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[size=75:117vmiob]novinite 17 February 2010


Bulgaria MPs Agree GMO Amendments to Protect Bees

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he Bulgarian Parliamentary Committee on the Environment has agreed that GMOs will not be allowed within 7 kms of organic farmland, and 10 kms away from permanent, registered beehive clusters.

The committee has adopted these changes to the Law on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) at the proposal of Evdokiya Maneva, Deputy Minister of Environment and Water.

The eco-ministry had originally suggested a restriction of 7 kms for both organic farmland and beehive farms, until Peter Kurumbashev, a Coalition for Bulgaria MP, had suggested the distance from apiaries be increased to 10 kms.

Ilia Tsonev, a beekeeping industry representative agreed that this was a reasonable distance from stationary apiaries.

Having heard the opinions of MPs and NGOs, Nona Karadjova had agreed to the extended barrier.

"
At the moment, throughout the country, the cultivation of GMO types permitted in the EU is allowed, and no one has asked himself where the bees fly. This goes beyond any boundaries of responsible behavior,"
the eco-minister commented. She asked again why, in 2008, cotton had been omitted from the prohibited list for field trials with GMO cultures.

The committee of MPs also supported a proposal for the introduction of larger, more distinguishable lettering on product labels that indicate GMO content.

Socialist MPs had earlier urged the government to withdraw the legal changes, and had criticized the 5-year moratorium on the spread of GMOs proposed by the ruling GERB party.

"
Our impression is that the moratorium is another "
fake"
running of the government before the wind, not even in this case knowing where the wind is blowing from. We asked that this point be removed from the agenda, because we need to know first what we are prohibiting, what kind of law we are adopting, and only then to know why we are introducing this moratorium,"
said Petar Korumbashev of the BSP.

Meanwhile, the Initiative Committee of parents and citizens handed the Speaker of Parliament, Tsetska Tsacheva, an e-petition containing almost 16 000 signatures protesting against the amendments to the GMO Law. The petition insisted on keeping the ban in the law for the release of GMOs into the environment, as well as in protected areas and 30 km around them.

The Speaker said that GERB was willing to consider very precisely the wording of the changes between the first and second reading of the law, and that it would strictly comply with existing national and international acts,

Tsacheva later attended the deliberations of the Committee on amendments to the law, and invited representatives of the Initiative Committee, along with members of the Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Water, to comment on the texts of legislative changes.

Cheers Berni x

hi guys, yes indeed this is a very serious situation I will only say two things and let you guys look for yourselves....Chem trails (youtube,what are they spraying ) and there are many more good solid doco's to be found and the second little goverment toy H.A.A.R.P technolagy. Happy hunting

There is an amazing book called 'where have all the bees gone' which is a full study looking at all the possible aspects that could cause CCD. In it they look at everything from viral, GMO, pesticides, electrical interference, inbreeding and at the close of the book the only thing they could be sure about is that ALL of these things Could have a large contribution factor to lowering the resistance of bees which allows the viruses and mites to kill/disorientate bees.

The main thing that has baffled me in the 6 years I've been following this, is the general lack of worry in most countries. France and Germany have banned many pesticides and won court cases against the companies, but America that has the largest net income from bee pollination for the almond fields yet seems to be doing very little considering it is a billion dollar industry for them!?!?

The black bee which is found in Bulgaria was thought to be one of the most resilient, so to hear that it is now being effected, is a worry. Yet, companies like Monsanta will be happy about it as all their crops are either self pollinating or you have to keep re-sowing annually by buying from them..... Again another push and win for the multi nationals another reason for them to push GMO onto countries that don't want it.

There are also facebook pages set up for day of the honey bee for those that are interested in following what is happening around the world.

I remember reading a bee book years ago that said when a beekeeper dies, his colonies are apt to pine away and die too. That was before people started keeping huge numbers of them and the relationship between the bees and beekeeper was more personal. I wonder if the colonies are sad or disgruntled to be used as a commodity, and after being repeatedly stressed by being moved huge distances to different crops they are just losing heart and opting out of the arrangement? After all, it's up to the queen bee to breed or not, and maybe some just no longer want to work in a partnership without the individual mutual respect and affection. Stress makes any creature prone to illness, and bees belong to their own neighbourhood and are attuned to it.

