Say: ‘I am happy to pay for environmental degradation, chronic illness and labour rights abuses in countries that grow flowers for Western consumers but cannot feed their own people.’
… Say It Without Flowers Venetia Hargreaves-Allen | 1st October 2003 News Cut Flowers Flower Miles Pesticides Slave Labour … labour rights abuses in countries that grow flowers for Western consumers but cannot feed …
Wild flower margins around arable fields can funnel deadly pesticides into the bees, wild pollinators and other insects they are intended to benefit, writes Oliver Tickell. Neonic pesticides are often far more concentrated in the wild flowers than in the crop itself.
… are often far more concentrated in the wild flowers than in the crop itself. A new study … pesticides are found at higher levels in wild flowers and pollen around a field of … plants, than in the crop itself. Oilseed rape flowers in the neonicotinoid treated crop …
Species-rich grasslands could provide more nutritional benefits to cattle than conventional pasture.
… Dwindling meadows need cattle fed on wildflowers Marianne Brown | 3rd August 2018 News … a year – do not allow enough time for wild flowers to grow. “Meadows get overlooked in …
Dangerous volumes of neonicotinoid insecticides and other pesticides are expressed in common wild flowers like buttercups and hawthorn blossom in countryside under arable cultivation, a new study has discovered. The discovery invalidates the UK government's 'pollinator strategy' based on creating 'safe havens' in arable areas - because the havens are in fact loaded with pesticides.
… bee-killing pesticides in hedgerows and wildflowers Oliver Tickell | 5th January 2015 News … other pesticides are expressed in common wild flowers like buttercups and hawthorn blossom … toxic chemical cocktail when feeding from wildflowers growing next to neonicotinoid treated …
The short haired bumblebee was declared extinct in the UK 30 years ago. But now the species is being re-introduced in the flower-rich meadows and field margins of Kent, writes Michael Parker - helped along by sympathetic local farmers.
… who have planted many hectares of wildflowers in order to ensure the bees have an … habitat, now we have 850 hectares." Wildflowers on field margins The … allows those areas to become havens for wildflowers, plants and insects, these in turn …
Our bees and wider farmland ecosystems have been seriously harmed by neonicotinoids, writes Dave Goulson. But that's just the start of the damage that modern farming is doing to wildlife in a countryside stripped of wild flowers and drenched by cocktails of pesticides. The problem is not just neonics, but the entire model of industrial agriculture.
… to wildlife in a countryside stripped of wild flowers and drenched by cocktails of … neonicotinoids are just one. There are few flowers, new bee diseases and parasites have …
A temporary ban on neonicotinoid insecticides comes into effect across the EU this weekend. Dave Goulson argues that far deeper, structural changes are needed to create a countryside fit for bees and other wildlife.
… been declining for decades, with a loss of flowers and nesting habitats the biggest …
An ordinary arable field in Sussex is sprayed with pesticides 22 times over a single growing season. Dave Goulson wonders how the bees can survive this toxic onslaught - and exactly who benefits.
… typical field. The rapeseed crop, whose flowers the bees will feed on in season, is …
Wild bee decline is closely associated with the advance of intensive farming and habitat loss, a new study shows. It follows an earlier paper that linked 'delayed action' decline of wild bees to exposure to pesticides including fungicides - previously considered 'bee-safe'.
Farm expansion driving US native bee declines Beyond Pesticides | 28th December 2015 News Farming Health Toxics Science Bees Biodiversity USA agapostemon-oregon-cut.jpg Wild bee decline is closely …
Bee 'colony collapse disorder' cannot be ended by easy technofixes, writes Allan Stromfeldt Christensen. The real problem is the systematic abuse of bees in vast industrial monocultures, as they are trucked or flown thousands of miles from one farm to the next, treated with insecticides and antibiotics, and fed on 'junk food'.
… 'farm' may provide an immense supply of flowers for nectar and pollen, being a … unable to survive amongst the dearth of flowers. In fact, there are now parts of China …
On the first anniversary of the UK's National Pollinator Strategy, writes Sandra Bell, the Bee Coalition warns that bees are still under threat from highly toxic pesticides, continuing loss of habitat, and an increasingly inhospitable countryside. The Government must do more to protect our bees.
… found high levels of neonicotinoids in wild flowers , including poppies and hogweed that …
The EU's farming policy is being touted as 'greener than ever' - but it's no such thing, write Lynn Dicks & Tim Benton. The 'green reforms' pay farmers for actions (and often inactions) that do not benefit wildlife, and contain no real or effective measures to help.
