The 2020 annual count of monarch butterflies in the western United States found shockingly few, confirming fears that the insect is on the brink of extinction. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/monarch-butterflies-of-western-us-nearing-extinction-what-you-can-do…
Tag: pesticides
Farming Equipment is Beaming Back ‘Reams of Data’ To its Manufacturers
Farming equipment like combine harvesters “beam back reams of data to its manufacturer,” reports Forbes:
GPS records the combine’s precise path through the field as it moves. Sensors tally the number of crops gathered per acre and the spacing between them. On a sister machine called a planter, algorithms adjust the distribution of seeds based on which parts of the soil have…
Could Smart Technology Help Save the World’s Honey Bees?
CNN Business reports: Climate change, intensive agriculture, and the use of pesticides and fungicides in farming is ravaging the world’s bees. Commercial beekeepers in the United States lost 44% of their managed colonies in 2019, according to research from the University of Maryland. Now, technology startups are developing smart devices that give beekeepers access to detailed information about the state of…
Pesticides and industrial pollutants found in snow atop Arctic glaciers
The long journey of these compounds – likely originating in the U.S. and Eurasia – shows the far-reaching impacts of industrial pollution. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/pesticides-industrial-pollutants-found-atop-arctic-glaciers…
Western Bumblebee Population Drops Up To 93% Over the Last 20 Years
The western bumblebee is one of around 30 bumblebee species in the western U.S. and Canada. Now a federal review “unveils an alarming trend for the western bumblebee population, which has seen its numbers dwindle by as much as 93% in the last two decades,” reports the Associated Press: The find by the U.S. Geological Survey will help inform a species…
Murder hornets? 5 questions answered about Asian giant hornets in North America
Are ‘murder hornets’ from Asia invading North America? An entomologist who lived among them in Japan explains what’s true about the predatory insects. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/what-are-asian-giant-hornets-dangerous…
Singapore Airlines Is Using Aeroponics To Upgrade In-Flight Meals
Antony McNeil, Singapore Airlines’ global food and beverage director, is purchasing produce from AeroFarms’ Newark facility, the world’s largest indoor vertical farm. “The 16-year-old agtech startup has taken aeroponics to an industrial scale, growing some 800 varieties of leafy greens, tubers, root crops, vine crops, and berries all without soil, sunshine, or pesticides,” reports Quartz. Thanks to this partnership, “Singapore Airlines…
Male moths genetically modified to kill females released in the wild
Genetically modified diamondback moths designed to replace pesticides by wiping out female moths have been released in New York state Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2231693-male-moths-genetically-modified-to-kill-females-released-in-the-wild/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Neonicotinoids Disrupt Aquatic Food Webs and Decrease Fishery Yields, Says Study
A team of researchers from Japan has found compelling evidence of two fisheries collapsing due to use of neonicotinoid pesticides by nearby rice farmers. “In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes their study of fishery water quality data over two decades and what they learned from it,” reports Phys.Org. “Olaf Jensen with Rutgers University has published a…
Organic Farming is Actually Worse For Climate Change
Organic practices can reduce climate pollution produced directly from farming — which would be fantastic if they didn’t also require more land to produce the same amount of food. From a report: Clearing additional grasslands or forests to grow enough food to make up for that difference would release far more greenhouse gas than the practices initially reduce, a new study…