Genetically modified crops are responsible for bee deaths? I don't think so...

An article from last week in Spiegel is just so breathtakingly stupid it begs to be commented on. The article: Are GM Crops Killing Bees? suggests that there is a link between the declining bee population and the introduction of GM crops, shows data that makes the answer clear (the answer is no) and continues merrily along, ending the article as if there is some doubt about what the answer is.

A bit of background is in order. Over the last decade, bee populations in the U.S. and Europe have been dropping. The last year has seen particularly large drops in commercial bee-keepers. The Spiegel article cites rates as high as 70%, though these numbers are cited for individual beekeepers. It's unclear from the article what the overall drop rate has been, and though they cite differences between the U.S. and Europe, it's hard to tell if these are meaningful because they're only citing the losses of individual beekeepers.

The bee die off is particularly important for our agriculture, as many of the flowering plants require bees to pollinate their flowers to make fruit. Loss of bees could result in major decreases in the production of flowering crops.

So what does this article say? These drops coincide with the introduction of genetically modified-insecticide producing corn, so this corn must be to blame. This is not a bad hypothesis. One could imagine that bees that find their way onto the corn might ingest some of the compound. However, let's look at the data. Germany has some pretty strict laws about introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops. GM crops made up less than one tenth of 1% of all crops grown in Germany, whereas almost all corn grown in the U.S. is genetically modified to produce the BT-insecticidal protein. So, if GM crops are to blame, one would expect bees in Germany would largely be spared the die off seen in bee colonies in the U.S. Sadly, this is not the case. German bees are dieing off at appreciable rates as well (though granted, at somewhat lower the rates than seen in the U.S. if you trust that the Spiegel numbers are representative). Game over. The fact that both countries are losing bees at high rates clearly demonstrates that GM crops are not to blame.

The National Academies of Science of the U.S. have looked into the bee die off (and have proposed spending more effort looking into it - it has serious economic consequences). Their main conclusions? Non-native mites have been responsible for a large number of deaths, as well as antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens (who knew? people treat their bees with antibiotics?). Their recommendations are for increased investment in bee-breeding, to allow creation of pathogen and mite-resistant bees.