tagged w/ Pesticides
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With the boom in consumption of organic foods creating a pressing need for natural insecticides and herbicides that can be used on crops certified as "organic," biopesticide pioneer Pam G. Marrone, Ph.D., is reporting development of a new "green" pesticide obtained from an extract of the giant knotweed in a report scheduled for presentation here today at the 236th national meeting of the American Chemical Society.
That 12-foot-high Goliath, named for the jointed swollen nodes on its stem, invaded the U.S. from Japan years ago and grows along the East Coast and other areas. "The product is safe to humans, animals, and the environment," says Marrone, founder and CEO of Marrone Organic Innovations Inc., in Davis, Calif.
The new biopesticide has active compounds that alert plant defenses to combat a range of diseases, including powdery mildew, gray mold and bacterial blight that affect fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals. The product will be available this October for conventional growers, according to Marja Koivunen, Ph.D., director of research and development for Marrone Organic Innovations. A new formulation has also been developed for organic farmers and will be available in 2009.
In one of the presentations by Marrone Organic Innovations (MOI), the progress toward discovery of an "organic Roundup" — the Holy Grail of biopesticide research — an environmentally friendly and natural version of the world's most widely used herbicide was discussed.
Biopesticides are derived from plants, microbes, or other natural materials and are proven to be safer for humans and the environment. The active ingredient in one of the company's first products, GreenMatch EX, came from lemongrass oil, and microorganisms from around the world are studied in the search for novel and effective natural pesticides. Currently, the MOI R&D team is working on an organic rice herbicide based on an extract from a marine microorganism, as well as on insecticides and nematocides to kill insect pests and soil-inhabiting, parasitic roundworms that affect plants and animals.
Although sales of synthetic pesticides dominate the $30 billion pesticide market, the use of biopesticides is increasing. Officials from MOI estimate that global sales will hit $1 billion by 2010 and grow 10 percent a year on average. Biopesticides could make up 4.25 percent of the global pesticide business in 2010, up from 2.5 percent in 2005. As they become more popular, synthetic pesticides are expected to shrink by 1.5 percent each year over the same period.
What accounts for the changing numbers? Public awareness, Koivunen said. "I think the time is right, there's more demand," she said. "People are becoming more aware of the negative effects of conventional pesticides. At the same time, growers are more willing to switch. They have more choices and incentive compared to 10 years ago."
All organic farmers must have markets for their food — markets that might not have been available to them a decade ago, Koivunen said. Why are people switching to organic food? "I think there has been enough scientific evidence that there's a difference between, let's say, conventional tomatoes and organic tomatoes in terms of pesticide residues but also improved taste and higher levels of antioxidants," she said.
Koivunen adds that the growing popularity of biopesticides and organic foods is not a fluke. In fact, it is part of a much larger development.
"I think it's a combination of the movement of green chemistry, trying to protect the environment and people's thoughts about their own health — maybe not even their health but their kids; and grandkids' health."
With the boom in consumption of organic foods creating a pressing need for natural... more
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Support Schmeiser, Nelson and hundreds of other farmers who are being forced to pay Monsanto to have their fields contaminated by genetically modified organisms.
Sign OCA's "Millions Against Monsanto" petition. These petitions will be physically delivered to Monsanto and related court hearings
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1265
The petition can also be found half way down the subject page above organicconsumers.org/monlink.cfm after the following story.
Multi-Billion $$ Monsanto Sues More Small Family Farmers
Percy Schmeiser is a farmer from Saskatchewan Canada, whose Canola fields were contaminated with Monsanto's genetically engineered Round-Up Ready Canola by pollen from a nearby farm. Monsanto says it doesn't matter how the contamination took place, and is therefore demanding Schmeiser pay their Technology Fee (the fee farmers must pay to grow Monsanto's genetically engineered products). According to Schmeiser, "I never had anything to do with Monsanto, outside of buying chemicals. I never signed a contract.
If I would go to St. Louis (Monsanto Headquarters) and contaminate their plots - destroy what they have worked on for 40 years - I think I would be put in jail and the key thrown away."
