webcast replay state of honey bee nation 2013
DESCRIPTION
Slide deck from online community event created and hosted by SlowBeekeeping.org.TRANSCRIPT
Education, Advocacy & Conservation
Organizing at Local/State Levels forGMO Labeling & Pesticide Moratoriums
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Welcome!
Conference Call Info:
Link in case you are disconnected on the webhttp://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=44428323
Primary dial-in number: (206) 402-0100
Secondary dial-in number: (215) 606-1815
Control Your View of Our Slides http://attendthisevent.com/modern/Webcast/Presenter.asp?
IAID=6882957&eventID=44428323
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Communication● On your computer, locate the chat window on your event screen. Type in
your question; hit enter key to send
● On you phone, key in *2 on your phone dial pad; * 2 raises your hand
● Throughout the presentation, we’ll include Q & A intervals. We’ll select random submitted questions to read out periodically
● Open a new tab/window into our Facebook page; submit comments: https://www.facebook.com/SlowBeekeeping
● Twitter: #slowbeekeeping
● Google Hang Outs/Air Simultaneous Live webcast; no view of slides
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Your Questions Matter!
● Submit your questions as they arise; *2
● We’ll sort through questions as quickly as we can,
scanning for new questions not already part of the
presentation.
● We’ll provide answers in the next issue of our quarterly
eNewsletter.
● Thanks for asking! Your questions are important.
● Don’t hear your question now, we’ll be in touch if you’re
on our list. Our community dialogue is just beginning! copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Team Host: Anaiis SallesProduction Assistant:
Laurel SchefflerAnastacia Townsend
Andrea Durham
Many Thanks to Rebecca and Jeff!!
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
State of Honey Bee Nation
3 Simple Things You Can Do Today
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Hidden in Plain SightHoney Bees ARE the foundation of our food system!
1. Earth, Water, Sunlight, and AirNecessary conditions for plants to exist
2. Plants need....Pollinator Reproduction Arrangement
3. Honey Bees & Pollinators...need plant pollen and nectarA perfect natural cycle from which humans receive...
4. Fresh Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts, Berries, Herbs -- one out of every three bites enjoyed in the U.S.
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Slow Beekeeping. Org’sUnique Public Policy Position
Honey Bees and Human Beings Are:
● Forced to consume sub-lethal doses of multiple pesticides without consent; this is exactly like being forced to inhale second-hand smoke
● Monsanto & Friends use our supermarkets as the delivery system for their poisons
This is a public health issue; the American Academy of Pediatrics sounds a warning in November of 2012
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Our Natural Community Partners
● Beekeepers● Beekeeping Associations● Gardeners● Gardening Associations● Community Gardening Groups● Organic Farmers● Permaculturists● Environmentalists● Slow Food (locovores/slow food enthusiasts)● K 4 - 12 Educators● Researchers/Science Teachers
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
FAQsWhat is Slow Beekeeping?
What is Slow Beekeeping.Org’s activism strategy?
What other organizations are doing this work?
Isn’t Slow Beekeeping.Org just duplicating efforts?
Should I become a beekeeper? I’m afraid of getting stung!
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Timeline: 2007 - 2013● Average 30% losses of honey bee colonies each successive year (Bee
Informed Partnership) since 2007 in the U.S. These are unsustainable losses.
● With millions of honey bees dead, our food system is now vulnerable …
● Losing 50% or more hives each successive year, commercial beekeepers can’t meet pollination demand -- they face bankruptcy!
● Backyard & urban beekeepers are holding the line to prevent a mass extinction scenario for European honey bees
● ‘Colony Collapse Disorder’ becomes the catch phrase for a mysterious bee die-off process, for bees disappearing into thin air
Who benefits from this situation? Afraid of the answer? You Should Be!copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Colony Collapse Disorder CCD is Symptom, Not Cause...
● Research process distracts attention for years as bee populations continue to die from taking poisons home to colonies or not returning to colonies because bees are sick!
● CCD masks underlying issue of cumulative toxic pesticide loads for foraging pollinators; Institutional knowledge of beekeepers ignored or discounted for twenty years!
