by Melissa Sklar

OUR BEES ARE in trouble. Widespread reports claim that we have lost a third of our global bee population and other pollinators like the Monarch are rapidly disappearing. When I started my awareness raising group in April which I named Bee Aware, I had barely began to understand just how dire the situation is, not just for the bees and butterflies, but also for the birds, amphibians and other aquatic mammals and for us too. According to the US Environmental Agency, over one billion pounds of pesticides are dumped on our soil each year, in a large part because chemicals like glyphosate (the main active ingredient in Roundup herbicide) 2,4-D and neonicotinoids  (neonics for short)  are required use with the genetically modified crops that now dominate our crop yields but also because we often mindlessly poison our own yards,  parks and playgrounds with them.

There was a recent Harvard University study that tied the prevalent collapse of bee colonies directly to the use of Neonics (Nicotine based Pesticides) and even President Obama released a White House Memo stating this concern in June. Interestingly one can trace a direct time line to the increased use of neonic pesticides and Roundup herbicide to the demise of the bees. It has become so toxic in the countryside that we even have corn crops whose seeds are routinely grown from seeds coated in neonic pesticides and exuded in the corn itself as it matures, giving rise to  massive die offs of the bees as the corn releases pollen.  I have also seen corresponding studies that report that even very small, even minute exposure of the bees to neonics cause death, even if not immediate, and when they bring traces of it back to the hive, the hive dies too. In other words, there is no “safe” dose for a bee. We as a nation have been seeing the rates of cancer, autism and allergies skyrocket as our intake of glyphosate and neonic residue in the American diet has also skyrocketed. Gluten intolerance is becoming common place as are dairy, nut and soy allergies. Traces of glyphosate can be found in our water and air, even in the breast milk of nursing mothers.  There is a corresponding growing amount of independent scientific research that is tying glyphosate to thyroid disorders, liver toxicity, kidney damage and non Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The more I read, the more these chemicals seem to present a nightmare for our planet, for not just the bees, the birds and the butterflies but for all life, ourselves included. We are told that we need these chemicals and genetically modified crops to feed our world but what is really happening is resulting in a product that is poisonous and deficient in nutrients and has been received the moniker: “Frankenfood.”

Correspondingly, as our awareness seems to be growing about the connection between chemicals in our food, our health and the health of our planet, the demand for certified chemical free organic food is growing at a very fast pace. That is the good news. However, there is a blind spot in almost every city, suburb and township and that is the common usage of these very same chemicals on our lawns, in our parks and in our playgrounds and Ann Arbor is no exception. We seem mentally handcuffed to this aesthetic that these areas, the very areas designed to bring nature into our urban environment, are required to be weed free  and either being unaware or forgetting that by doing so if we are using dangerous toxins thereby creating toxic environments for our children, our pets, and our pollinators too.

The majority of these chemicals are accumulative and systemic, meaning that are absorbed into every molecule of the organism they come into contact with and they cannot be washed off. Glyphosate, particularly, is a patented antibiotic and will kill all of the microbiological activity in the soil which addicts your lawn to fertilizers because it no longer is biologically active on its own. It’s time we, as a city, a city we like to think of as healthy and green really walk our talk.  It would be fantastic to see our great University as well as Ann Arbor city itself swerve towards finding alternative ways to keep their grounds pristine and battle invasive plants without the institutionalized and frequent use of glyphosate related products, neonics and 2,4-D. Inevitably, the question always arises regarding what else could be used that is could be as  effective way to control weeds and pests but there are a growing amount of resources available that are making it their life’s work to guide the way combing both the wisdom of pre big agro business and the innovations of modern horticulture pioneers. Furthermore, we have examples to follow in cities like Spokane, Washington, Eugene, Oregon and Shorewood, Minnesota which have all recently banned neonics to save their bees. Several universities have also followed, including Vermont Law School and Emory University.

It can be done. It is being done. We can do it here too. But as we get active and move our city, politicians and institutions in that direction, it falls on us as individuals to pave the way.   When the consumer, one individual, one household at a time makes the decision to turn away from traditional chemical based lawn care towards a more nature loving pollinator friendly environmental choice, it accumulates into a huge impact on the overall health of our land and ourselves.

Finally, part of the whole process on an individual level is to change our awareness. When we see dandelions or clover or other plants we used to perceive as unsightly weeds that needed to die, with new awareness, we can now understand them as necessary food for the bees and other pollinators, ourselves and our garden.  We can learn how to make our soil more nutrient rich so that it does not need synthetic fertilizer. As we steward our garden, we can manage the plants that we wish to discourage  by hand pulling,  learning to plant and encourage native plants and discovering what natural remedies can be effective in ‘weed’ control that are kind to the earth and to ourselves.

Melissa Sklar is the founder of the community based awareness raising group Bee Aware. (www.facebook.com/beeawares) and can be found manning her information booth every Tuesday through the summer and fall (barring inclement weather) at the Cobblestone Farmers Market from 4-7 located off Packard Road in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her email is beeawares@gmail.com