Quote:
Originally Posted by patteeu
Fact check: Round Up isn't a pesticide.  |
The active ingredient in Round Up is Glyphosate. In addition to killing weeds (intentional), and its likely carcinogenic properties (probably unintentional), it has been demonstrably linked to bee deaths (maybe unintentional). Just search "Glyphosate Bee deaths" and you can find your pick of article or study around it, it's well established at this point.
As the definition of a pesticide is "a substance or agent used to kill pests", I'd argue that even if that is not its Intended or primary purpose, it certainly qualifies as one, depending on whether or not one views bees as a pest :-)
However I'm not trying to argue semantics, which is why I listed it as a separate and standalone entry next to pesticides. That being said, you do raise a valid point in that depending on how it's legally classified, unless food is labelled as "herbicide and pesticide free" rather than just "pesticide free", it may still contain RoundUp, something I hadn't previously considered. More reason for diligence in knowing what food you're buying and consuming, I suppose.
Also in case it wasn't clear, I will restate- I love the fact that some folks are beekeepers, and think it's very important for the reasons I previously stated. So my primary purpose was just to say keep up the good work, congrats on you, even if it'll never be for me, the future could be very dark and complicated if bees fade away.