● Pesticide Industry calls for scientifically proven causal links to use of pesticide products? Successful stalling tactic! EPA caves...
● Lobbyists “buy” time to arrange for no future legal accountability being placed at their doorstep
●Monsanto Gets Federal Pass
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
FAQsWhy doesn’t California have enough honey bees to pollinate its almond crop?
How are farmers contributing to declining bee and pollinator populations?
Are commercial beekeepers contributing to declining honey bee populations?
What changes are commercial beekeepers making?
What is permaculture? Biodynamic farming? Is that different from organic?
What is Biodynamic beekeeping?
Who is Rudolf Steiner?
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
What’s This Got to Do With Me?1. Toxic pesticide loads in pollen & wax2. Sub-lethal doses are a cumulative process that
eventually lead to tissue breakdown3. Sign of huge systemic pesticide contamination in what
is growing “out there”...4. These sub-lethal toxic loads are in your food5. Chemical interactions change your genes/DNA6. These genetic changes lead to tissue vulnerabilities7. Tissue vulnerabilities lead to an out-of-balance system
more prone to disease8. Unfortunately, this is true for honey bees and human
beings copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
You & Your Family are All Lab Rats!American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Paper 11/2012
Lays out the causal links between 50 + years of pesticide use and childhood health issues, learning deficits, and...yes...cancer
Health disturbances in our children mirror those found in honey bees
Human Children● autism● learning problems● neurologic deficits● behavioral issues● childhood leukemia
Honey Bee Children● memory dysfunction● brain changes -- neurological deficits● vulnerability to disease, some are fatal, some chronic...● learning problems
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Can’t Afford to Eat Organic?Economics of Consumer Exposure via GMO/pesticides
is Diabolical...● Can’t afford to eat local/organic?● You probably can’t afford a CSA● Don’t know how to grow your own veggies?● Conventional fruits & veggies are loaded with traces of
pesticides (45 on one conventional strawberry)● Damage to liver, hormone disruption, genetic mutations● Can you afford the emotional cost and health expense
associated with having an autistic child, diabetes, or cancer treatment?
● Subsidized farming of corn, soy, wheat costs YOUcopyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Kill Honey Bees & Pollinators?What happens to the plant world if honey bees become extinct?
What happens to all of us if a few “man-made” chemicals destroy a perfect, made-by-nature arrangement that has operated in balance for 27 million years?
“Man” manages to accomplish this trainwreck in150 years of industrial farming.
Creating sickness, disease and death and destroying a perfect process?
Slow motion destruction of our food system?For money? For profit?
Really? Are you okay with this? I’m not!
This is why this problem matters to you!
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
FAQsWho are the major manufacturers of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides?
Isn’t it true using pesticides is the only way to produce enough food for the whole globe?
Which gardening pesticides should I boycott?
How many toxic chemicals have been found in bee pollen?
What does the term ‘sub-lethal dose’ mean?
What does ‘synergistic’ mean with regard to pesticide interactions?
What is the timeline for banning neonicotinoids & restoring healthy habitat?
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Fukushima, TepCo & 2012 TsunamiWhy Do I Bring This Up?
On Planet Earth Everything is Local!
It’s another great example of bad human decision-makingSome things, once broken, can’t be fixed! Ever!!! Like plastic, the environmental shelf life of radioactive material is hundreds/thousands/millions of years! As we speak, radioactive water is pouring out of Fukushima -- millions of gallons a day -- into the planet’s ocean system.
Think honey bees have it bad? How about whales?
Dolphins? Sea Beings? Global Fisheries?copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Okay, Take a Deep Breath....There is no way for MAN to “fix” the problem at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. That Genie is out of the bottle forever. “Man” insists on using dangerous technology. With a shrug, Mother Nature makes her point.
Who is in control? Man? Really? I don’t think so.
As a global community, we can take decisive, grassroot action to insist use of GMO/systemic pesticides STOP immediately in every state in the nation.
