Raw Milk :History

Raw milk is a scary thing, and I'm glad that I have only ever had pasteurized milk. But I do not think that raw milk is evil. My Oupa liked on a farm and he used to drink milk from a cow the way that we drink water from a hose. I think that it all depends on how we do it. I can't believe that there is a link between TB and raw milk. That is not something I would have guessed before reading this article. My mother is a strong believer that people should not drink cows milk, that it is wrong on a fundamental level. It is scary that so many diseases came from raw milk. I also believe that in the past thinks were more sanitary, but progress happens for a reason.It is probably better that milk is pasteurized even if some people would like to drink raw milk. I did not know about the links to diseases like TB and I would like to know exactly how that works, what is it that causes TB in patients who drink raw milk.

Raw Milk : Legal Battle

I think that it is ridiculous that people are not allowed to transport raw milk. You are allowed to buy it you just can't bring it home. I am upset at how rigid our system is in Canada. I think that you should let people do what they want if they are not hurting anybody. Who cares if people transport raw milk. I would like to follow up on this man and see if he ever gets to meet with Premier McGuinty. I think that there should be farms where they produce raw milk. If they do it by hand a lot of the diseases that are transmitted by machinery with not be applicable. I think that raw milk need to be seriously tested and there needs to be measures put on it so that children do not become sick, but if adults know the risks I think that they should be allowed to buy raw milk.

Myths about Organic Produce

I was really upset that organic uses pesticides. That is one of the major reasons to buy organic. I am happy that there is produce that does not use pesticides but I think that organic should all be pesticide free. It is really important to make sure that all organic products are as healthy as they can be, that's what people pay for. I don't like that all that matters is where the pesticide comes from. That has no effect on if it is toxic or not. What is the point of buying organic food if it is not healthier, besides environmental gains. How does it benefit me to eat organic food. It is more expensive but it is no healthier. Also it is not all that much better for the environment. I believe that the article said that organic farming is not using GMO's and I don't want that I don't think that you can modify somethings DNA and have be perfectly healthy. I think that its a good idea to not use GMO's and I am fully in support of that practice. I think that it might still be a good idea to buy organic because they are probably a little better than regular produce but I can't imagine that it would be by much. I'm not sure that it is worth the extra cost just yet. When the practices become more "organic" I think that it will become a better choice, but right now it is about even, though leaning toward the organic side.

Neonicitinoids

The worlds food supply is in serious danger. It is disgusting that the pesticides live in the seed. It travels and effects all part of the plant. Therefore it effects all animals that eat the plants. The EPA decided that they would release the pesticides even though they knew that it was toxic to honey bees. Because they did not do field studies, it was not confirmed and therefore it was not known that it would hurt bees. It was scary to learn that the pesticide company's so their own studies and the present it to the EPA instead of the EPA doing the study. The company's are making the studies lean in their favor no matter what happens to the bee because they want to make money. It is sad that the EPA accepts that the studies that they do are real. It is also not open to review so other people can not redo the tests and see if they get the same results. It is sad that the EPA feels that need to cover up the effects of the pesticides. Its scary that the pesticides stay in the soil, and may have long term effects. The EPA knew about the possibility of CCD but they are saying that they are not sure so it doesn't matter. In England they think that it does matter so they are doing further studies. The EPA decided that a label is good enough. It says not to use it around bees. But that doesn't really work because they stay in the soil and the plants and it gets pollinated throughout the food chain.

Vanishing of the Bees

I was not able to find the movie in time though I would still like to watch it at a later date, I watched the trailer and I did a little research so that I would at least have something to talk about in my blog post. I already knew that bees were essential to life because they pollinate our plant. It is a scary thought that the bees are disappearing. I would like to know what is really killing our honey bees though I suspect that we will not know for sure for many more years. A colony of bees was wiped out in three hours, the implications of that are staggering. They are simply vanishing.
Usually bees will take over a hive that is empty but these hives are sitting empty and other bees wont even look at the hive. This probably means that there is something wrong with the hive or they are afraid of what will happen to them is they take over the hive. Colony collapse is happening all over the world. There are many theories of why this is happening, including cell towers, pesticides and varroa mites. None of these have been proven, actually most of the theories have bee dis-proven.It is a scary idea that the bees can disappear and we don't know why.
I will update this post after I have seen the movie.

Nosema Disease

We did this lab in class, though we didn't find any Nosema, it was really interesting to see the bees up close. And seeing the stingers was also really interesting though the smell of the smashed up bee was really gross. Earlier I read what Nosema was and I am interested to see is this article has anymore information that was not stated in the other article. An interesting fact that I learned was that it only affects adult bees. I would like to know why that is.I would also like to know why workers are more susceptible. Is it because it really is like the stomach flu and it is received more easily outside the home, like at school? This disease is very gross and it sounds painful. Because this article was more of a lab format it lacked in some information and it had unnecessary information, like how to use the microscope. It is fairly easy to see if your hive is infected because there will be diarrhea outside the hive. There are cures for this disease but they ruin your honey supply, but then of course so does diarrhea and dead bees.

Varroa Mite Detection

You need to detect the varroa mites early because much like cancer the best defense is detection and it spreads rapidly.It is preferable to check for mites about twice a year. To check for mites you can sample the brood, this seems like hard work if you don't have a lab. This article doesn't really tell you how you go about detecting the mites when you do sample the brood.The detection boards seem like a good idea but I am not sure that I would rely only on them. I really like the alcohol wash method, i is easy and reliable and can be done in just one visit. I also really like the icing sugar method because it implies that not all the bees are killed. It is also easy and fairly accurate. If there are only a few mites you can wait until after the honey is harvested but if there are more than a hundred you need to treat right away even if some honey is lost. And if there are more than a thousand mites the collapse is imminent and must be treated immediately. I am not sure if I just missed it but I did not read any where how to actually treat the infestation, only how to tell how many mites there were. This article was a little helpful but it did not give me the full story and it had some ambiguous words throughout that clouded the meaning.