World Bee Day, May 20

 It's World Bee Day, May 20th. 

There are lots of people worried about bees, and rightly so. To mix a metaphor, bees are the canaries in the coal mine.

Composting Week & Food Waste

Compost Week 2021

Question: What Percentage of food goes to waste?

This question is appropriate because this is International Composting Week, May 2-8, 2021, with a theme: Grow, Eat…COMPOST…Repeat.

Some foods don’t make it out of the fields. Potatoes, corn, and tomatoes that are too small, or too ugly, may be left behind in the fields. In some cased, the farmers announce that the edible, but ugly, food is available for gleaning – all you have to do is drive over and gather it.

Bees in Peril. Costco Connection - July 2017

The Costco Connection - July 2017 - Page 34-35:

Bees in Peril: Working together to find a solution

What to do when the canary (bees) stops singing (buzzing)?

This is a great (short) overview of where we stand on bee front, written by Stephanie Ponder. (You gotta wonder if that's a pseudonym!:0)

This should worry people everywhere for soooo many reasons. The economic impact of a massive, or total loss of bees, is obvious. But bees are simply an indicator of our unhealthy impacts. It's like amphibians (frogs). Frogs live in both the water and the land, so a little pollution in one or both, can totally wipe them out.... giving a strong indicator of what destruction a lot of pollution will do.

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is not so much the problem anymore. The big killer now is the vorroa mite.

We still having a die-off of 40% of the bees each year, continuing to make a huge challenge for the beekeepers to maintain and replenish. This is hard to wrap the mind around. Imagine, that 40% of your cattle crop died each year. Beekeepers are going through some major gymnastics to try to replenish the hive(s) each year.

The 4Ps are pests (vorroa mite), pathogens, pesticides and poor nutrition.

Massive monoculture like almonds are providing poor nutrition (and no diversity). The article compares the mono-crop of flowers to a human diet of 100% steak. Farmers are introducing (or not killing) flowers and wild-flowers among the mono-crop. This also suggests that the monocrop itself is not so healthy.

SustainZine has prior blogs related to CCD and healthy Bees. Think of bees as the Canary in the Coal Mine. When the canary dies, its a pretty strong hint that all is no longer well in the mine; when the bees die en mass, all is not well on the land.

'via Blog this'

Sustainability becomes a business law: Organic is more productive

Sustainability becomes a business law:

Two things resurfaced over the last couple days. One is very local to Florida related to Sustainability is the Business Law. It looks at the focus of sustainability from the business view, or from the environmental view; which is the right view. And the answer, of course, is "Yes".  Aiming for a win, win in the business vs. environment tug of war. The old approach of win-lose turns out to be a lose-lose in the long run.

But a separate study by the Rodale Institute, with a 30-year long (and ongoing) study of farming showed organic farming to be a hands-down winner over the mass production methods used in the USA. Actual link to the study is here: http://rodaleinstitute.org/our-work/farming-systems-trial/

That study knocked my socks off!

Now I gotta go socks shopping for new organically grown socks (bamboo-based
maybe?).

A 30+ year field study on Organic farming vs. non-organic (now including GMOs).

Yields up, resources down (water us and drought tolerance), soil quality, profits up…

WoW!.

And, of course, there is a major move in consumer preferences toward healthier foods and more local grown foods as measured by massive moves by such players as Chipotle’s (CMG) and Whole Foods (WFM)… and against the highly processed foods like McDonalds (McD).

I’m curious what other people think of this study. I wonder how they did several things.

Also, I
could not find the exact publication date. The stats were a year or two behind.

Do you all think that the field study is fully accurate?

'via Blog this'

ABCs: Scientists discover another cause of bee deaths, and it's really bad news : TreeHugger

Scientists discover another cause of bee deaths, and it's really bad news : TreeHugger:

The ABCs of colony collapse among Bees appears to be really, really ugly. Well, it has been ugly, but know we know a little more about it, vs. being mainly in the dark.

This current research seems to find that a combination of pesticides and fungicides reduces the immune system of bees.

This story summarizing the research is just filled with horrible little nuggets. On average the bee pollen they studied had 9 different special ingredients in the pollen cocktails taken live from California.

Worse, much of the pollen comes from the "wild", not harvest crops.

However, finally knowing more about the cause will help hugely in addressing this critical issue (for diversity and food crops).

Remedies of better use and control of pesticides/fungicides seems obvious. But organic methods should help a little or a LOT.

