Clemintine war with Paramount farms rachets up

[jjgbee]

Paramount Farms has hired a high profil lobby group to push a new law through the Calif. assembly which would effectivly push every bee hive out of citrus throughout central Calif. Bees can not be placed within 2 miles of any 6 acre plot of Clemintines. Out of state guys hanging around after Almonds to do splits. GONE!!! One of our best irrigated crops for build up and nutrition. GONE!!! 25% of the US honey crop. GONE!!! Paramount is not a gorilla. It is a 10,000 lb gorilla. Many CA beekeepers have refused to pollinate almonds for Paramount as a matter of principal. Out of state beeks have filled the void. If you come from out of state to work for Paramount, be careful, tempers are getting short.

[Jeffzhear]

I'll do my part by not purchasing any Clemintines that paramount markets; provided I am aware of it and I'll make sure my friends are aware of the issue. Best of luck.

Jeff

[jjgbee]

Paramount clemintines. Market name Bee Sweet. How ironic! Costco Wholesale is one of their larger outlets. At Costco the customer is priority # 1 Let Costco know. Buy a few boxes and then return them the next day. Manager must refund your money and throw the Clemintines in the trash. List the reason for return is that you found out about Paramount's business practices. This will go into their data base. Maybe if loss got large enough they will go elsewhere for their Clementines.

[Jim Fischer]

The article in "Bee Culture" was instructive,
as it explained exactly how Paramount ignored the
advice of experts in their planting practices,
and became so "vulnerable" to bees. Perhaps a
copy of that article, with the appropriate
sections circled, should be mailed to all the
legislators who will vote on the corporate
welfare at the direct expense of beekeepers.

[sierrabees]

What issue of Bee Culture had the article?

[MichelleB]

A couple weeks ago, after seeing the "Cuties" brand of Clemenines (Paramount) in my local Trader Joe's, I wrote the market's headquarters to let them know about Paramount's suit, and how it will affect beekeepers...and growers of other varieties of produce.

The other day, I saw another brand of Clementines at another grocery store, and I'll probably pen them a letter, too.

[Sundance]

http://www.beesource.com/pov/traynor/saguidelinesOCT06.htm

[Ruben]

What will they try to do with a feral colony that gets inside their no bee zone?

[beemandan]

What, exactly, is Paramount's problem with bees?

[Barry Digman]

"What, exactly, is Paramount's problem with bees?"

Bees pollinate, which causes the fruit to produce seeds, which is "undesireable" and reduces the price of the fruit.

p.s. Here's the address of the community relations person at Costco. You may want to drop her a note (or a thousand) 'splaining why you aren't buying Paramount brand in their stores. If you're in contact with food coops, natural food stores, or any other organization that advocates for better stewardship of natural resources you might also tip them off about Paramount's heavy-handed tactics. If no one wants their produce, the proximity of bees becomes moot.

Community Relations / Charitable Donations
Muriel Cooper
Community Relations & Administration
Phone: (425) 313-6182
Email: MCooper@costco.com

[ January 28, 2007, 05:14 PM: Message edited by: coyote ]

[Lively Bee's]

This just show's how "corporate america" keeps the little man down. They have the money to lobby.

Now if you wont to start a movement and a boycott the time is now. But it will take every Beekeeper, family, friends etc. The word of mouth can very damaging

[Fusion_power]

The problem in this case is that Paramount was dumb enough to plant two different varieties of mandarin - that just happen to be very good pollinators of each other - right next to each other. They want to produce seedless fruit. The only way they can do that is to remove all bees from a 2 mile radius of their trees.

Read through the "advice" they were given about avoiding crosspollination. Any beekeeper will get a bellylaugh out of it. They planted on the precept that @1/4 mile of isolation was all that was needed to prevent crossing.

The bad part is that they are trying to force beekeepers to quit bringing bees to citrus locations that they have used for years. These locations are on land that Paramount does not own. They are trying to compensate for their stupid mistake by making someone else the fall guy.

Darrel Jones

[Lively Bee's]

Yea I read the full article and I got a good laugh out of it. I told my wife it would be a good time to team up on paramount.

