Picked 60 pounds of okra and more is flowering. There's a bee on one of those flowers:
Picked 60 pounds of okra and more is flowering
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 3 July 2012.
Pumpkins keep getting bigger:
Continue readingBrown Dog and Yellow Dog in some red pine needles:
John S. Quarterman, Gretchen Quarterman, Brown Dog, Yellow Dog,
Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 April 2012.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms.
And the reason why they’re red:
Continue reading
Brian Wallheimer wrote in ScienceDaily 12 Jan 2012, Honeybee Deaths Linked to Seed Insecticide Exposure,
Analyses of bees found dead in and around hives from several apiaries over two years in Indiana showed the presence of neonicotinoid insecticides, which are commonly used to coat corn and soybean seeds before planting. The research showed that those insecticides were present at high concentrations in waste talc that is exhausted from farm machinery during planting.The authors are careful to say they don’t claim to have found the only cause of honeybee deaths, because they can’t prove that. They do seem to have proved specific insecticides are one cause.The insecticides clothianidin and thiamethoxam were also consistently found at low levels in soil — up to two years after treated seed was planted — on nearby dandelion flowers and in corn pollen gathered by the bees, according to the findings released in the journal PLoS One this month.
“We know that these insecticides are highly toxic to bees; we found them in each sample of dead and dying bees,” said Christian Krupke, associate professor of entomology and a co-author of the findings.
Is wiping out honebees worth the profits of a very few large agrobusinesses that sell these poisons?
Who sells this stuff, anyway? Bayer, Arysta, and Valent sell clothianidin, and Syngenta (SYT) sells thiamethoxam. What’s Syngenta’s excuse?
How do we feed a growing world population?By poisoning honeybees, apparently.
-jsq
Picture by John S. Quarterman at
Okra Paradise Farms,
Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 July 2011.
Skeeterhawk, that’s who! Eat them skeeters, skeeterhawk!
-jsq
And on electric fence wire: Continue reading
The bloom on the vine: Continue reading
Continue readingCommentary
A Call for Skepticism
by Steven K. Roberts
Camano IslandIf ever we needed a demonstration that the fundamental flaw in many arguments is a lack of discrimination regarding information sources, we have it in the Nels Konnerup article, “Toxicology 101 Defended,” in the March 26 issue of the S/C News.
The author makes a “plea for cogent thought, rather than a visceral reaction to the use of pesticides and herbicides,” and cites a number of references “authored by highly qualified and respected scientists.” So far, so good.
But just for fun, I spent a few minutes researching some of these sources to see if I could determine the affiliations and biases of their authors.
Susie Madrak writes in Crooks and Liars,
Leaked Document: EPA Scientists Warned Of Bee-Toxic Pesticide. Agency Approved It Anyway.
Clothianidin has already been banned by Germany, France, Italy, and Slovenia for its toxic effects. So why won’t the EPA follow? It probably has something to do with Big Agra, who loves the stuff for treating the corn seed supply.Ariel Schwartz in Fast Company a reminds us of why this matters
The world honey bee population has plunged in recent years, worrying beekeepers and farmers who know how critical bee pollination is for many crops.She includes a quote from the study:
Clothianidin’s major risk concern is to nontarget insects (that is, honey bees). Clothianidin is a neonicotinoid insecticide that is both persistent and systemic. Acute toxicity studies to honey bees show that clothianidin is highly toxic on both a contact and an oral basis. Although EFED does not conduct RQ based risk assessments on non-target insects, information from standard tests and field studies, as well as incident reports involving other neonicotinoids insecticides (e.g., imidacloprid) suggest the potential for long-term toxic risk to honey bees and other beneficial insects.
Here’s the leaked document (PDF).
-jsq
This is the same “gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuriengensis (Bt)” used in Monsanto’s RoundUp Ready cotton and peanuts and soybeans. Since Continue readingAn insecticide used in genetically modified (GM) crops grown extensively in the United States and other parts of the world has leached into the water of the surrounding environment.
The insecticide is the product of a bacterial gene inserted into GM maize and other cereal crops to protect them against insects such as the European corn borer beetle. Scientists have detected the insecticide in a significant number of streams draining the great corn belt of the American mid-West.
The researchers detected the bacterial protein in the plant detritus that was washed off the corn fields into streams up to 500 metres away. They are not yet able to determine how significant this is in terms of the risk to either human health or the wider environment.
Here they go: Continue reading