pollination News
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Insect diversity improves crop pollination
The decline in numbers of wild bees has caused concern regarding falling levels of pollination for important agricultural crops. Researchers have now demonstrated that the diversity of the pollinator community can significantly affect pollination. Insect pollination is a vital ecosystem service; a large proportion of the human diet either directly or indirectly depends on animal-based ...
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Webinar: DCs for Bees ‘Bee The Change’ - April 27th 2021 - Host In Ireland
The DCs for Bees Ambassadors – made up of people from the data centre industry – exist to halt the decline of Bees in Ireland and beyond. On Tuesday 27th April, they are hosting a ‘Bee the Change’ live virtual presentation for the employees of Host in Ireland partner companies including KOHLER. Bee pollination contributes to 70% of the world’s crops. The success of ...
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Wild insects could take over the pollinating role of honeybees
Scientists have identified several wild insects that could undertake the crop pollination function of honeybees. By comparing a range of pollinating insects they found three wild species that appear to be as efficient as the honeybee in pollination but may need management to increase their numbers. The honeybee (Apis mellifera) is in rapid decline worldwide. While it is important to understand ...
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EPA and USDA to Hold Public Listening Sessions on Pollinator Strategy
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will host two public listening sessions to solicit stakeholder input to assist the Pollinator Health Task Force in development of a federal strategy to protect honey bees and other pollinators. The Task Force is asking for input on the types of activities that could be part of the strategy, including ...
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Bee pollination improves crop quality as well as quantity
Bee pollination improves the shape, weight and shelf-life of strawberries, contributing a staggering €1.05 billion to the European strawberry market per year, new research suggests. By blocking bees from a set of plants, the researchers demonstrated the substantial effects of bee pollination on the quality of the fruit. It is well established that insect pollination increases the quantity ...
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Bees in the city: urban environments could help support pollinators
Urban areas may support higher levels of bee diversity than expected, new research has shown. The UK-wide study compared three different habitat types — nature reserves, farmland, and urban areas — and found a higher number of different bee species in urban areas than farmland. However, the overall pollinator diversity, which included species of bees, flies, hoverflies and ...
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Jim Aidala’s Neonicotinoid Webinar discussed in inside EPA Article `State Agriculture Officials Oppose Pesticide Limits In EPA Pollinator Plan`
A February 18, 2015 Daily News feature on InsideEPA.com included comments made by James V. Aidala as part of a presentation before the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture: In a Feb. 3 presentation to NASDA, Jim Aidala of the Washington, DC, law firm Bergeson & Campbell PC and consulting firm The Acta Group, said the federal strategy will include strict requirements on ...
By Acta Group
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Beyond Your Backyard: Little Things That Make the World Go ‘Round
June 22-28 is National Pollinator week. One week to celebrate the little things that make the world go round. What’s all the buzz? Pollinators are a huge group of insects with species that have different life histories, biologies, and needs. They boggle the mind at all that they’re doing right under our noses and we don’t even know a quarter of what that is. Here’s what ...
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Media Advisory: EPA’s Pollinator Summit on March 5
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will hold a public meeting with key stakeholders to collaborate on activities to protect honey bees and other pollinators from pesticide risks. Bees are an important component of agricultural production and are critical to food and ecosystems. The summit will be an opportunity to advance our collective ...
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Conference Set Oct. 30 on Farm Bill; Coalition Seeks Bee Protection Provision
A coalition of 58 environmental organizations, grower groups and businesses sent a letter to members of the farm bill conference committee urging the House and Senate conferees to include House-passed pollinator protection language in any compromise version of the farm bill reached by the committee. The letter, sent Oct. 23 by the Center for Food Safety, Greenpeace, the National Farmers Union ...
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Broad Coalition is Building Buzz to Raise Awareness of Pollinator Declines
Today, Beyond Pesticides, Center for Food Safety and Pesticide Action Network, supported by Ceres Trust and joined by more than 60 other organizations, launched a national media campaign to bring attention to the severity of pollinator declines due in part to the use of bee-harming pesticides. The campaign launch was timed to coincide with the beginning of the European Union’s two-year ...
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Environment Commissioner and Danish Minister meet 80,000 workers at the EEA
The bees living on the roof of the European Environment Agency (EEA) received some special guests today, when European Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik and Danish Environment Minister Karen Ellemann visited their hives. The two policy makers joined EEA Executive Director Jacqueline McGlade in harvesting the first batch of honey. Professor McGlade said: “Keeping bees on our ...
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Patches of flowers boost pollinator diversity and lead to higher crop yields
Falling levels of insect pollination are causing declining yields of important agricultural crops. However, new research from South Africa now indicates that planting small patches of native flowers in agricultural fields can be a profitable and sustainable method of increasing pollination and yield. Insect pollination is a vital ecosystem service as animal-pollinated crops form an essential ...
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Loss of wild pollinators could substantially reduce soybean yields
Pollination by wild insects and honey bees improves soybean yield by 18%, new research has indicated. This equates to an extra 331.6 kg of seeds per hectare, boosting the value of the global crop by €12.74 billion. Encouraging insect pollination could therefore reduce the destruction of natural ecosystems to make way for soybean cultivation, the researchers say. The soybean is one of the ...
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Powerpollen Announces Commercial License Agreement With Bayer for Innovative Corn Seed Pollination Technology Designed to Increase Yield
PowerPollen® announced a commercial license agreement with Bayer designed to help corn seed production growers increase their yields. PowerPollen’s Pollination-on-Demand technology gives farmers greater flexibility by allowing them to optimize the timing of pollinations. By accessing the Iowa-based ag tech company’s first scalable pollination technology for corn seed, Bayer will ...
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Wild bees boost apple harvest
Orchards pollinated by a wide range of wild bee species grow more apples than those pollinated by fewer species, finds a new US study. Its authors suggest that farmers could consider investing in wild bee conservation to improve crop yield. Many farmers around the world hire or manage hives of honeybees to help pollinate crops including fruit and nuts. However, demand for pollinator-dependent ...
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Poison pulled: bee toxic pesticide removed from store shelves
After rounds of legal wrangling in federal court, a bee-toxic pesticide may no longer be sold or distributed because it entered the marketplace illegally. Bayer CropScience’s pesticide spirotetramat (trade-named Movento, Ultor, and Kontos) is now illegal to buy, sell, or transport in the United States after NRDC and Xerces Society successfully argued that it was approved through a flawed ...
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Protectuin for Pollinators: Conservation Groups and Scientists Push USDA to Save Wild Bumble Bees
Leading conservation and science voices renewed their call today for a key federal agency to protect bumble bees in light of numerous threats contributing to population declines. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Defenders of Wildlife and Dr. Robbin Thorp asked the Secretary of Agriculture to take action on a petition to regulate the ...
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ARS scientists develop self-pollinating almond trees
Self-pollinating almond trees that can produce a bountiful harvest without insect pollination are being developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists. This is good news for almond growers who face rising costs for insect pollination because of nationwide shortages of honey bees due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and other factors. ARS geneticist Craig Ledbetter, at the agency’s ...
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Pollinators vital to our food supply under threat
A growing number of pollinator species worldwide are being driven toward extinction by diverse pressures, many of them human-made, threatening millions of livelihoods and hundreds of billions of dollars worth of food supplies, according to the first global assessment of pollinators. However, the assessment, a two-year study conducted and released today by the Intergovernmental ...
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