[Ian]

Not a good spot for the beekeeping industry to be in. They might get their way anyway, scare the beekeepers away,.?
Could they claim the honeybee a pest within their citrus groves? Therefore warranting spraying? Probably not feasible to spray everyday, that is. But it would sure scare the beekeepers away!

[Sundance]

Never, ever, underestimate the power of money.
My bet is that Paramount will get their way.

[Lively Bee's]

Sundance is correct its about the money and they have the money to lobby and "buy" the votes they need. But what will get them is if they can prove that the crops were planted in heavy bee populated areas, and did not following planting guide lines.

Imo if they dont wont bees with in 2 miles of the fields then they should have to buy all the land for 2 miles around the farm.

But I still stick with the fact a true boycott of the company is the only way they will fell the impact from the people.

If they can not sell products or get the fields pollinated they will start feeling the loss.

Paramount Farming Co. grows pomegranates, almonds, pistachios, Citrus, and other crops most need pollination. If Beekeepers in and out of state would stop pollination the crops that need it they would fill the pain due to the the loss of bees.

They also own the Teleflora floral delivery network and the Franklin Mint collectibles company, PomWonderful juices.

It just pisses me off when I see corporate america pushing people around and getting their way.

[ January 29, 2007, 08:46 PM: Message edited by: Lively Bee's ]

[Ruben]

>Could they claim the honeybee a pest within their citrus groves? Therefore warranting spraying?

Is it legal to spray on something that is in bloom?

[randydrivesabus]

http://www.paramountfarms.com/index.html

looks like paramounts biggest crops are almonds and pistachios. must be quite a few beekeepers making some good money from them.

[Michael Bush]

>Is it legal to spray on something that is in bloom?

All the labels I've seen say they can't.

[Albert]

Just to consolidate:

Cosco
Community Relations / Charitable Donations
Muriel Cooper
Community Relations & Administration
Phone: (425) 313-6182
Email: MCooper@costco.com

Paramount Farming Co. grows pomegranates, almonds, pistachios, Citrus, and other crops

Paramount clementines: Market name Bee Sweet and Cuties

They also own the Teleflora floral delivery network and the Franklin Mint collectibles company, PomWonderful juices.

I showed this to the Mrs. and we will be sure of avoiding all Paramount products.
Albert

[jean-marc]

I sure like the Internet, not sure that Paramount will. Paramount may have big $, but we have 5000 + members on this site. I'm sure there are just as many who read this and will never become members. So if my math is correct that makes 10 000 people. If we all boycott their products (first tell 5 friends perhaps Costco) then I promise Paramount will reconsider their position.

Jean-Marc

[peggjam]

Better way to do this is just refuse to rent hives to them for almond pollination. But then you will always have someone willing to suppy the hives for the right price.....

[MichelleB]

Kroger Foods: Carries Paramount's clementines (Cuties).

1-866-221-4141

1014 Vine Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-1100

[ January 29, 2007, 08:08 PM: Message edited by: Lupine ]

[jjgbee]

Paramount can not spray blooming plants. Also we have a special bee protection area in the citrus region. This citrus/bee protection area, which was agreed upon by growers and beeks befor it became law, is the same type legislation Paramount is trying to push through. The diffrence here is Paramount wants all the perks and the beeks get nothing. This law as proposed says if anyone wants to plant 6 acres of clemintines or more, any beek within 2 miles must assist said grower in creating a Clemintine protection zone by removing his hives. This includes a beeks own property. I will give an example of Norman Cary who has a huge warehouse and extraction facility in the heart of citrus country. I estimate he has 8000 hives, 40 acres, 100000 sq ft of bldgs. He can't have any bees at this place if someone applys for a clementine protection zone near him. It just is not fair.

[Lively Bee's]

Your right is not fair they should not be allowed to push another person out of biz, just so they can grow a fruit.

[sierrabees]

They can't by law. That's the reason for a lobbyest to get the law changed so they can. Unfortunately with enough money that can be done.
The first approach is to intimidate people with the threat of a law suit. That works most of the time. When it doesn't work they hire someone who knows the right way to get big favors from our "honest dedicated" politicians and going into another presidential election campaign cycle the war chests need to be built up so.........
Next thing we know there is a new law on the books and the good "read rich" people have another advantage. They can now carry out their threats in a court of law.

