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.
… into the bees, wild pollinators and other insects they are intended to benefit, writes … damaging the populations of hundreds of wild insects." This study comes just a week after a … damaging the populations of hundreds of wild insects. …
In Brazil's microcephaly epidemic, one vital question remains unanswered: how did the Zika virus suddenly learn how to disrupt the development of human embryos? The answer may lie in a sequence of 'jumping DNA' used to engineer the virus's mosquito vector - and released into the wild four years ago in the precise area of Brazil where the microcephaly crisis is most acute.
… to be worth trying. No further releases of GM insects! While I am certainly not claiming … the release of GMOs generally, and transgenic insects bearing promiscuous transposons in … experiments, and any deployment of similar GM insects, must be immediately halted until the …
Rothamsted Research has applied to field trial GM Camelina plants that make long chain omega-3 fatty acids - an important nutrient currently available only from fish. This poses a dilemma for those who have so far opposed GMO foods.
… even nectar, so they can kill beneficial insects like bees. Moreover insects can acquire resistance to the Bt …
To feed the world we must abandon not just GMOs but all diversity-destroying selective crop breeding, organic farmer John Letts told Oliver Tickell. Only by using biodiverse local seed mixtures that evolve in the field can food production adapt to climate change without ever-increasing chemical inputs, and meet human needs for wholesome nourishment.
… no longer evolve in the field to withstand insects and fungi and have to be constantly …
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.
… authors of the paper, said: "It is clear that insects visiting wildflowers in field margins …
The Kwegu people of Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley are facing starvation because of the loss of their land to a huge sugar plantation, the destruction of their forest and the damming of the Omo river - supported by a UK, EU and World Bank funded 'aid' program.
… of foods including wild fruits and leaves, insects including termites, wild animals and …
The EU's food and farming safety regulator is trying to create a 'back door' system to licence the use of herbicides that have been banned for their toxic impacts on people and wildlife - under a clearly inapplicable 'plant health' exemption.
EFSA creates 'plant health' loophole for banned weedkillers Oliver Tickell | 8th September 2016 News Pesticides Health Law Farming EU Food poppies-cut.jpg The EU's food and farming safety regulator …
A 30-year decline in toad populations recorded by volunteers, shows the need to rebuild vital 'green infrastructure' across both the wider countryside and urban areas, writes Oliver Tickell: reversing habitat fragmentation, digging out ponds and ditches, and leaving ample unkempt areas for cover and hibernation.
… pest controllers eating slugs, snails and insects and are food themselves for many of …
Even if you love Himalayan balsam, it has surely become too much of a good thing as it takes over Britain's wetlands and riverbanks. But now it's facing a major setback - the deliberate introduction of a parasitic rust fungus from its native range in the mountains of Asia.
… CABI's research was to find one of the many insects or fungi attacking the plant that had …
A month after warning the government of legal action over its decision to allow farmers to use bee-killing pesticides banned under EU law, Friends of the Earth has filed a High Court legal challenge to have the 'derogations' declared unlawful.
… behaviour, reduced survival of individual insects, decelerated colony growth and in the …
The threat to nature is now so severe it is beginning to threaten human existence. Tony Juniper, the author, campaigner and newly appointed campaigns director at WWF UK, talks to OLIVER TICKELL about the vital role nature plays in our very existence and how we abuse it at our peril
… system itself? The loss of bees and other insects, large-scale soil erosion, …
Friends of the Earth has taken the first legal steps towards striking out last week's emergency approval of bee-harming 'neonic' pesticides in England, granted last week despite a Europe-wide ban.
… just kill bees, they wreak "havoc" with other insects and plants in the wider countryside …
The EU Commission has caved in to US pressure in TTIP trade talks by deciding to consider organisms modified by new 'gene editing' techniques as non-GM - in violation of the EU's own laws. The move could make the 'new GMOs' exempt from labeling and from health and environmental testing.
… be properly assessed. Farm animals, fish and insects could all be gene-edited in future. …
An Emergency Ordinance comes into force in Germany today that extends the EU's ban on 'neonic' pesticides to protect bees. But the UK's farming minister Liz Truss has relaxed the ban to allow farmers to use neonics on 30,000 hectares of oilseed rape.
… just kill bees, they wreak "havoc" with other insects and plants in the wider countryside …