Our Newest Exported "JOB" - Honey Production

Frustratedlady

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Mon Jun-25-07 01:22 PM
Original message

Our Newest Exported "JOB" - Honey Production

I had the radio on as I was running errands at noon, and Paul Harvey News came on. He said that there is a major problem with honey bees in the U.S. Due to the high cost of maintaining the hives, along with the mysterious loss of hives, the bees are being EXPORTED to CHINA!!!! Supposedly, they can produce, package and ship the honey at half the cost.

Exporting jobs isn't enough, but we have to get the bees in the picture, too?

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BonnieJW

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Mon Jun-25-07 01:26 PM
Response to Original message

1. I have a friend

who is a wildlife biologist. She told me there are NO bees in China. They were killed off years ago because of all the pesticides used in that country. They do, however, have an unlimited source of slave labor who are required to climb ladders in orchards and hand pollinate the trees with little paint brushes. If we export bees to China, it won't be for long since I believe they still use huge amounts of chemicals.

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Warpy

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Mon Jun-25-07 01:29 PM
Response to Original message

2. Rubbish

Unless they're exporting the combs to have the honey extracted, which seems like a ridiculously wasteful and expensive process. It's cheap enough to do here.

The bees are needed to fertilize crops. Without bees, we'll have few fruits and vegetables.

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NewYorkerfromMass

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Mon Jun-25-07 04:34 PM
Response to Reply #2

5. Bees are not the only pollinators

and only a few species of plantlife would be doomed by a complete die-off of honey bees.
NOT that there is any good in that.

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fasttense

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Mon Jun-25-07 02:00 PM
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3. Honey bees are not native to America.

There are pollen bees that were here before the Europeans brought over the honey bee.

"The honey bee is not native to North America; it was introduced from Europe for honey production in the early 1600s, Johnston said. Subspecies were introduced from Italy in 1859, and later from Spain, Portugal and elsewhere."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061211220927.htm

The link above indicates that according to genetic studies the common honey bees originated in Africa.

But that doesn't excuse the give away of American jobs to Communist China.

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rufus dog

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Mon Jun-25-07 02:33 PM
Response to Reply #3

4. Rubbish is correct

The bees are needed to pollinate crops, (think of any flowering tree) the problem is the bees are dying off and farmers are having to import bees, from Australia I believe.

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