The New York Times has a fascinating article about the shortage of bees caused by colony collapse disorder. Bees Vanish, and Scientists Race for Reasons is that rare thing in science writing, a story about process rather than results. So there’s not a lot actually to say, other than noting that around 60 experts gathered for a two-day meeting to assess the possibilities and plan their investigations. The most likely suspects — according to these mainstream scientists — are “a virus, a fungus or a pesticide”. Not cell phones. We shall see.
Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Crops, animals, wild relatives ...
Fresh Nibbles: February 14, 2012
: <- click to comment- World Bank runs competition to develop climate change app. CCAFS surrenders.
- ICRISAT launches Center of Excellence on Climate Change Research for Plant Protection. CCAFS surrenders.
- Britain’s National Fruit Collection gets grafted.
- COGENT looks for validation.
- Everybody loves timelapse.
- A seed catalogue round-up.
- “True grits“. Worthy, of course, but basically I love the title.
- Not sure why news of a website for the Biofortification Conference held in November 2010 just popped up, but it did.
- Know any good, young, committed, practical, gung-ho, field-tempered, agricultural Norman Borlaug clones? The World Food Prize wants to hear from you.
- The Millennium Seed Bank has a blog. Welcome, seed-dudes!
Nibbles Archive: All that condensed goodness.
And easy access to the Brainfood Archive.
Featured Comment: February 11, 2012
SLNRao regrets the mistakes of the past, but sees a bright future ahead for grasspea, and its relatives:
Looking at the likely benefits of Homoarginine on the cardiovasculature and emerging concepts on ODAP itself I am of the firm belief that grass pea in coming years will turn into a rich man’s pulse.
- February 14, 2012: Aeneas Bonner commented on Erna Bennett: more on this unique person
- February 14, 2012: Mike Jackson commented on The Origins of some basic mistakes about genebanks
- February 13, 2012: fritzi cohen commented on Online Biodiversity Heritage Library has agrobiodiversity too
- February 13, 2012: Gregory Vaughan commented on Not all Andean tubers are potatoes
- February 12, 2012: michael bennett commented on Erna Bennett: more on this unique person
- February 12, 2012: R Hardwick commented on Nibbles: Cover crops, Barley tempeh, Irish biodiversity, Veg research, Landwirtschaft in einer anderen Dimension, Farmers Markets
- February 11, 2012: Kenneth Welles commented on Giant swamp taro analyzed
- February 9, 2012: SLNRao commented on Debating the future of grasspea breeding
- February 8, 2012: Clare Trivedi commented on Nibbles: Mike Jackson blog, Philippines genebank fire, Ancient garden, USA maps, Horse domestication, Gnats, Livestock training, Chocolate, Epigenetics, Indian nutritional security, Kew fund, GM bananas, Reconciling databases
- February 7, 2012: Ola Westengen commented on Cotton doyen passes away
- Brainfood: Chicken domestication, Financial crisis and conservation, Cucurbit domestication, Tamarind future, Biofortification via bacteria, Cowpea nutritional composition, Roman bottlegourd, Noug, Rice blast diversity, Pearl millet domestication, Cacao genotyping, Organic ag, Marcela, In situ vs ex situ, Artocarpus roots
- Darwin Day 2012: b’lieve I’m fixing to live
- Are you a graduate student interested in organic plant breeding and seed systems?
- New Plant Hardiness Zone Map ready for prime time
- How to solve global hunger and malnutrition
- Online Biodiversity Heritage Library has agrobiodiversity too
- Next-generation sequencing and genebanks: a teaser
- Cotton doyen passes away
- Kermit sings the malnutrition blues
- Consolidation in the seed industry
- Germplasm documentation is a two way street
- How grafting a plum tree led to an obsession
- Using data to inform nutrition security policy
- The quinoa story: it’s complicated
- Forests at your service: lessons from Kibale
- Breadfruit roundup
- Not all Andean tubers are potatoes
- Yemen spatial data online, sort of
- CGIAR research on Cassava Brown Streak Disease
- Ground-truthing SPAM
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
The bee shortage is something that we will be hearing more of soon. It seems like most people are just ignoring it. I was wondering, do they still think bees navigate by using the position of the sun? If that is true, maybe there’s something up with the sun? Anyway, we are going to see some serious produce shortages this summer. I am not looking forward to that! I have already seen a serious increase in the price of produce…I can only imagine what is to come.
I have a swarm of bee’s that just hatched on the front of my house and on the back. I don’t want to kill them. Can I collect them and send them somewhere?
Collecting a swarm is not an easy matter. You would do better to contact your local beekepers’ group or an agricultural extension agency and tell them about the swarms. They will know how to deal with the bees safely and effectively.