In Rudolf Steiner's "
Nine Lectures On Bees"
given around a century ago he said that crossing bees with other strains would weaken them as would feeding them on foreign crops. He warned that these 'modern' practices would lead to the demise of the honey bee. It was greed that prompted people to cross their bees with more aggressive, faster working bees from other countries in order to improve their 'yield', but few were asking if this was in the best interests of the bees themselves.

It's all part of the "
Bigger is Better"
myth, that prompts people to plant enormous orchards that require vast numbers of pollinators, instead of looking at nature and seeing what really succeeds the best and most easily, i.e. many small separate orchards each with their own bees that belong to the district. One would think we might have leaned by now that monocultures are a disaster and trying to manipulate Nature only unbalances everything in the long run.

Hello to all,

Quietly, globally, billions of bees are dying, threatening our crops and food. But in just a few hours the European Union could move to ban the most poisonous pesticides, and pave the way to a global ban that would save bees from extinction. If you care please sign the petition.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... ?slideshow

Thank you all

welcome to the forum rila. would you please introduce yourself in the new members section. many thanks.

Done it but no problems here. Our neighbour has hundreds of hives and passes over a few jars of honey now and again.

hi welcome to the forum. definately no poisons killing bees in this village, nearly every house has at least half a dozen hives.

Ditto down my way..I have a standing order with the man next door for 10 kgs each year.

I thought the Germans had already been stopped from producing the 'Pesticides' that caused the problem a couple of years ago.
Or are you saying they have re-started producing the same pesticides that caused the bee death problem?

Quote :

Four EU countries have begun banning these poisons, and some bee populations are already recovering. Days ago the official European food safety watchdog stated for the first time that certain pesticides are fatally harming bees. Now legal experts and European politicians are calling for an immediate ban. But, Bayer and other giant pesticide producers are lobbying hard to keep them on the market. If we build a huge swarm of public outrage now, we can push the European Commission to put our health and our environment before the profit of a few.

Now there's a surprise.

In my opinion, large corporations such as Monsanto, Bayer, etc. trying different ways to get to the EU and other countries, by bribing politicians. And, unfortunately, they (politicians) do not tell the whole truth.
Monsanto has done enormous damage to the US farming. I really hope that this company will never come to the EU lands with their poisonous seeds.

How Are Dying Bees Affecting Our Lives?
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... our-lives/

Poland Beekeepers Kick Monsanto out of the Hive.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... -the-hive/

Thanks to all who signed the petition.

[size=55:2auucylr]novinite

Bulgaria Marks Honey, Beehives Day

Bulgaria's Orthodox Church marks on Sunday the day of St. Haralambos, the holiday traditionally associated with honey and beehives for the Christians in the country.

A ritual for health and rich harvest is performed in churches across the country. Honey is consecrated in the local church and then all the bread is coated with it. The rest of the honey is kept in the house as a remedy. According to the belief, St. Haralambos blesses the land and it gets warmer and ready to be cultivated.

St. Haralambos is also traditionally believed to be the lord of all illnesses especially the plague. Doing any housework is strictly forbidden that day, because of the fear of any coming illness.

Thank you Administrator for uniting all posts about the BEES. We really hope that peoples power can make BIG change.

It is very important for all of us to take care of nature and understand nature. We done enought damage to our planet, we hope it's not to late to wake up.

Some years ago we moved into a very old house and at first were really concerned by what appeared to be a nest of wild bees in our front wall. There was a small hole at the edge of one of the timbers and on warm days it seemed like hundreds would be coming and going. At first we were going to get some one in to remove them but it turned out there had been bees there for years so we thought we would wait and see. Well they were lovely, very gentle and docile. They would let you gently nudge them out the way when cutting the grass (to avoid mowing them over) and needless to say our fruit, veg and flowers really did well. Never could figure out how to get to any of the honey and to be honest it was probablyvholding the house together! Anyway after a few years we revamped our office and put in a wireless system and maybe it's coincidence, but the bees disappeared after that:(