[2rubes]

On spreading the word, I'm passing this thread to all beekeepers I know and urging them to take some type of action if they shop at Costco, or even their own market.
Janet

[RonS]

I've been following this thread and it bothers me. If we have a bee yard and our bees get over-spray from a neighboring cotton farmer, we expect compensation because the pesticide drifted onto our land and affected our bees. If the bees go to the cotten and are affected, maybe that is our problem. Here, our bees adversely affect Paramount through a denegration of their crop value. If Paramount knew or should have known that a neighbor was a beekeeper or allowed another beek to place a yard on his/her property before Paramount decided to plant tangerines, then that is Paramount's problem, especially if the yard was registered. If, because of the new planting, a beekeeper installed new hives to target those trees, then that is the beek's problem. To me, it just makes common sense.

I am also troubled about the proposed legislation. If a bill is offered as stated in the thread, then it is way to broad, having not considered pre-existing hives or yards. If this is true, then the California Beekeepers' Assoc. need to get immediately involved to amend it or to lobby against it.

[paulka]

I believe that if a legislator understood the facts he/she would hesitate to support it.

More importantly if governor Schwartenegger understands it, he would probably veto it.

Gov Arnie doesn't need the pitance a lobbist could offer him! He may be the best one to convince, I would think the Bee assoc org CA should be trying to get an audience with Arnie!

Paul

[sierrabees]

I think you are giving our politicians far too much credit for ethical action. They go with the flow and cater to the money on all issues. Whatever means the most votes is all that counts and there aren't enough beekeepers to turn an election.

[jjgbee]

there is no question that Paramount knew that bees were present befor they started plantings. The CA citrus zone is the largest concentration of bees anywhere in the US other than almond pollination. We are talking about 300,000 colonies that will be pushed out. To keep bees 2 miles away from any 6 acre plot, bees will be excluded from approx. 20,000 acres.

[Fusion_power]

If the limit is 2 miles for the minimum 6 acre plot of trees, the actual acreage restricted is about 9000. Not to pick nits, but your 20,000 acre figure is a bit overblown. The problem is still very real.


Darrel Jones

[MichelleB]

Seems that stories concerning bee troubles are popping up more frequently in mainstream media due to Colony Collapse Disorder.

The beekeeping organizations need to generate some press releases, making a point of saying that the last thing the industry needs right now is a law that will cause further hardship on an industry that provides a crucial service to our food supply. In appealing to legislators, it should be noted that further hardships on bees will cause higher pollenating costs to all California producers.

And the whole David vs. Goliath thing has a certain appeal to editors as well. Especially in California, where there's a growing trend toward consumers in favoring smaller operations rather than huge conglomerates.

As for boycotts, I agree--they rarely work. But what I know about trendy west coast chains such as Trader Joe's is that their customers tend to be concerned about the origins of the products they consume. To get Trader Joe's to drop seedless clementines, for example, would catch some attention.

And from what I understand (not sure about this), their main concern is their dry goods products--I think their limited produce section is a loss leader, another reason to get customers to come in for one-stop grocery stopping.

[ February 02, 2007, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: Lupine ]

[florida pollinator]

I don't know if you will be able to get the bee organizations to band together on this, but it would be good.
That's why those of us who have had problems with Colony Collapse Disorder have taken advantage of press when they have been interested ,because nobody else (organizations)have been getting anything out. Without news of our problems we will never see any extra Usda$$$ for research.
We need to find and place in our address books the e-mails for your legislators and state reps and congress persons.
If any of you know a reporter in your area, gather some of this information or links and try to get them to do a story on it, at the same time if we all e-mail as many of these companies as possible and voice our displeasure of them selling goods from a company such as paramount.

I read something once that eluded to a belief of companies that one letter or e-mail about something translated into an much larger group of unhappy customers that just would'nt take time to write. A large number of unhappy e-mails will get more notice than we sometimes think when we have focus.

As for Ca and the 6 acre rule , they do things and look at it all different out on the great left coast.

[Ann]

For the record, Trader Joe's has a growing presence here in the Boston area. There's a newer one opened four miles from my house, which is 26 miles south of Boston. I'll be paying them a visit to check on the clementines this weekend!