Better to lose Monsanto & Bayer than honey bees...copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
U.S. Policy? Wasted Years... For conditional approvals (green light/go) in the U.S., chemical manufacturers demanded scientific proof from EPA that RoundUp, Poncho, Gaucho, & neonicotinoid pesticides kill more than foraging bees.
As a result, sub-lethal doses in pollen/wax were not considered “dangerous” to honey bees by the EPA; conditional pesticide approvals were granted. Next EPA review? 2018! Too late to turn back the tide.
In the meantime, Industry lobbyists & lawyers stake out positions to prevent public debate on GMOs which could lead to bans or prohibited use of systemic crops systems as resistant creating bug killers.
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
E.U. Precautionary ModelPesticides must first be proven safe in the public spaceBeekeepers Anecdotal Evidence is RespectedEnergized E.U. Public Outcry & Pushback is EffectiveMassive Global Demonstrations Raise AwarenessE.U. & Global Public Space says “No” to GMO/Systemics
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
New E.U. Trade Agreement
MonsantoDow, Dupont
Bayer, Syngenta
These manufacturers face greater scrutiny as well as rolling global product bans.
Pay attention to the new E.U. Trade Agreement the U.S. is pushing. It contains provisions around
imports of GMOs grains involved. E.U. doesn’t want our imports of GMO grains. Neither does Russia!
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Push Back
25,000 Dead Bumblebees in Target Parking Lot in Oregon 2013
Scientists search for answers to CCD
EPA documents leaked by Beekeeper Tom Theobold NRDC sues EPA on behalf of beekeepers
State-by-state strategies form!
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Are We Too Late?You can’t un-ring a bell...
Dismantle the bell tower and take the bell apart!Activists in the public space can dig in at the state level doing the regulatory work EPA won’t do on behalf of farmers, beekeepers and food consumers.
We need pesticide bans and moratoriums on systemic pesticide, protective legislation, and GMO labeling. Working model? The tobacco industry.
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Who’s Zooming Who?
Food Safety (USDA) Environmental Safety (EPA)
Public Health: U.S. Surgeon General
Slow Beekeeping.Org understands that in order to generate change, segmented organizing approaches have to be united at the core.
At least five non-profits organizations are suddenly working on the problem independently. Big splash, but not a paradigm shift, folks.
Approaching the problem this way isn’t bee-ish. copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Bee-ish, or Bust!Slow Beekeeping.Org approach is one of collaboration and cooperation, not competition for scarce fundraising dollars for non-profits that have no beekeeping perspective, affiliation, or natural affinity.
Staking out separate territories while claiming interest in the common good is a fundamental flaw in community organizing in the U.S.
This is why major social problems are rarely solved; this is our current system’s formula for chronic regeneration of problem/issue. Let’s change the system -- bee-ish or bust.
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
What We Know Today
Monsanto Is Feeling the Pressure
● 118 countries have banned GMO imports/field testing● Company stock is volatile after recent downward tick● Activism, protests & good science impact policy and
push us toward a precautionary model for GMOs in the U.S.
GMO Labeling Laws in Every State
Next? U.S. Ban of Neonicotinoids!
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Monsanto company stock is volatile; recent downward tick118 Countries Ban GMO imports/field testing2013 French Court GMO Decision to Be Appealed
U.S. Fails to Pushback in Organized Way to Protect Honey Bees & Fresh Fruits & Veggies in Global & Local Food Systems!
Time for U.S. To Do Our Share of the Work
U.S.! What is Our Consumer Strategy?
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Countries with GMO Labeling Laws
Simple Things You Can Do NowGet Involved!
Family, Friends & Children, too!
● Support Bee-Friendly Gardening (learn the basics here)
● Boycott Monsanto Products: Eat Local/Organic
● Boycott GMO fish, corn, soy, wheat products
● Talk to your Grocer & Fish Monger
● Support Community Engagement
Education + Advocacy + Conservation=
Restored Habitat for Honey Beescopyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
One Click Advocacy
Sign Our Petition for the Surgeon General
Support: Save America’s Pollinator Act
Become a Working Member of Slow Beekeeping.Org
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Going Deeper: Do the Human Waggle Dance!
