The Bee and the Almond: Crop Pollination May Kill Colonies - Michael Pollan

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/05/05/Michael_Pollan_Deep_Agriculture

In Defense of Food author Michael Pollan says the high demand of pollinating central California's almond crop may be contributing to the collapse of bee colonies. Pollan says bees are shipped in from around the globe and even given "high fructose corn syrup so they will be sturdy enough to attack the almond crop."

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Farming has become an occupation and cultural force of the past. Michael Pollan's talk promoted the premise -- and hope -- that farming can become an occupation and force of the future. In the past century American farmers were given the assignment to produce lots of calories cheaply, and they did. They became the most productive humans on earth. A single farmer in Iowa could feed 150 of his neighbors. That is a true modern miracle.

"American farmers are incredibly inventive, innovative, and accomplished. They can do whatever we ask them, we just need to give them a new set of requirements." - Long Now Foundation

Michael Pollan is the author of The Omnivores Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, a New York Times bestseller. His previous books include The Botany of Desire: A Plants-Eye View of the World (2001); A Place of My Own (1997); and Second Nature (1991). A contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, Pollan is the recipient of numerous journalistic awards, including the James Beard Award for best magazine series in 2003 and the Reuters-I.U.C.N. 2000 Global Award for Environmental Journalism. Pollan served for many years as executive editor of Harpers Magazine and is now the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at UC Berkeley. His articles have been anthologized in Best American Science Writing 2004, Best American Essays 2003, and the Norton Book of Nature Writing. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, the painter Judith Belzer, and their son, Isaac.

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[berenisse1000]

Now bees are also exploited by men.... just stop using pesticides and bees are going to do fine..

[BotanyVideo]

Numerous scientific papers show that native bees do a great job of pollinating all our fruit crops. It is important to have habitat diversity because native bees need nesting habitat that is not plowed. Some native bees also need floral resources for more than just the blooming time of one crop plant, because no one is going to drive them to Louisiana for the tupelo bloom. This is why having diverse habitat and diverse farms will prevent the extinction of native bees.

[110cbr]

Some of the most diverse bee habitat is within urban areas. Encourage/allow small scale hobby beekeeping within those areas. The politicians or the big commercial beekeepers aren't going be the saviors of bees. Do your part and start a sustainable backyard hive for less than $200.00.

[alicek61]

Calif. native bees are 100 times better at pollinating fruit trees and they are not susceptible to those diseases that afflict honey bees. So, I agree about putting aside areas with native bee plants to keep the native bees around all year. Why pay for imported honey bees when you can have native bees for free?

[Saktoth]

@StopMKold

They've been using it for years in Australia, and when they did tests to find what effects the concerntrations in the soil had on the soil, they had to cancel the tests because they couldnt -find- any silver iodide in the soil.

They use really miniscule amounts.

I dont know about Barium and Aluminium, in all the sources i've read they never mention using these for cloud seeding. Do you have a source for that?

[StopMKold]

@Saktoth Silver iodide is harmful to unicellular organisms, and over time could have other adverse effects on the biosphere. it is not water soluble so iimagine the levels will build up in water bodies over time. Barium and alluminum salts are being used as well.

[javalily]

Sure,give the bee HFCS, the mercury is good for them!

[javalily]

I wasn't claiming NAIWMC was doing it. I was simply stating that weather modification,and the many different experiments ,including weather mod and biological testing could have affected the bees. And who said I wasn't concerned with those things too? Whose making anything up? Just because you haen't heard about something,doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Do your research.

[Saktoth]

NAIWMC describes the well established process of using dry ice and silver iodide to seed clouds, it doesnt mention Barium or Aluminium and those elements are not used in cloud seeding.

Who is trying to kill our food supply? For what reason? Arent there more effecient methods to end civilization...

There are plenty of things to get outraged about, real chemical dumping into the enviroment, real government and corporate abuses, you dont need to make stuff up to get angry about.

[javalily]

It's not just about cloud seeding. There is tons of info on it. Google Dr. Hildagard who's is studying the connection between chemtrails and Morgellons disease. High levels of aluminum and barium have been found in tested samples,along with other things we should not be absorbing or breathing in. look into Nano tech and the chemtrail connection. And biological testing is nothing new,you can even find videos about it on here. Kill the bees,you kill our food supply,what else needs to be explained?