- Joined
- Apr 10, 2010
- Messages
- 11,432
- Reaction score
- 3,181
- Location
- Stoke on Trent
- Hive Type
- Langstroth
- Number of Hives
- 6 to 8 Langstroth jumbos, a few Langstroth and National nucs.
The study the article refers to is here: State of the World's Plants and Fungi | Kew. It has a good degree of credibility, it would seem.
Anecdotally, I'd add that for a while I looked after five hives that a company dropped in the middle of Sussex farmland. They struggled to gather enough forage to survive: I had to feed them almost constantly, and got no honey from them. Goodness knows how their competitors -- the other 270+ species of bee -- survived.
On the question of journalism, something I do have a lifetime's worth of experience of, I can tell you that you get what you pay for. And everyone wants news for free.
And as far as the Guardian is concerned, I wouldn't argue for a second that it's perfect. Nowhere close. But at least it has a set of guiding principles about truth, and the quality and accuracy of its journalism, and isn't beholden to a bunch of offshore billionaires with vested interests, unlike 80% of the UK's mass media.
Its easy to target Beekeepers never get to the real issue of the fields of green without a weed or flower,Years ago I used to pick mushrooms in the local fields now you would be lucky to see one.All due to most farmers being brainwashed by the agro chemical companies that all weeds are bad.
The Green Revolution was based on fertiliser and insecticides. Before it ,India was a basket case (1960s/70s) and always had famines . After it, they fed themselves.
So not all bad.
But the insecticides were crude and killed every insect.
By all means decry insecticides. But if you don't have a viable alternative, you will end up with crops ravaged.
So wanting to ban all insecticides with no viable alternatives offered is no solution.
See neonics being banned. Much more deadly alternatives are being used or crops abandoned as not viable.
It is NOT black and white.
Anyone who suggests it is can be ignored.