'via Blog this'

Organic. Foods to buy Organic -- The dirty dozen foods

There's a lot of discussion about foods that are really and issue to eat that are not organic.

The idea is that you can eat the cheaper stuff in many cases but definitely spend the money on some of the foods that are really likely to be very unhealthy if you don't go for the organically grown.

Look here for the annual list of the dirty and also the green foods by Environmental Working Group's annual list.

7 Best Foods to Buy Organic

Here's the Dirty 7: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/builtlean/best-food-to-buy-organic_b_3779168.html

• Potatoes
• Beef
• Milk
• Apples
• Strawberries
• Kale / Spinach
• Peaches

The Dirty Dozen

The Dirty Dozen: http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/dirty-dozen-foods#slide-1

"But organic food can cost more, meaning many families are loathe to shell out the extra cash for organic produce on every shopping trip. That's what makes the Environmental Working Group's annual list of the dirty dozen foods so useful. The group analyzes Department of Agriculture data about pesticide residue and ranks foods based on how much or little pesticide residue they have. The group has estimated that individuals can reduce their exposure by 80% if they switch to organic when buying these 12 foods."

The Dirty Dozen PLUS (14 foods to strongly consider organics)

Eating Well will tell you that there's a couple more you should keep your eye on that are dirty(er).

http://www.eatingwell.com/food_news_origins/organic_natural/dirty_dozen_plus_14_foods_you_should_buy_organic

Note that the USDA has not yet offered a Minimum daily recommendation for pesticides. So, if you want to reduce that wild-card in your diet, avoiding these foods unless they are organic is probably a good idea!.

But, it's your body and your diet, so you decide where and how you spend your money and gain your calories/nutrition.  

Healthy eats to you.

Non-GMO Food Market to Hit $800 Billion by 2017 (i.e. Organic) Environmental Leader

Non-GMO Food Market to Hit $800 Billion by 2017 · Environmental Management & Energy News · Environmental Leader:

Notice that Non-GMO does not necessarily mean "organic"...

Should be cool to read the full report: http://www.packagedfacts.com/Non-GMO-Foods-7822141/

But that would cost about $3,000... So we'll have to read the discussion on it.

But the trends in whole foods -- as in Whole Foods, Hanes, Chipoltles, etc. -- has been more than impressive. The organic section of all grocery stores is growing like weeds, to offer a green mixed metaphor.

Looking forward to more momentum on the organic front.

'via Blog this'

Sustainability becomes a business law

Sustainability becomes a business law:

This is a straight-forward article about sustainability in the ag world.

There are business forces that are pushing toward sustainability as a "business law". Sustainability has always been a "law of nature". Break the law consistently and you should expect "unpredictable" results. (Well, probably somewhat predictable, but certainly not good results.)

With the move toward $1T in non-GMO (organic-ish) worldwide, it is certainly clear that Ag needs to take the market seriously.

The market may make the non-sustainable business models extinct, long before the non-sustainable practices exhaust the non-sustainable businesses.

Look for an upcoming article here on "Fertilizer, a broken and non-sustainable business model".

'via Blog this'

Should Monsanto own patent rights on the elements of life? - Los Angeles Times

Should Monsanto own patent rights on the elements of life? - Los Angeles Times:

Few people realize how patent intensive the food industry has become.

The top 10 seed companies account for 2/3 of all seeds sold.

A huge % of the seed sold are patented. Wow!

"Over an 11-year period, the cost per acre of planting soybeans has risen a dramatic 325%." Ouch!...
BUT if the yield is improved, then the added cost to sow is well justified.

Remember that genetically modified  (GMO) can/possibly be patented, organic not.

But owning a gene and the patent on all activity to monitor/manage/tread based on that gene has interesting implications.  You can expect the pharma industry to watch this law suit in plants very closely.

Keywords: GMO, organic, plant patents, Monsanto, seeds, farming, law suit,  genes,

'via Blog this'

Hain up about 20% on great earnings?

Hain Celestial (HAIN) was way up today on great earnings... That's right, the high end and heathy food company. Shouldn't they be getting crushed on the high prices from the great drought of 2012?

Healthy eating is "not a fad, not a trend", according to CEO Simon. Consumption of the category is up 14%, vs about 1% on the main stream food categories.

Of course the super fast growth of Whole Foods doesn't hurt, but HAIN is growing like mad in Walmart, Costco,and ... wait for it ... Amazon!
Organic chips, Sleepy Time tea and a book, why not?

97% are GMO free.