U.S. Bee Culture Magazine's Review of Henk Tennekes' Book "Disaster in the Making"

It is notable that this book and information on the scandal at EPA regarding registration of Bayer’s clothianidin become available at about the same time. EPA, brought on the carpet for grossly mishandling the registration due process of this chemical in part because of information first published in Bee Culture by Tom Theobald in July, certainly has some ‘splainin to do on their process, and the bureaucratic rug they swept their mess under when they allowed Bayer free rein with this deadly cocktail. And Bayer, too, has some ‘splainin to do on their gross negligence on performing even the minimum testing for honey bee safety before they even got a conditional registration from EPA seven years ago. It was, as Tom says, research fraud at its best. There are some beekeepers in this country that are convinced that this chemical, and others like it are closely associated with CCD. There’s evidence to support that. Dr. Tennekes would probably agree. His slim book catalogs a tragedy of monumental proportions regarding the loss of the insect-feeding (invertebrate-dependent) bird populations in all environments in the Netherlands. And he ties the disappearance to agriculture generally, and the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid in particular. Clothianidin is no different, he says. He brings together the disasters of surface water contamination and the decline of nearly all life forms associated with that resource, but then he also includes the decline of insect feeding woodland birds in Britain, the Low Countries, Germany, Switzerland, and France. It is a telling, and gruesome story. The insects are gone. And now, so are the birds. The question is...what, or maybe who, is next?

By Kim Flottum, December 22, 2010

The systemic insecticides: a disaster in the making. By Dr. Henk Tennekes. Produced by Weevers Walburg Communicatie, Zutphen, the Netherlands. Excellent illustrations by Ami-Bernard Zillweger. Available at http://www.disasterinthemaking.com/

The Review originally published in Bee Culture Magazine, published by the A. I. Root Company, Medina, OH, USA

Attached is a map op Holland showing the agricultural areas where the use of imidacloprid is permitted