HORMONE SPRAYS
66 Warfare” ■' On Bees (N.Z. Press Association) HAMILTON, July 17. Hormone sprays and insecticdes could kill the bee industry in New Zealand, said the president of the New Zealand Beekeepers’ Association (Mr B. W. Forsyth) today. Such chemical “warfare" had decimated the wild-bee. population and had cut the supply of food for the domestic bee. As a result, natural pollination could be seriously reduced.
There was a case for dairy farmers getting together to recognise the bee as “a farm animal” just as important as those which produced milk and meat, Mr Forsyth said. Plans for the regeneration of trees, shrubs, and other types of flora should be instituted immediately. New Zealand had pursued a relentless “good farming” policy which destroyed every stem of flowering weed, scrub, and native bush—the bee’s natural food source, said Mr Forsyth. Yet, paradoxically, the nation was becoming more dependent on the beekeeper, not so much for the 6000 tons of honey he produced each year but as the guardian of the source of life of much flora and fauna, Mr Forsyth said.
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Press, Volume CX, Issue 32352, 18 July 1970, Page 14
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180HORMONE SPRAYS Press, Volume CX, Issue 32352, 18 July 1970, Page 14
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