Why bees are dying

When this story was published on April 30, 2013, I thought the news media would plaster it everywhere. Didn't happen. It's been 25 days since this story surfaced, and yet you probably haven't heard a thing about it. Here's the scoop:

Commercial honeybee enterprises began feeding bees high-fructose corn syrup back in the 70's after research was conducted that indicated that doing so was safe. Since that time, new pesticides have been developed and put into use and over time it appears the bees' immunity response to such compounds may have become compromised.

The researchers aren't suggesting that high-fructose corn syrup is itself toxic to bees, instead, they say their findings indicate that by eating the replacement food instead of honey, the bees are not being exposed to other chemicals that help the bees fight off toxins, such as those found in pesticides.

So let's see, we took honey away from bees...and gave them high fructose corn syrup as a replacement for their natural food. You remember high fructose corn syrup, don't you? If you're eating a processed food right now, chances are it's got HFCS in the list of ingredients. It's in almost everything we eat these days. As far as I'm concerned, HFCS is the reason why Americans are obese. (I also think it's made the public stupid, but let's not go there right now.)

Anyway, apparently some nitwits decided to feed it to the bees. After all, what could go wrong? It's not like we need bees to produce food for us, or anything. I mean, they're just bees. (Note: that was sarcasm. We really, really need the bees.)

But this story wasn't picked up by the media. You'd think they'd have some interest in the actual, real-life reason why bees are dying. Nope. The only reason I can think of for the media blackout is that Big Syrup commanded that this be so. You're not allowed to tell the American public anything negative about this disgusting product. Or, I guess, you'll end up with your feet in concrete, at the bottom of a river.

Why else would this story be buried? There are tons of stories about why the bee decline is occurring. Tons. But they're not interested in running this one. Hmmmm.

Anyway, now you know why the bees are dying. I suggest you tell someone. Apparently that's the only way the news will get out.

Image of beekeeping in the 14th Century: Wikipedia Commons