pesticides in ferments?

[Tim Hall]

What about you, did you experiment with probiotics within the hive? I don't know much about this, but heard there was a fungus that is harming bee populations--can this be a potential way to protect them?

Well, this conversation I had with that beek took place a year or two ago. Here's a little background:

Bees are genetically 'programmed' to deal with toxins and disease primarily by what we might call 'hygienic behavior.' That is they don't have strongly developed, innate immune and endocrine systems that help them thwart pathogens and eliminate toxins from their bodies. So bees rely on learned behavior, keeping their hive clean, and interacting in incredible ways with natural resources to keep themselves healthy.

Knowing that bees gather pollen that is then intentionally fermented within the hive, I formulated a hypothesis that these fermenting bacteria were in fact aiding bees' health. I also proposed that pesticides may be disrupting this fermentative ecology, contributing to the rash of diseases that are suddenly plaguing bees.

As it turns out, only a few months after this conversation researchers in Scandanavia, working in conjunction with USDA ARS researchers identified several species of bacteria that were unique to honeybees' digestive systems. These bacteria in fact work symbiotically with the bees to provide immunological defense.

In other words, bees understand the health benefits of fermentation just like you and I.

[Tim Hall]

There's actually much more to this that relates to natural transgenics in bees, and is likely relevant to plants and bacteria as well.

[Tim Hall]

I was just forwarded a paper from an ARS researcher that was published in August this year:

"An emerging paradigm of colony health: microbial balance
of the honey bee and hive"

It's a study on the effects of pesticides on hive microflora. Reading through it now...

[Nerium]

So...any new insights from reading through the paper?

I read an interesting arcticle a while back that was written by a woman from New Zealand who experimented with using honey for rooting cuttings. The antibacterial properties of honey protect the cuttings from rotting before they have a chance to develop roots. Any idea what makes honey antibacterial? Is it due to the presence of probiotics, or is it something else?

[Nerium]

You could be right about the pesticides disrupting the bees' fermentative ecology.

This discussion has reminded me of a documentary that I saw a couple of years ago. It was about the ecological effects of genetically modified organisms and how harmful they can be to certain species. For example, the pollen of a certain strain of corn is toxic to monarch butterflies. Have you heard of GMOs affecting bee populations?

Wow...we are totally off topic now!

[Tim Hall]

Wow...we are totally off topic now!

That's why I moved this to miscellaneous, so we can ramble...

Have you heard of GMOs affecting bee populations

GMO's are a major suspect in pollinator decline, but not necessarily for the reason most people seem to think. A lot people are worried about 'franken-genes' in the plants, how the modified genes themselves may be harmful (and they may very well be.) There's a lot of discussions about increasing food allergies and GMO's. But I see the issue a little differently.

Regardless of what GM crops are designed specifically for, they're all designed to preserve the status quo in industrialized agriculture. That is they serve a system of large mono-crop culturing that relies heavily on chemicals and pesticides. So it really goes right back to the pesticide issue, in my opinion. And we know for certain, at this point, pesticides are causing a decline in pollinator populations.

You could be right about the pesticides disrupting the bees' fermentative ecology.

I haven't finished the article yet...takes me a little while to sort through the scientific jargon. But so far the gist of the paper is that the hive itself (not just the individual bees) can sorta be looked at as an organism that has a rich ecology of symbiotic relationships. This is something that any good beekeeper understands - the bees are not just the bees, they are the hive. At any rate it seems the authors are driving at the importance of the symbiotic balance between bees and microflora for their health and nutrition.

Sounds familiar, huh? The hive, as a cooperative system of mutual benefit, is really a fascinating model that can inform us in a lot of ways. Perhaps this symbiosis, cooperation and mutual benefit is how we need to start understanding our food.

[Denise]

Hi, according to Donna Gates, after 9 days of fermentation, all pesticides have been processed by the bacteria and transformed into other substances that are no longer harmful to us.

ColinAttard, would you please site the reference for this.

Thank you.