Write Letters to Your State Reps(Letter Samples available or our Members)
Create a State Advocacy Team...We’ll Show You How
Join a State Advocacy Team...
We Have a Pennsylvania Team...Join Us!copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Our PA Slow Beekeeping.Org Team
Rebecca TavangarBeekeeper & Relationship Counselor/Advocate
Jeff BullardHive Steward &Librarian
Anaiis SallesBeekeeper, Game & Hive Designer, Community Organizer(former campaign staff Bernie Sanders, I-VT)
Life Coach/Green Your Life
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
FAQs
What difference does writing letters, making phone calls or signing petitions really make?I’m not a good letter writer; can I help in other ways?How can I get the ball rolling to start a Slow Beekeeping Team where I live?
Which advocacy goals are most important to protecting honey bees right now?
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Answers● Coalition Building & Education: Beekeepers,
Farmers, Organic Farmers, Biodynamic Farmers, Permaculture Specialist, Food Enthusiasts, Families with Children, Schools & Universities, Faith Organizations
● State Monitoring: Demand accounting of all pesticide applications; coordinate with Public Health Dept. public consumer reporting: how many tons bought, sold,applied? any community hot spots? agricultural run-off groundwater issues polluting streams & rivers?
● GMO labeling: protect consumers and shrink GMO product base
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Join the Movement: Our State by State Strategy
Connecticut and Maine have enacted GMO labeling laws
Vermont’s Bill has a GMO labeling bill pending
Washington State has GMOs labeling vote on its 2013 fall ballot
Maryland is working on monitoring & banning pesticide
MoveOn.Org is introducing GMO Labeling legislation in 47 states!
Honey bees work together for the good of their colonies. We can, too!Remember Our Unique Policy Perspective: This is a Public Health Issue!GMO labeling is a great first step but this doesn’t help honey bees today.
Become a Member of Slow Beekeeping.Orgcopyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Slow Beekeeping.Org
Choose Your Membership Here...
*Organizer Training*Quarterly Newsletter *Member Action Alerts
*Featured Videos & More
Collaboration, not competition, with other advocacy organizations.
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
State Legislative ProcessIdentify Your District Senator
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Contact Your District RepsExample PA: Shirley Kitchen, District 3, is Democratic Chair of Public Health & Welfare Committee. Senator Kitchen sits on Ag & Rural Affairs Committee.
Pennsylvania General AssemblyAny State Team Can:● Identify State Reps● Call Reps’ District Offices
● Identify Yourself: Say you have a few questions about who has introduced
and/or supports GMO labeling legislation in your state
● Ask to speak with the Scheduler: State Your Issue Clearly
● Schedule a Meeting with Your Senator
● Find out dates of upcoming scheduled committee meeting dates
● Ask Your Rep to Champion Bill; Attend meetings
● Follow Up! Develop a Relationship with Frequent Contact, Make Friends,
‘Bee a Friendly Pest : )
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
Check Committee AssignmentsAgriculture & Rural Issues; Public Health & Welfare
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
“P” for Pesticides? It’s Not There!
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles
This Completes Our OverviewNext Steps:● Sign up for our email list● Share the event replay link with your contacts● Contact us! Join our next event.● Starting a Slow Beekeeping Team is easier than you
think -- we’ll help you get started● Connect with a local beekeeping association● Connect with a community garden● Start a RoundUp in your local school, church, university;
distribute our Dandelion Pledge● Start an SBK Bee Scouts USA troop for kids● Become a beekeeper! I know...I know...
Dandelion PledgeDandelions are a superfood for bees in early spring. RoundUp kills dandelions. A perfect green lawn is a waste of good earth.We expect honey bees to pollinate our food yet we destroy their food sources to perpetuate a sterile concept of ‘beauty’ which is nothing more than an unconscious throwback to envying a rich European land-owner.
That’s CRAZY!
Download Our Dandelion Pledge
Thank you!
Become a Member!
This online community event has been recorded.Join our List to access the event replay.
Check out our web site...you’re already on it!Volunteer for Slow Beekeeping.Org!
www.slowbeekeeping.org
copyright 2013 Anaiis Salles