… 95% of permanent grasslands, home to many wildflowers and the insects and birds they … interventions known to help wildlife, such as flowers planted for pollinators , or plots for …
Bee-killing insecticides will face a near total ban in Europe following a vote by member states in favour of proposals by the European Commission. The UK government supported the ban, which it says it will maintain after Brexit. CATHERINE EARLY reports
Campaigners rejoice European Union neonicotinoid ban Catherine Early | 30th April 2018 News Bees Pesticides EU Farming Food And Farming bee_on_blossomcgreenpeace.jpg Bee-killing insecticides will …
Right wing media and politicians have chosen the Somerset Levels as their battle field for fighting the 'green' agenda. There is just one problem - the facts. On the Levels themselves, there is a remarkable consensus about the way forward - and the future is Green.
… in general - accused of putting birds and flowers before people flooded out of their …
Monarch caterpillars are vulnerable to neonicotinoid toxicity at concentrations as low as 1 part per billion, writes Jonathan Latham, and that makes them vulnerable to residues from commercial crops - and even more so from horticultural use in plant nurseries!
… of imidacloprid from soil (300 mg AI) to flowers of Asclepias curassavica resulted in … Imidacloprid Translocates to Ornamental Flowers and Reduces Survival of Adult …
A orchard garden has taken root on a long-vacant lot in an economically and racially divided neighborhood of Boston, writes Orion Kriegman. In the making it has united a community, helped to heal deep scars of violence, and inspired a wider reclamation of the urban commons.
… that started back then and continues now. Flowers were donated by Allendale Farm (an …
Just imagine: gas for your cooking and heating made by composting home-grown British grass, writes Almuth Ernsting. What's not to like? Well, it would need almost all the UK's grassland to match our gas demand, leaving cows and sheep to starve or forcing them into sheds to eat foreign-grown feeds. And methane leakage could easily wipe out any climate benefit.
… flowering meadows which would support wildflowers and the pollinators and many other …
Food has never been more affordable for middle class families in rich countries. But it comes at a high cost: the impact of industrial food production on health, environment and society has never been greater as Patrick Holden explained to Emily Lewis-Brown. Now the real cost of food US production will be examined in a ground-breaking conference in San Francisco.
… hedgerow-lined hay fields blooming with wild flowers." Milk cheaper than bottled water … hedgerow-lined hay fields blooming with wild flowers. …
A flood of smallholders that have benefited from Zimbabwe's land reform are turning to tobacco as their crop of choice, reports Ray Mwareya. But the economic gains are coming at a terrible cost - the accelerating destruction of the country's forests.
… lucrative cash crop dwarfing maize, cotton or flowers. Tobacco sales provide 26% of the …
Blaming 'lack of time', Syngenta withdraws its emergency application to use a seed treatment blamed for killing bees. Friends of the Earth and 38 Degrees claim victory - but Syngenta warns: we'll be back!
Victory! Syngenta pulls 'bee-killer' pesticide application The Ecologist | 4th July 2014 News Farming Toxics Regulation UK Corporations bee-jack-wolf-cut.jpg Blaming 'lack of time', Syngenta …
Will the UK keep Theresa May's promise to 'leave the environment in a better state than it found it' in the Brexit negotitions? Or is the government bent on the 'bonfire of red tape', including environmental protections, demanded by right-wing former and serving ministers? Viviane Gravey sets out four 'green lines' by which to judge the Brexiteers' true colours.
… Brexit Politics Law EU UK Farming wild-flowers-cut.jpg Will the UK keep Theresa May's …
The growing popularity of olive oil has driven more intensive systems of olive tree cultivation, writes Kieran Cooke. But they are vulnerable to the kind of extreme weather that has brought pests and disease to olive crops across southern Europe, damaging crops and pushing up prices.
Climate turbulence deals costly blow to olive oil yield Kieran Cooke | 2nd December 2014 News Food Farming Climate Change Italy Spain olives_carolyn-lyons-cut-2.jpg The growing popularity of olive …
Writing in the Guardian, Joanna Blythman has highlighted the environmental damage caused by intensive growing of oil-seed rape - the distinctive yellow-flowering crop which is now a major source of oil for biofuels.
Rape cultivation causes damage 19th April 2007 News Rape Rape-seed Pollen Pesticides Agriculture Agribusiness Farming Pests And Pesticides Organics Natural World News web pic 2_32.jpg Writing in the …
In 2013 the EU imposed a moratorium on three of the most toxic of the neonicotinoid pesticides in an attempt to save wild bee populations. Now farmers have applied to lift the ban, writes Nat Whalley. Time to call on environment secretary Liz Truss, who today receives a 300,000-signature 'save the bees' petition, to say 'No!'
… with the sound of wild bees pollinating our flowers and many of the food and plants we … Modern farming methods mean many fewer wildflowers, so food for bees is much scarcer than …