OF BEES, BIODIVERSITY & ORGANIC FARMS

OF BEES, BIODIVERSITY & ORGANIC FARMS - Hello Organic food formula friends, this article discuss about OF BEES, BIODIVERSITY & ORGANIC FARMS, we have been providing a full article about OF BEES, BIODIVERSITY & ORGANIC FARMS. Hopefully this article useful for you

OF BEES, BIODIVERSITY & ORGANIC FARMS

Following three new studies, it has emerged that imidacloprid, one of the world's most widely used pesticides, is the most likely cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), where bees abandon their hives en masse. But does it happen in Ireland?

Imidacloprid is a nerve agent, a systemic neonicotinoid, which was first introduced in the early 1990s. It is widely available in Ireland. According to a lead author of one of the studies, Alex Lu, from Harvard School of Public Health, “convincing evidence” has been found to link imidacloprid and CCD.

"The significance of bees to agriculture cannot be underestimated," says Lu. "And it apparently doesn't take much of the pesticide to affect the bees. Our experiment included pesticide amounts below what is normally present in the environment."

Pinpointing the cause of the problem is crucial because bees -- beyond producing honey -- are prime pollinators of roughly one-third of the crop species in the U.S., including fruits, vegetables, nuts, and livestock feed such as alfalfa and clover.

Bees can be exposed to imidacloprid in two ways: through nectar from plants or through the high-fructose corn syrup US beekeepers use to feed their bees. (Since most U.S.-grown corn has been treated with imidacloprid since 2005, it’s also found in corn syrup.)

US style CCD is, it seems, quite a specific phenomenon. According to the independent report 'Bee health in Europe - Facts & figures', CCD “as described in USA has not been observed in Europe”. The authors point out that bee populations have risen and dropped for a variety of reasons and in different parts of Europe over a long period of time – indeed since before industrial agriculture can be said to have really established itself.

However the report also points out that “There is clear evidence of recent declines in both wild and domesticated pollinators, correlated with parallel declines in the plants that rely upon them”.

In value terms, excluding honey itself, the far more important contribution of insect pollination for European agriculture has been estimated to be around E20 billion per year and approximately E153 billion worldwide. For Ireland, a figure of E53 million has been widely cited.

Based on the available evidence, is there anything to suggest that organic farming is more beneficial for pollinators than conventional farming? Usually this question is answered with reference to research from around the world, as there is little done in Ireland. And it is inevitably difficult to apply global research to specific countries.

However, the Journal of Applied Ecology published one such article last year. Eileen Power and Jane Stout (TCD) investigated 10 conventional and 10 organic dairy farms in Ireland. Specifically, they investigated insect–flower interaction, network size and structure, bee and hoverfly diversity, and pollination.

Their research demonstrated that insect-flower interaction networks on organic farms were larger, and that there were more flowers on organic farms, in particular clover, which attracted a higher number of bees, compared with conventional farms.

As the paper itself says: “organic farming was found to provide increased floral resources that attract more pollinating insects and pollination success was higher on farms under organic management”.

The study, conducted on farms in central and southern Ireland, also found that there was a higher rate of pollination of hawthorn growing in the hedgerows of organic fields. Since hawthorn berries are an important food resource for many native birds during the winter, there are potential knock-on benefits of organic farming on other native Irish species which have yet to be investigated.

This is not to say that organic diary farming has all the answers. The farms studied consisted of permanent grassland, as is the case for 80% of Irish farmland. This is relatively intensive, whether organic or conventional, when compared to species rich grassland.

However, in the permanent pasture context, organic dairy farms “can improve prospects for pollinators”. And as we have seen, everyone benefits from this.

For another of the recent studies see here for IOFGA's thoughts see here

That's our discussion regarding OF BEES, BIODIVERSITY & ORGANIC FARMS

that's all organic foot formula OF BEES, BIODIVERSITY & ORGANIC FARMS, I hope this article was useful for you.

You 're reading an article OF BEES, BIODIVERSITY & ORGANIC FARMS and this article permalink is https://organic-food-formula.blogspot.com/2012/04/of-bees-biodiversity-organic-farms.html I hope this article about was useful for you.