Rodney Nelson's family farm is being forced into a similar lawsuit by Monsanto.
Support Schmeiser, Nelson and hundreds of other farmers who are being forced to pay Monsanto to have their fields contaminated by genetically modified organisms.
Sign OCA's "Millions Against Monsanto" petition. These petitions will be physically delivered to Monsanto and related court hearings.Monsanto Takes Ownership of Public Water Resources
Over the past century, global water supplies have been contaminated with the full gamut of Monsanto's chemicals, including PCBs, dioxin and glyophosate (Roundup). So now the company, seeing a profitable market niche, is taking control of the public water resources they polluted, filtering it, and selling it back to the people. In short, Monsanto is making a double profit by polluting the world's scarce freshwater resources, privately taking ownership of that water, filtering it, and selling it back to those who can afford to pay for it.
Sign OCA's "Millions Against Monsanto" petition. These petitions will be physically delivered to Monsanto and related court hearings
Support Schmeiser, Nelson and hundreds of other farmers who are being forced to pay... more
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What causes honeybee colonies to collapse?
Why do 36 states have honeybees with this disorder and not other states?
Are pesticides part of the problem?
What role does hybridized corn seed created by Monsanto have on honey bee colonies?
What do we know about the genetic makeup of honeybees and how they are affected by pesticides and other toxic chemicals such as pest control products?
These are all questions that were discussed on on KQED just today. It was a great discussion but answering these questions was almost impossible.
These are the facts.
Honeybees, which pollinate everything from almonds to apples to avocados, began abandoning their colonies in 2006, destroying about a third of their hives.
Since then, their numbers have not improved. A survey of beekeepers in the fall and winter 2007 by the Bee Research Lab and the Apiary Inspectors of America showed that beekeepers lost about 35 percent of their hives compared with 31 percent in 2006.
Scientists have not pinpointed the cause.
In 2007, Congress recognized colony collapse disorder as a threat and gave the U.S. Department of Agriculture emergency funds to study honeybee disappearances. In addition, the 2008 Farm Bill grants the USDA $20 million each year to support bee research and related work. And earlier this year, ice cream maker Haagen-Dazs, who relies on honeybees for 40 percent of its flavors, awarded a $250,000 research grant to UC Davis and Pennsylvania State University to research honeybees.
Recently
Published on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 by the San Francisco Chronicle
Lawsuit Seeks EPA Pesticide Data
by Jane Kay
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is refusing to disclose records about a new class of pesticides that could be playing a role in the disappearance of millions of honeybees in the United States, a lawsuit filed Monday charges.
The Natural Resources Defense Council wants to see the studies that the EPA required when it approved a pesticide made by Bayer CropScience five years ago.
The environmental group filed the suit as part of an effort to find out how diligently the EPA is protecting honeybees from dangerous pesticides, said Aaron Colangelo, a lawyer for the group in Washington.
In the last two years, beekeepers have reported unexplained losses of hives - 30 percent and upward - leading to a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder. Scientists believe that the decline in bees is linked to an onslaught of pesticides, mites, parasites and viruses, as well as a loss of habitat and food.
please go to this link for more...
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/19/11070/
Also recommended is this book
Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis by Rowan Jacobsen
Talking and learning what is going on around us will help change this crisis.
XWhat causes honeybee colonies to collapse?
Why do 36 states have honeybees with this... more
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xrista
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The Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit today to uncover critical information that the US government is withholding about the risks posed by pesticides to honey bees. NRDC legal experts and a leading bee researcher are convinced that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has evidence of connections between pesticides and the mysterious honey bee die-offs reported across the country. The phenomenon has come to be called colony collapse disorder, or CCD, and it is already proving to have disastrous consequences for American agriculture and the $15 billion worth of crops pollinated by bees every year.
EPA has failed to respond to NRDC Freedom of Information Act request for agency records concerning the toxicity of pesticides to bees, forcing the legal action.
