Beekeeper Raided by Illinois Dept. of Agriculture – Monsanto Research Destroyed

From Survival and Beyond

A couple of weeks ago, I had survivalist/beekeeper Michael Jordan on the show and we talked about the important and all too often overlooked role that bees play in the ecosystem and food chain.  Due to genetically modified crops and the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides, the world-wide bee population has been dwindling dramatically over the last few years and when the bees are gone, humans are not too far behind.  It’s estimated that bees are responsible for pollinating about one third of our food crops.  In light of that, you would think that governments and agricultural agencies would be doing everything they could to save the bees, but instead government agencies are targeting beekeepers, destroying their hives and offering little or no evidence to support their motives.

One Illinois beekeeper; Mr. Terrance Ingram (a 58 year apiary veteran) was raided by the state’s Dept. of Agriculture during one of the rare occasions that he was away from home.  Upon discovering that his hives were gone, Mr. Ingram assumed he was the victim of theft and filed a report with local law enforcement.  He later discovered that his hives had been confiscated by the IDofAG , without a warrant or any semblance of due process and were destroyed before Mr. Ingram was even given the benefit of hearing to defend his case!

The department alleged that Ingram’s bees were infected with a disease called “foulbrood” as their reason for the unlawful confiscation and destruction of his private property.  Not only did the agency fail to offer a single shred of evidence to support their allegation, but Ingram also proved at his court hearing that the state’s inspector could not even identify the symptoms of the disease!  Mr. Ingram maintains that his bees did not carry foulbrood and could have proven it, had his bees not been immediately destroyed.  Suspicions of the IDofAG’s motives grow even more acute upon learning that for the last 15 years, Mr. Ingram has been conducting independent research into the effect that Monsanto’s “Round-Up” herbicide has on bees!  When the state destroyed Ingram’s bees, they essentially destroyed his 15 years of research along with them.

From Mercola.com

15 Years of Research Destroyed

Ingram believes the destruction of his bees and hives is more likely to be related to his research into the effect of Roundup on honey bees. He claims some 250 of his colonies have been killed off over the years by Monsanto’s broad-spectrum herbicide, used in large quantities on both conventional- and genetically engineered crops. Ingram’s research shows that Roundup can lead to what’s called chilled brood, which is an entirely different scenario.

According to Ingram, quoted from Kocal’s article:

“When Round-Up kills the adult bees there are not enough bees left in the hive to keep the young bees (brood) warm, and the young bees die from the cold (chilled brood). I tried to prove that just because foulbrood can be detected once the hive has been disturbed, doesn’t mean the hive has foulbrood.

Inside a honeybee hive is one of the cleanest places you can find. Anything that is a problem, if the bees can’t remove it, they cover it with propolis, which is an antiseptic… When you go into the comb and cut it up, disturb it like the investigators did, then send it to a lab, it exposes foulbrood to the world. In the beehive, it’s covered up. The bees aren’t affected by it. But you can find it by sending it in to a lab.”

Ingram has studied the effects of Roundup on honeybees for the past 15 years, and he believes he had built up sufficient amount of data to show that the herbicide causes not just bee die-offs, but also Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)—a mysterious phenomenon that has decimated an estimated one-third of all honey bees since 2006. While some bees inexplicably die, many simply vanish and never return to their hives. Ingram told Kocal that:

“CCD is a calamity that is affecting honeybee colonies across the nation. In fact, I had one queen, which had survived three summers of spraying and three winters. I was planning to raise daughters from that queen to see if she may have had some genetic resistance to Roundup. But she and her hive were taken during the theft. I don’t even know where the bees and my equipment are. They ruined 15 years of my research.”

… “I asked Rep. Sacia to take the teeth out of the current law, preventing untrained inspectors from doing sneak inspections without the beekeeper present, killing their bees and burning their equipment, or forcing organic beekeepers out of business, telling them that they have to use chemicals to keep bees in Illinois. Are the chemical companies really running our food supply?”

… “Is Illinois becoming a police state, where citizens do not have rights?” Ingram asked in desperation. “Knowing that Monsanto and the Dept. of Ag are in bed together, one has to wonder if Monsanto was behind the theft to ruin my research that may prove Roundup was, and is, killing honeybees. Beekeepers across the state are being threatened that the same thing may be done to their hives and livelihood. I was not treated properly, I don’t want to see this happen to anyone else in this state, and I want this type of illegal action to end.”

What Can You do to Help the Honeybees?

If you want to learn more about bees and CCD, I highly recommend watching the documentary film Vanishing of the Bees. The film recommends four actions you can take to help preserve honeybees everywhere:

Support organic farmers and shop at local farmer’s markets as often as possible. You can “vote with your fork” three times a day. When you buy organic, you are making a statement by saying “no” to genetically engineered foods.

Cut the use of toxic chemicals in your house and on your lawn, and use organic pest control.

Better yet, get rid of your lawn altogether and plant a garden. Lawns offer very little benefit for the environment. Both flower and vegetable gardens provide good honey bee habitats.

Become an amateur beekeeper. Having a hive in your garden requires only about an hour of your time per week, benefits your local ecosystem, and you can enjoy your own honey!

If you are interested in more information about bee preservation, the following organizations are a good place to start.

• Pesticide Action Network Bee Campaign
• The Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees
• American Beekeeping Federation
• Help the Honey Bees

Read More at Survival and Beyond

Read more at Survival and Beyond