Principio de Coexistencia

Después de leer, me meto en el tema del tratamiento de la apicultura en esta discusión de como implementar la coexistencia.

Dato aportado por FoE en

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/consultation_responses/a_submission_to_the_doe_co.pdf

En el caso chileno la industría fruticola exporta cerca de los uS$3500 millones, de los cuales us$1200 millones se deben a la existencia de la polinización, evaluada en us$15 millones. La exportación de miel alcanzo casi los us$30 millones en 2010.

5.7.3 Honey production

DOE states that because any GM content in honey will always be well below 0.9%, and because any GM pollen in honey “can generally be regarded as adventitious or unavoidable”, it is not necessary to offer any protection for honey producers.

But it is questionable whether the presence of GM pollen in honey can be dismissed as adventitious or unavoidable. If GM crops are not located within the vicinity of beehives, the presence of GM pollen can easily be avoided.

Beehives may need to be considered as part of the separation distances required, and certainly beekeepers have a right to be notified if a GM crop is being grown within six miles – the separation distance between GM crops and hives recommended to by the British Beekeepers’ Association during the Farm Scale Evaluations. GM pollen was detected in honey during the trials on several occasions. GM contamination, no matter how small the level, will also impact upon honey’s reputation as a pure and wholesome food. A 2002 survey indicated that 63% of people who regularly bought honey did not want it to contain GM pollen 39

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Oilseed rape is very attractive to honey bees – beekeepers have reported bees flying up to 5km to reach an oilseed rape field 40 . This makes them important pollinators for oilseed rape in the UK, and indeed bee colonies are commonly introduced to help with pollination. A report from Defra’s bee health programme 41 notes that, in oilseed rape, bees may “produce a crop of higher quality which ripens more rapidly and is easier to harvest. More importantly from a crop management point of view, pest control treatments that must be applied at (but never before) the end of flowering, can be applied with greater safety to beneficial insects and efficacy against the pest when flowering terminates evenly across the field.”

The economic value of crops grown commercially in the UK that benefit from bee pollination is estimated at around £120m-£200m per year, and the value of honey production in the UK is between £10-£30m per year 42. The impacts of excluding honey from a coexistence regime could therefore go beyond beekeepers.

DOE’s cursory dismissal of the issue of bees, honey and GM crops does not do justice to the complexity of the situation. It is vital that beekeepers have clear advice on the implications of GM contamination of honey, the measures required to prevent such contamination, and the exact locations and timings of GM crops.

39 http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/20020920000136.html

40 Ramsey G, Thompson CE, Neilson S & Mackay GR (1999). Honeybees as vectors of GM oilseed rape pollen. In: Lutman, PJW. Gene flow and Agriculture: Relevance for Transgenic Crops. BCPC Symposium Proceedings no 72.

41 Temple ML, Emmett BJ, Scott PE, Crabb RJ (2001). An economic evaluation of Defra’s Bee Health Programme: Annex 7 – Pollination of Crops. ADAS Consulting Ltd.

42 http://www.defra.gov.uk/hort/Bees/index.htm