Recently approved pesticides have been implicated in massive bee die-offs and are the focus of increasing scientific scrutiny, said NRDC Senior Attorney Aaron Colangelo. EPA should be evaluating the risks to bees before approving new pesticides, but now refuses to tell the public what it knows. Pesticide restrictions might be at the heart of the solution to this growing crisis, so why hide the information they should be using to make those decisions?
In 2003, EPA granted a registration to a new pesticide manufactured by Bayer CropScience under the condition that Bayer submit studies about its product's impact on bees. EPA has refused to disclose the results of these studies, or if the studies have even been submitted. The pesticide in question, clothianidin, recently was banned in Germany due to concerns about its impact on bees. A similar insecticide was banned in France for the same reason a couple of years before. In the United States, these chemicals still are in use despite a growing consensus among bee specialists that pesticides, including clothianidin and its chemical cousins, may contribute to CCD.
In the past two years, some American beekeepers have reported unexplained losses of 30-90% of the bees in their hives. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), bees pollinate $15 billion worth of crops grown in America. USDA also claims that one out of every three mouthfuls of food in the typical American diet has a connection to bee pollination. As the die-offs worsen, Americans will see their food costs increase.
Despite bees critical role for farmers, consumers, and the environment, the federal government has been slow to address the die-off since the alarm bells started in 2006. In recent Congressional hearings, USDA was unable to account for the $20 million that Congress has allocated to the department for fighting CCD in the last two years.
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Is the EPA hiding colony collapse disorder information? Hopefully this suit will give us the answers. Personally, I have always thought pesticides, particularly Round Up by Monsanto was contributing to the decline of bees... here you have bees naturally pollinating or trying to naturally pollinate a biofake plant. What are the chances something would go wrong, or that the bees would suffer some sort of repercussions from that? Did Monsanto, Bayer, or any company really do any tests regarding that or their pesticides? Who knows... we are never told anything. All we know is that the food is on our shelves because all of these agencies tell us everything is safe without showing us anything to back it up.The Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit today to uncover critical... more
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In July 2008, a three-year initiative began called the Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project that involves Native American youth and Marquette teens building butterfly houses and planting over 26,000 native plants to help pollinators recover due to the shocking death of billions of honeybees across the Midwest and around the world.
Butterfly houses are slimmer than better known birdhouses and are lined with bark offering a place for butterflies to rest, be protected and in some cases lay eggs.
It's important as thousands of Monarchs pass thru the U.P. in the annual migration to Mexico of 3 million Monarchs.
Native plants indigenous to any region of the world are important for local pollinators that can be fooled by imported vegetation resulting in death or eggs not hatching.
The Zaagkii Project was founded by Rev. Jon Magnuson and his non-profit Cedar Tree Institute in Marquette, Michigan.
The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community has long supported initiatives like the Zaagkii Project that were founded by the non-profit Cedar Tree Institute (CTI) including wild rice restoration and Earth Day clean sweeps. The three-year Zaagkii Project is sponsored by the KBIC, CTI, Marquette County Juvenile Court and the United States Forest Service.
The Zaagkii Project would not be possible without contributors that include the Marquette Community Foundation, the Negaunee Community Fund, the Negaunee Community Youth Fund, the M.E. Davenport Foundation, the Kaufman Foundation, the Phyllis and Max Reynolds Foundation, with assistance from the Upper Peninsula Children's Museum in Marquette and the Borealis Seed Company in Big Bay.
In July 2008, a three-year initiative began called the Zaagkii Wings and Seeds... more
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Half of federally accredited organic certifiers recently audited were put on probation after foods were found with unacceptable pesticide levels.
When you buy food with a "USDA organic" label, do you know what you're getting? Now is a good time to ask such a question, as the USDA just announced Monday it was putting 15 out of 30 federally accredited organic certifiers they audited on probation, allowing them 12 months to make corrections or lose their accreditation. At the heart of the audit for several certifiers were imported foods and ingredients from other countries, including China.
