A lack of regulatory oversight in the financial services industry has led to the crisis that currently engulfs the United States economy. So far, more than 700 billion taxpayer dollars have been used to bailout financial services firms that were allowed by government regulators to make improper and highly risky loans.

However, the problem of a gross lack of government regulatory oversight may not be confined only to the financial services industry. A lack of regulatory oversight of a new class of pesticides may also be responsible for the mystery of the disappearing bee called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

The fact is that in the last few years close to two million colonies of honeybees across the US have been wiped out by CCD. It is now estimated that up to 60% of honey bees in the United States have suddenly disappeared since they have not returned to their hives while the reason still remains unclear.

Internationally, the problem of Colony Collapse Disorder is responsible for billions of disappearing bees in Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Taiwan, and the UK. A lack of commercial honey bee pollination is devastating to agriculture. Ninety crops worldwide depend on honey bee pollination as does the cotton plant.

The problem may have started five years ago when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted a registration for a new pesticide manufactured by Bayer Crop Science called Clothianidin. The registration was granted under the condition that Bayer submit future studies about its product’s impact on bees. Unfortunately, to this day the EPA has refused to disclose the results of the studies, or even if the studies were ever submitted.

This lack of EPA transparency on Bayer’s pesticide led to a lawsuit several months ago by the Natural Resources Defense Council in order to uncover the information. There is a real fear among beekeepers that that the US government has approved pesticides without any documented understanding of the risks posed by these chemicals to bees.

In addition to the United States, Bayer Corporation also produces the pesticide under different names for Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Hungary, Mexico, New Zealand, and the UK, to treat seeds for corn and canola.

In the global community Bayers pesticide Clothianidin (which is in a subclass of pesticides known as Neonicotinoids) has been gaining attention for its adverse impact on bees. As a result of bee loss, Clothianidin was banned last year in Germany and a similar insecticide was banned in France in 2006.

Recently crops where seed was treated with another Bayer pesticide in the Neonicotinoid subclass called Imidacloprid were tested for its impact on bees. The result of this research found that Imidacloprid impairs the memory and brain metabolism of bees. So, this research could provide a possible explanation for the reason that bees never return to their hives.

Several months ago, CCD researchers from Pennsylvania State University announced a shocking research discovery at the 236th American Chemical Society Meeting.

They announced that they found that more than 70 different pesticides (used to protect agricultural crops) and metabolites of those pesticides were discovered in the pollen and bees in hives identified with CCD.

In the United States all these suspect pesticides are still in agricultural use despite a growing consensus among many bee specialists that pesticides in the Neonicotinoid family, including clothianidin and its chemical cousins, may be contributing to CCD.

A lack of government transparency and the lack of regulatory oversight are symptoms of the current financial services crisis. Similar to the financial services industry, U.S. Agro-business is an important factor in financing political campaigns. As a result, the same problems seen in the lax regulation of the financial services industry may well be creating a new crisis in the agricultural industry.

Before the integrity of the food supply becomes a new national crisis, the United States should follow the lead of Germany and France. Previously approved Neonicotinoid pesticides should be banned by the EPA. Indeed, the government needs to take immediate action to bailout the bee from CCD.

http://www.eworldvu.com