Category Archives: environment

Your (not so) “bee-friendly” plants | Pesticide Action Network

Bee-harming pesticides in our lavender and daisies? In the same week that an international body of scientists released a comprehensive global assessment of the harms of pesticides to bees, a new report shows that these very same pesticides are found in many of our backyard plants — at levels of concern — that are meant to support pollinators.

The report shows that 51% of garden plant samples purchased at top garden retailers (Home Depot, Lowe’s and Walmart) in 18 cities in the United States and Canada contain neonicotinoid (neonic) pesticides — a key driver of declining bee populations. Concerning levels of the pesticides were found in places like California’s San Francisco Bay Area and in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. In some cases, multiple neonics were found in the same plant, in the leaves, stalks or flowers.

via Your (not so) “bee-friendly” plants | Pesticide Action Network.

Wanna be a Roach Rancher? Insects as the food of the future: Locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, silk moth pupae, and beetle and moth larvae — ScienceDaily

Some entrepreneurs, such as Patrick Crowley are making it happen. Crowley is the founder of Chapul Cricket Bars, the first company in the United States to use insects as source of nutrition. At Chapul, he is directly challenging the existing perceptions of insects as food by producing, marketing, and selling an energy bar, in a variety of flavors, made with high-protein cricket powder. “It’s an exciting time to be the forefront of this budding industry,” said Crowley.

While in some countries, insects are harvested in the wild, such practices are typically inefficient and involve risks from environmental toxins and pathogens. Insects, such as crickets and mealworms, can be efficiently farmed in an industrial setting free from contaminants. In fact, samples from insect farms in the U.S. and Europe have been tested for contaminants that sometimes present problems in foods from animal sources, such as salmonella, listeria, E. coli, or Staphylococcus aureus, and have been found to be free of contaminants.

There are a number of challenges for quality mass production of insects that still must be overcome, but the expert panels agreed that insects as a source of food is the way of the future.

via Insects as the food of the future: Locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, silk moth pupae, and beetle and moth larvae — ScienceDaily.

CDC – Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS) – Hantavirus

{The nastier version of hantavirus and may have been cause for millions of deaths in 1300-1400 AD in Central and South America due to an outbreak caused by building cities and stockpiles of urban food (grains) infested by mice. Could return through an “oops” over production of grains by big ag and ensuing explosion of mice and rats. a new variety could be our “ebola”}

Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is a group of clinically similar illnesses caused by hantaviruses from the family Bunyaviridae. HFRS includes diseases such as Korean hemorrhagic fever, epidemic hemorrhagic fever, and nephropathis epidemica. The viruses that cause HFRS include Hantaan, Dobrava, Saaremaa, Seoul, and Puumala.

via CDC – Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS) – Hantavirus.

Mission-driven Mobile Market targets food deserts, underserved schools | Kaid Benfield’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

“The group efficiently sets up shop at the wellness center.  Tents and an awning come out to keep people and products cool. Crates holding bundles of greens, boxes of strawberries and glass jars filled with herbs are placed on the side of the bus on removable metal shelves.  The market also sells local meat, eggs, dairy and honey, which, like the produce, is a mix of items from Arcadia and other local farms . . .

“When it’s time to move on, [summer fellow Anna] Hymanson sets the timer, as the group is informally competitive about how quickly they can break everything down.  A lot of precise stacking is required, using one of what [culinary educator JuJu] Harris affectionately calls Bartley’s ‘Ben-ventions,’ a series of wooden frames that prevents things from sliding around.”

via Mission-driven Mobile Market targets food deserts, underserved schools | Kaid Benfield’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC.

Asian Heatwave Precedes Monsoon : Image of the Day

In the first half of June 2014, news accounts described an extreme heatwave in India, as well as the late and somewhat weak arrival of the seasonal monsoon. Air temperatures in New Delhi climbed as high as 48° Celsius (118° Fahrenheit) and stayed above 43°C (110°F) for seven days. Satellite data offer some insights on what was happening on the ground.

via Asian Heatwave Precedes Monsoon : Image of the Day.

Pesticide Stricken Honeybee Hives On a Sustainable Family Farm | The Women’s International Perspective

Dead bees

You see, I only became a beekeeper this summer. I decided to do so in response to the Wilsonville, Oregon bumblebee die-off one year ago today: June 19, 2013. On that day, over 50,000 bumblebees rained on the parking lot outside a Target store. The culprit: neonicotinoids, a class of pesticide.

via Pesticide Stricken Honeybee Hives On a Sustainable Family Farm | The Women’s International Perspective.

“Plastic-eating” microbes help reduce marine debris: researchers – Channel NewsAsia

Coming soon: The Dixie Cup that Ate Cleveland!

Microscopic creatures could be helping reduce marine garbage on the ocean surface, not only by “eating” plastics but by causing tiny pieces to sink to the seafloor, Australian researchers said on Thursday.

The plastic-dwellers appear to be biodegrading the millions of tonnes of debris floating on waters worldwide, according to oceanographers at the University of Western Australia.

via “Plastic-eating” microbes help reduce marine debris: researchers – Channel NewsAsia.