Chinese imports have had a bad year in the news, making headlines for contaminated pet food, toxic toys, and recently, certified organic ginger contaminated with levels of a pesticide called aldicarb that can cause nausea, headaches and blurred vision even at low levels. The ginger, sold under the 365 label at Whole Foods Market, contained a level of aldicarb not even permissible for conventional ginger, let alone organics. Whole Foods immediately pulled the product from its shelves.
Ronnie Cummins, the national director of the Organic Consumers Association, emphasizes that most organic farmers "play by the rules." They believe in organic principles and thereby comply with organic standards. Unfortunately, Congress' pitifully inadequate funding for enforcement, including for organic imports from countries like China, "guarantees it'll be easy for unscrupulous players to cheat, and that's obviously what's going on here."
Farms that produce USDA-certified organic food are not personally inspected by anyone from the USDA National Organic Program (NOP). As a small and underfunded agency within the USDA (it has fewer than a dozen employees), NOP relies on what it calls Accredited Certifying Agencies -- ACAs -- to do the legwork. The ACAs take responsibility for ensuring that any farm or processor bearing the organic label meets the strict requirements for certification.
Since the Chinese government does not allow foreigners to inspect Chinese farms, an extra step is involved for oversight of organics from China: Chinese companies, which are allowed to inspect Chinese farms, subcontract with foreign ACAs. Cummins believes "the safest course of action is ... to say we won't certify imports from China because their law won't allow inspections."
For Americans who shop at the growing number of farmers markets springing up around the country, the status of organics from China -- or even organics from faraway U.S. states -- may be irrelevant. Just as the hippies who founded the movement intended, ethical eating extends beyond pesticide-free food for these shoppers, some of whom call themselves locavores, meaning "one who eats food produced locally." They wish to support small farmers and to ensure their food was produced in an environmentally friendly manner by workers who were treated well and paid fairly.
And not matter how strict a law may be, there will always be those who game the system. Even if a Chinese inspector notices illegal pesticide use, he or she might feel pressured to stay silent, says Dr. Robert E. Hegel, professor of Chinese and Comparative Literature at Washington University in St. Louis. "Everybody there is so proud of increased production that few people ask much about the farmer's production methods," says Hegel. "And there's no 'organic' food tradition in China." According to Hegel, in China "everything was just 'food' and it was, until the 1950s, mostly 'organic' by our contemporary definitions -- fertilized with human and animal waste, compost ... and ashes."**continues, click link to read the rest**Half of federally accredited organic certifiers recently audited were put on probation... more
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Monsanto doesn't want anything to do with French investigative journalist Marie-Monique Robin.
The American biotechnology and herbicide-producing giant wouldn't co-operate with Robin in her three years researching her highly critical documentary The World According to Monsanto and her accompanying, French-language bestseller (with an English translation on the way).
Now that her film is being shown in more and more countries, and advocacy groups are featuring clips of the documentary on their websites, Monsanto still hasn't called Robin.
To many viewers, the company's "no comment" may appear to be damning in itself, given the litany of accusations made against Monsanto by farmers, scientists, watchdog groups, health and agriculture advocates.
Googling for seeds of truth
The documentary shows farmers alleging that Monsanto - a leader in developing genetically modified seed and herbicides - has pitted farmer against farmer, encouraging them to rat on anyone suspected of not buying new Monsanto seed each year. It shows agricultural experts alleging genetically modified corn has invaded indigenous Mexican corn, with monstrous varieties being found. And advocates in India alleging that cotton farmers sometimes commit suicide owing to their dependence on genetically modified crops and the risk of low harvests. The list of accusations goes on.
A spokeswoman from Monsanto Canada, however, did respond to calls for this article. "Any of the allegations that have been made in the movie have been responded to publicly on our website," spokeswoman Trish Jordan said. A segment on the company's website labelled For the Record, she explained, "basically responds to some of the common allegations that are dredged up by activists. And I think that would probably give you our position on most, if not everything, in her documentary."
The film does refer to the website, and the explanations used by Monsanto in response to various criticisms.
