  I don't want wheat from That field, do you?

Dolls, can you Believe it?

Another report said Monster High dolls are outselling Barbies.  Only complaint, too scrawny.  Evidently girls 6 to 12 years identify and so do some of us grown ups.  Question:  How could one family Afford Thirty of them?

Going Away, Honey?

Bees are dying. It's up to us to save them.

Last month, 50,000 dead bees were discovered littering a parking lot in Oregon. Then

last week, a shocking 37 million bees were reported dead across a single farm in

Ontario.

After years of research, scientists have finally figured out what’s causing the massive

bee die-offs all around the world, from China to the UK: It’s a class of dangerous

pesticides called neonics. And here’s the wildest thing --

even though we know they’re killing the bees, in most parts of the world, neonics

are still in widespread use.

Independent American garden store owners are critical to the fight to stop neonics

and save the bees. If you live in the US, your local garden store owner down the

street probably sells neonics to your neighbors, who are in turn spraying them on

their flowers and poisoning bees all around you. Collectively,

these independent garden stores are the largest single group of commercial pesticide

distributors in the world.

That’s why Bonide, one of the largest corporate producers of neonics, is spending

a pile of cash to try to buy the trust of these small business people.

 This August, Bonide is sponsoring the largest gathering of independent garden store

owners in the world: The Independent Garden Center Show in Chicago. Bonide’s name

-- and their spin -- will be everywhere: From the conference program to the exhibit

hall.

We can’t allow the pesticide industry to have the only voice there. So we came up

with a crazy plan:

We want to fly in activist beekeepers who’ve been watching their bees die for years,

and buy them tickets to the conference. They’ll take their case directly to the garden

center owners

 -- talking to them at their booths, distributing scientific research, holding press

conferences and more. They’ll get the convention buzzing about the dangers of neonics,

and convert garden center owners to the side of science, the bees, and our environment.

Will you chip in $4 today to fly beekeepers to Chicago, to fight back against pesticide industry spin at the largest annual gathering of independent garden store owners in the world?

The corporations that make neonics, like Bonide and Bayer, are on the defensive.

Thanks in part to intense grassroots activism, the EU just implemented a trial ban

against neonics for the next two years. But we have to keep up the momentum

 if we want to save bees worldwide -- and the US is the next key battleground.

The global pesticide industry will do anything to protect its profits -- and as usual,

the US is ground zero for corporations trying to ward off regulation at any cost.

Neonics corporations are following the playbook written by Big Tobacco regarding

lung cancer and Big Oil on climate change

 -- pouring millions into lobbying and fake science to stop decision-makers from

taking action. They’re pumping out their own industry-backed studies to undermine

the work of legitimate scientists, then claiming that there isn’t enough conclusive

evidence to make a decision -- that we should continue to wait, for years, while

the bees die off.

And Big Pesticide is also taking its spin straight to America’s independent garden

store owners -- because the prospect of these small business owners turning against

them is terrifying. That’s why Bonide is sponsoring the conference in Chicago --

and it’s why we have to make sure the bees’ interests are represented in full force.

The best people to speak for the bees are beekeepers themselves.

 If together we can raise at least $30,000, we can bus in a swarm of friendly beekeepers

from across the region, buy them conference tickets, put them up in nearby hotels,

print flyers and banners for them, and hold a huge press conference. If we raise

enough money, we will even be able to fly in activists from Oregon that helped pass

the neonics ban there.

As the garden store owners pour into the convention hall, we want them to be met

by

this swarm of friendly beekeepers telling their stories.

 Once they return home, they’ll be as fired up as we are, and will sow the seeds

of a national movement to get neonics off the market for good.

If independent garden stores stopped selling the bee-killing pesticides, it would

be a huge blow to the neonics industry

 and create massive additional momentum for legislation to save the bees. And the

best part of all: Once independent garden stores begin banning neonics, the pressure

will double down on major retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s to follow suit.

Can you donate $4 today to bring the bees’ plight to the attention of the small business people who are selling neonics in local communities?

The bee die-offs in Oregon and Ontario aren’t flukes. This winter, the British Beekeepers

Association recorded its worst loss in its history. In China, the situation has gotten

so bad that farmers are forced to hand-pollinate their trees.

In the biggest kill yet, a large commercial beekeeper in the United States watched

in helpless horror as a mind-boggling 500 million of his bees died “like crazy” --

80% of his entire total.

Neonics are made to be water-soluble, so the vast majority is washed off the seeds

in the first rainstorm. Over 90% of the pesticide washes away, to end up in the soil

and groundwater, where they will persist for years -- the pesticides break down incredibly

slowly, so that every year the crops are sprayed again, 80% of the pesticide from

the previous year is still in the soil. Over the years, the surrounding ground and

water continues to get more and more toxic, to the point that the pesticide is working

its way up the food chain and killing off birds.

We are reaching the point where our global ecosystem is straining, and the threat

to the bees is becoming a threat to all of us.

 As bees die off, up to a third of the food we consume is threatened, and food prices

are already being affected around the world. That’s why we have to step up now to

get out the truth. Big pesticide companies may be trying to rewrite the record, but

together the SumOfUs community can help cut through the noise and ensure the safety

of our ecosystem for future generations.

Click here to join with SumOfUs members all over the world to crowdfund a swarm of activist beekeepers to take on the pesticide industry in Chicago.

Thank you for fighting for the bees,

Kaytee, Claiborne, Taren, and the rest of us

**********

More information:

The New York Times:

Mystery Malady Kills More Bees; Heightening Worry on Farms

, 28 March, 2013

The New York Times:

2 Studies Point to Common Pesticide as a Culprit in Declining Bee Colonies

, 29 March 2012

 SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations

accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.

You can follow us on

Twitter

, and like us on

Facebook

.

Was this email forwarded to you?

Click here

 to add yourself to SumOfUs.