Letter to Editor of the Baltimore Sun by Zohara Hieronimus, D.H.L.
The commentary, “Bee death mystery could end” (Nov. 21), offers a vital call to sanity in Maryland and world wide. Without data on the poisons being used all around us, we are undermining our shared future.
Bees are at the center of the ecosystem and, like ants, they produce a most essential element for life, formic acid. Without it, the trees, fields and forests perish, and human DNA depends on it for stability and well-being. Where ants are reintroduced into dying woods or forests, the forest’s health can be reestablished. They and the bees do a mighty job of more than fertilization and pollination of our food crops and flowering species, but also lay the very foundation for life to thrive.
The “death economy,” a term I coined 15 years ago to summarize our basic disregard for elevating life through a stewardship that would reflect a “life-elevating economy,” is well-represented by the death of our sacred bees. Our large-scale application of warfare defoliants, insecticides, fungicides, pesticides and other poisons sprayed where we all live, work, play or derive our foods is an outdated strategy and practice, proven to cause death and disease in the human, animal and insect populations.
Saving the bees is a call to saving ourselves and all life on earth from deadly enterprises that ravage life. Keeping records of disease-causing agents used in Maryland is only logical, while moving to non-toxic agriculture the only sustainable option for us all.
Zoh M. Hieronimus, Owings Mills