Still, Robin said she was astonished by what she found when making the film. "Yes, I was very surprised. It's very difficult to understand how they manage - what they called in the U.S. the revolving door," she said. By this, she means the way in which government officials and elected leaders have often worked for corporations such as Monsanto, only to later pass regulations while in office favouring their former employers.
It was also difficult to get people to talk. "It's very difficult," Robin said, whether officials within regulatory agencies, scientists or other journalists. She said that one regulatory insider told her they didn't want to have any problems with the company, since it's so powerful.
The World According to Monsanto is as disturbing as any Hollywood thriller. Robin's next documentaries will likely be just as heavy, with a film on the U.S. military's use of what many see as torture during interrogations and a documentary on environmental causes of cancer.
So what drives Robin to investigate such dire topics?
"I have three daughters at home," she said, "and I think when I'm doing this kind of documentary, it's for my daughters. ... With what's going on with GMOs [genetically modified organisms] and what it means, in 20 years, if we don't react, it's very worrisome."
Aug.1,2008Monsanto doesn't want anything to do with French investigative journalist... more
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Here’s the report that top officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thought was too hot for the public to handle — and the story behind it.
For more than seven months, the nation’s top public health agency has blocked the publication of an exhaustive federal study of environmental hazards in the eight Great Lakes states, reportedly because it contains such potentially “alarming information” as evidence of elevated infant mortality and cancer rates.
The 400-plus-page study, Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in the Twenty-Six U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern, was undertaken by a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the request of the International Joint Commission, an independent bilateral organization that advises the U.S. and Canadian governments on the use and quality of boundary waters between the two countries. The study was originally scheduled for release in July 2007 by the IJC and the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).
The Center for Public Integrity has obtained the study, which warns that more than nine million people who live in the more than two dozen “areas of concern”—including such major metropolitan areas as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee—may face elevated health risks from being exposed to dioxin, PCBs, pesticides, lead, mercury, or six other hazardous pollutants.
In many of the geographic areas studied, researchers found low birth weights, elevated rates of infant mortality and premature births, and elevated death rates from breast cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer.
Since 2004, dozens of experts have reviewed various drafts of the study, including senior scientists at the CDC, Environmental Protection Agency, and other federal agencies, as well as scientists from universities and state governments, according to sources familiar with the history of the project.
“It raises very important questions,” Dr. Peter Orris, a professor at the University of Illinois School of Public Health in Chicago and one of three experts who reviewed the study for ATSDR, told the Center. While Orris acknowledged that the study does not determine cause and effect—a point the study itself emphasizes—its release, he said, is crucial to pointing the way for further esearch. “Communities could demand that those questions be answered in a more systematic way,” he said. “Not to release it is putting your head under the sand.”
In a December 2007 letter to ATSDR in which he called for the release of the study, Orris wrote: “This report, which has taken years in production, was subjected to independent expert review by the IJC’s Health Professionals Task Force and other boards, over 20 EPA scientists, state agency scientists from New York and Minnesota, three academics (including myself), and multiple reviews within ATSDR. As such, this is perhaps the most extensively critiqued report, internally and externally, that I have heard of.”
****continues,click link to read****Here’s the report that top officials of the Centers for Disease Control and... more
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Tim Lewis doesn’t want to be the next member of the U.S. media jailed for defying a court order.
But he says he’d rather be locked up than surrender to Lane County prosecutors a video he shot during a May 30 anti-pesticide rally in downtown Eugene marked by the controversial stun-gun arrest of 18-year-old University of Oregon student Ian Van Ornum.
Lewis, a longtime local videographer and activist, has been ordered to relinquish the tape to a grand jury that will decide if Van Ornum or anyone else attending the Kesey Square rally should be charged with a crime.
Lewis says there’s “no way” he’ll give up the tape.
“I don’t have a whole bunch (on the tape) that would interest them,” he said. “But I can’t set a precedent by giving it to them.”
