Seems legit: Monsanto buys Bee Research firm when it links Monsanto to bee decline

Overheal · 27-04-2012 01:09AM #1

So if you're not familiar yet with Monsanto, do a little light research. They're the folks behind round-up, and genetically modified plants that are immune to said round-up, and responsible for making it a patent violation for farmers to grow crops from these genetically modified plants' seeds, forcing them to re-buy new seed every year, they regularly try to sue non-monsanto farmers if their neighbors use monsanto because the stuff can get picked up by the wind, etc. etc.

Well you may also be familiar with the Bee Decline, a phenomena occurring wherein the bee population is falling apart and nobody is 100% as to why.

So a research firm, Beelogics, has been on the case, and when they started seeing a possible correlation between the decline and genetically modified crops, guess who bought them up? Thats right: the country's largest Genetically-modified seed supplier and owners of round-up.

That seems perfectly legitimate, right? Right???

If you can't beat'em, why not buy'em? Biotechnology giant Monsanto has had the collective finger pointed at it for a lot of things, including the apparent collapse of the bee population. So instead of fighting off skeptics, it just decided to buy out Beeologics, a major international research firm devoted to studying and protecting bees.
Natural News says Beeologics made the announcement that as of September 28, 2011, the company is part of Monsanto. Beeologics was devoted to studying colony collapse disorder (CCD) and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) to try and find out how to intervene and stop bees from dying off.
Critics of Monsanto are worried that it will avoid CCD and IAPV, since they're big on genetically modified organisms, and will deny any link between the bee deaths and the GMO technologies and chemicals it employs.
"Monsanto will use the base technology from Beeologics as a part of its continuing discovery and development pipeline," says the announcement. "Biological products will continue to play an increasingly important role in supporting the sustainability of many agricultural systems."
Which could mean using more chemicals to fight the bee collapse, when chemicals may have had a part in the deaths in the first place. Poor bees. We like our honey.
Recently in other Monsanto news: Organic Farmers Appeal Lawsuit To Preempt Monsanto From Suing Them
*Thanks for the tip, David!

consumerist.com/2012/04/monsanto-blamed-for-bee-population-collapse-so-it-buys-bee-research-firm.html

That sounds like it's pretty much in the same ballpark as privatizing the FDA and letting Tyson chicken or Pfizer buy them out.

27-04-2012 01:21AM

MOD COMMENT:
Interesting OP, but really not the best fit for US Politics. Moving it to Environmental Science locked so that the mods may review it for appropriateness.

El Siglo · 27-04-2012 11:46AM

I've opened the thread, so we'll see how it goes.

Seems legit: Monsanto buys Bee Research firm when it links Monsanto to bee decline

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