Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => DOWN UNDER BEEKEEPING => Topic started by: OzBuzz on February 02, 2012, 02:31:11 am
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Hey everybody, I'm after people's thoughts about GM canola and it's impact on beekeeping and also the potential impact on products derived from hives used, or with the potential of having, GM canola pollen/nectar.
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Does anybody have any thoughts on GM crops and the impact of that on beekeeping and bee related products?
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not a fan of it ozbuzz, but i'm not sure how we can avoid it on crops such as canola.
I hear that Monsanto have bought bee research company Beeologics.
Only a matter of time and well have a “new and improved” species of bee that will only pollinate Monsanto crops. :mrgreen:
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Thanks Eco for replying...
What i'm wondering though is what are peoples fears about it? Is it simply that it's 'modified' that it's feared or has anybody actually looked in to the way in which the modifications impact on the honey, bees, bee products etc... i'm interested in peoples views from a purely scientific angle
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And just to put it out there - i personally am not a fan of any GM crop whatsoever and i'm a biological scientist with a biotechnology background - let alone putting hives on them...
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Canola was always GM before there was GM. They took rape and exposed the seeds to radiation to knock out random genes and then and looked for plants with less Euric acid in them. These they used for the basis of Canola. Then they changed the name to Canola because it was less offensive. The recent GMO work on Canola seems to focus on making it round-up ready. This seems unlikely to affect bees (it's not that they made it produce an insecticide). But using round-up to kill all the weeds will certainly affect the bees' food source...
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I think All GM products at Market should be labeled with a viable GM Logo so I and others can make an educated decision whether we want to consume it. From what I understand where this has been done, people vote it out with their dollars but here in the good ol usa big bizz runs politics so it wont happen.
I dont like GM's overall and personally believe any benefits are outweighed by negative effects or risks to us, nature, and variety.
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I think All GM products at Market should be labeled with a viable GM Logo so I and others can make an educated decision whether we want to consume it. From what I understand where this has been done, people vote it out with their dollars but here in the good ol usa big bizz runs politics so it wont happen.
I dont like GM's overall and personally believe any benefits are outweighed by negative effects or risks to us, nature, and variety.
Im dead against them personally, maybe you guys would be interested in this site?
http://santostrading.com.au/articles/bees.html (http://santostrading.com.au/articles/bees.html)
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My Local honey buyer, who exports to Europe, has advised us honey producers that they will not be accepting any honey produced from GM sources.
We now have to declare our sources of production as well as everything else we have to declare. IF you are unsure if you have GM or not, the producer is responsible to pay the $175 testing fee. I you don't declare & in it mixed and exported you are liable for everyone's honey used in the mix as well as the freight costs.
Germany will not accept any shipments without first conducting a series of screens on the honey, so they pick these things up.
So I won't be using any GM crops knowingly,
cheers
Mark
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Hi Lilyfrog who's your buyer?
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Honey Downunder @ carol park in Brisbane's south west