Lewis, 52, who for years videotaped police activities for public-access shows “Cascadia Alive!” and “CopWatch” and who describes himself as an independent journalist, took his camera with him to the May 30 rally to capture footage for his “Picture Eugene” series of online videos.
Lewis said he tried to begin recording when uniformed officers first approached Van Ornum. But he didn’t realize that he had previously protected the tape in his camera from being recorded over.
Lewis said he wasn’t able to slip in a new tape until after a Eugene officer used a Taser stun gun to subdue Van Ornum. Scenes of the teen laying on the ground while handcuffed are included in footage Lewis posted online on YouTube.Tim Lewis doesn’t want to be the next member of the U.S. media jailed for... more
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jubal
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The CA Dept of Food and Agriculture plans to begin spraying untested synthetic pheromones and other ingredients that are known endocrine disrupters and/or carcinogens all delivered in tiny "time release" capsules made of polyurea plastic. The size in microns of these capsules (when actually measured and contrary to the manufacturer's claims) is such that over half of them are small enough (under 10 microns) to be inhaled and to lodge in the lungs.
Also worth noting is that the manufacturer of the synthetic pheromone, Suterra Inc, has donated almost $150,000 to Governor Schwarzenegger's campaign fund for his 2006 gubernatorial campaign.
When a similar spray was used in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties there were hundreds of reports of reactions, ranging from rashes and difficultybreathing or asthma like symptoms, to headaches,dizziness, stinging eyes, sore throat and tremors. A private citizen was documenting these reactions in theabsence of any other monitoring by the state orfederal government. There was a significant increase in emergency room visits in the days following the spray.
This is supposedly to combat the Light Brown Apple Moth which the CDFA claims has just "invaded" CA in the last year. According to Dr. Daniel Harder of the UCSC arboretum & ecology dept the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) has likely been here for between 30 to 50 years. The LBAM is a leaf curling moth that does not nest in, eat or otherwise damage fruit, does not defoliate,does not even target fruit trees. There has been no crop damage to date.
The LBAM was originally classified as a threat in order to restrict apple importations from new zealand,which were an economic threat to California's applegrowers and had less to do with any actual threat than it does with trade politics. (There is amovement in congress to reassign or reclassify LBAM inorder to stop the proposed spray).
Eradication by means of pheromone has never been achieved under any circumstance, and eradication itself is extremely unlikely given the insect's range.
This issue has gotten little national media attention, but has created a large grassroots movement as seen on blossoming websites of organizations such as www.playnotspray.org, www.stopthespraysf.org, www.cassonline.org (CA Alliance to stop the spray), among others.
The CA Dept of Food and Agriculture plans to begin spraying untested synthetic... more
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It can be scary when you think about what's in our grocery stores: genetically modified foods, foods that contain synthetic hormones, pesticides and antibiotics, as well as foods exposed to irradiation (a form of radiation used to kill bacteria).It can be scary when you think about what's in our grocery stores: genetically... more
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The praying mantis is an excellent general predator to keep pests to a minimum in your garden or yard. It eats aphids, beetles, flies, mosquitoes, moths, caterpillars; basically any insect it can catch.
But did you know that you could buy praying mantis eggs and put them to work as a pesticide alternative? They might not be available everywhere, but a search on the internet should tell you if there are vendors in your area. One example of an online store that carries praying mantis eggs is Costco. The 'egg case' they advertise contains between 40 and 400 eggs!The praying mantis is an excellent general predator to keep pests to a minimum in your... more
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Alipio
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Survey shows rise in U.S. honey bee deaths
'Astonishing' 36.1 percent of hives lost due to disease, pesticides, enemies
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24500059/
SAN FRANCISCO - A survey of bee health released Tuesday revealed a grim picture, with 36.1 percent of the nation's commercially managed hives lost since last year.
Last year's survey commissioned by the Apiary Inspectors of America found losses of about 32 percent.
