Section » Bees
An interview with entomologist May Berenbaum about bees and more
Some buzz about bugs: In a recent "Science Talk" podcast, May Berenbaum, an entomologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (and one of the 'go to' experts on bees for the mass media), discusses bees, insects and films about Earth-invading insects. One of her research team's interesting recent finding is that when bees eat their natural
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Scientists buzzing about pesticides’ and pathogens’ role in bee deaths
Busy bees: Washington State University researchers think they might have found a cause of colony collapse disorder, the mysterious malady that has been wiping out bee colonies around the world. They propose that the combination of pesticides absorbed into the honeycomb and a microsporidian
Some native plants are dangerous to honey bees
No good deed goes unpunished: Planting a California buckeye (Aesculus californica; Wikipedia image at right) in your yard will benefit the native bees, insects, and birds that co-evolved
New York beekeeping a growing but illicit hobby
Busy bees in the Big Apple: Beekeeping is on the rise in New York, although it means breaking the law. City Councilman David Yassky of Brooklyn, backed by Just Food, is seeking to legalize it as a legitimate form of agriculture. The New York City
A paean to the honeybee
Bee-yootiful: Guest-blogging chronobiologist Leon Kreitzman has a mesmerizing essay about why "honeybees really are nature’s little treasures." The have a built-in clock that allows them to know when flowers are producing nectar each day, they can work out the location of a food source from its position
Buzzkill: Can native bees do the job?
With the health of honey bee colonies in dramatic decline, can farmers rely on native bees to pollinate their crops? On the right kind of farm — one with nearby natural habitat and organic management
Digest: Funny honey, the pork disease, and White House eats
Angry Buzz: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a series of articles on the sticky state of the honey industry. Start with the two-part report on honey, which introduces readers to honey laundering and continues to meaningless
Digest - News: The Vilsack reaction, ammonia-rama, and hungry holidays
Eaters unite: A fairly universal 'harumph' erupted from the sustainable-food community after the announcement of Tom Vilsack, former governor of Iowa, as Obama's USDA pick. As usual, Michael Pollan articulates why the community is pretty cynical but still holding out just a little bit of hope. (NPR) Food
Everything looks better when your head’s in the sand: The USDA stops tracking pesticide use
When I was four, I ate my mother's houseplant. (I claimed to have thought it was salad.) As any responsible mother would, she freaked out and called poison control. The friendly folks at the 800 number — who must get these kinds of calls all the time, poor guys — immediately asked her the two most
Digest - Features: The coming food storm, activists with cameras, bee breeders
Global famine = buy ag stocks: A fascinating, if unappetizing, economics-based look at how "biofuel production, poor harvests and emerging nations' growing appetites are emptying the world's pantry, sending prices soaring." We'll pass on the rec to invest in Monsanto stock, however. (MSN
Saturday silliness
Our friend Derrick sends us this "unicorn chaser" for a very disappointing week: a Tourettes-ing Rowan Atkinson and a baby-faced John Cleese
Digest - News: USDA loophole allows E. coli-positive beef to be sold, lots more news
Shit happens…to be legally sellable for consumption: "One federal inspector calls it the 'E. coli loophole.' Another says, 'Nobody would buy it if they knew.'" What are these officials talking about? A little-known fact that the USDA allows companies to sell meat that has tested positive
Digest - Features: A+ for bee-minus story, cattlemen no supertasters, farming is poisoning our drinking water
Queen of the bees: Colony collapse disorder in U.S. bees "may have many contributing causes," writes Gina Covina in this terrific Ecology Center Terrain article posted on AlterNet, "but it comes down to bees hitting the biological
Digest - Features: Pollan Q&A, the bee middleman, some wild donations to hunger cause
Two P's in a partnership: As part of its "Sow What" special series of food and farming, Grist columnist Tom Philpott interviews Michael Pollan in a Q&A that blessedly doesn't go over the same tired soil (except the Cracker Jacks). Interesting nuggets: congresspeople are now calling Pollan
Digest - Commentary: Bee very worried, be Frank, be safe
Take that, you Luddites: In the wake of news that a virus may be to blame for colony collapse disorder in bees, the Gray Lady says that finger-pointing of cellphones and genetically modified crops is a sign of how freaked out we are, "not only about the death of creatures both benign and beneficial