As beekeepers travel with their hives this spring to pollinate crops around the country, it's clear the insects are buckling under the weight of new diseases, pesticide drift and old enemies like the parasitic varroa mite, said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, president of the group....
from The Survival Center
Providers of Family Preparedness, Health, & Survival Supplies
http://www.survivalcenter.com
_________________________
Brought to you by TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com
where Charleen Touchette is painting to call back the bees.
"Calling the Bees Home" mixed media/paper 2008 Survey shows rise in U.S. honey bee deaths
'Astonishing' 36.1 percent of... more
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Golf Digest Magazine explores whether golf is green in this month's issue. John Barton, in his article "How Green is Golf?", identifies core problems with golf courses -- increasing water cost and scarcity, and the burden of golf green maintenance with pesticides. Burton raises some interesting questions which have been explored by environmentalists for years, but only initially explored between the golf establishment and environmentalists together at a Pebble Beach conference in 1995.
Golf course maintenance incurs high costs, and use 300,000 gallons of water each day for golf greens around the United States, according to Burton's article. But golf courses do not depend on water alone to keep it evergreen. Pesticides and synthetic chemicals are sprayed regularly, which compound the environment, and can result in disease and cancer.
Read more in Burton's essay, and additional interviews with golf architects, environmentalists, and others about these issues.
Photo: Desert Springs Golf Course, Costa de Almeria, Spain.Golf Digest Magazine explores whether golf is green in this month's issue. John... more
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Also on Forbes.com at http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/04/27/afx4938119.html
"CHICAGO (Thomson Financial) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 on Friday issued 'stop sale, use or removal' orders to Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. and two affiliates, barring the distribution and sale of two more misbranded pesticides.
Labels on both products make false or misleading claims and one product lacks safety instructions as required by the EPA it said."
Check out the links for which products are effected by the order.Also on Forbes.com at... more
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Excerpt:
"it's how food is produced, not how far it is transported, that matters most for global warming, according to new research published in ES&T. In fact, eating less red meat and dairy can be a more effective way to lower an average U.S. household's food-related climate footprint than buying local food, says lead author Christopher Weber of Carnegie Mellon University."
I say go local and organic, but this article reinforces to me that it is worth the extra cost to support organic agriculture.Excerpt:
"it's how food is produced, not how far it is transported, that... more
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If allowed to spread throughout the state, the Apple moth could cause $160 to $640 million in crop damage each year. San Francisco is joining a growing number of cities in the Bay Area that oppose the state's attempt to eradicate the moth with an aerial spray. Spraying the pesticide in Santa Clara and Monterey counties was followed by hundreds of reports of respiratory and other health problems.If allowed to spread throughout the state, the Apple moth could cause $160 to $640... more
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The pesticides scheduled for spraying all over the Bay Area and other parts of California this summer and fall is said to be harmless to humans and other animals, and yet some people in counties already sprayed have reported respiratory problems and asthmatic symptoms.
This article says that the pesticides will consist mosly of "pheromones" - a sort of birth control for the reproductive cycle of the moths in question.
So will this help or harm humans? Will our breathing of fresh air be compromised?The pesticides scheduled for spraying all over the Bay Area and other parts of... more
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Asthma and flu-like symptoms have occurred in people already sprayed, and who knows what else in the short and long term. This is an undocumented, untested chemical that interferes with the light brown apple moth's ability to reproduce. And what about humans reproductive and lung and skin health?
Santa Cruz and Monterey County residential areas are scheduled to be aerial sprayed beginning June 1, 2008, and again every 30 to 90 days. San Francisco, Daly City, Colma, Oakland, Piedmont, Emeryville, Albany, El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Tiburon and Belvedere residential areas are scheduled to be aerial sprayed on August 1, 2008, and again every 30 to 90 days.Asthma and flu-like symptoms have occurred in people already sprayed, and who knows... more
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The California state agriculture department plans to use airplanes at night this summer to spray a farm pesticide over urban San Francisco, Marin County and the East Bay, intending to eradicate a potentially destructive moth.
Doesn't sound like a very good idea to me. The California state agriculture department plans to use airplanes at night this... more
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