Honeybee Shortage Threatens Crop Pollination across Europe

Sent be a Member, Edited by FIRE-EARTH

More than half of Europe lacks enough honeybees to pollinate crops: Research

Pesticide use and disease are causing exponential loses in the number of honeybees across Europe, especially in the UK, according to a new study.

The researchers say Europe has a deficit of about 13.4 million colonies, which amounts to seven billion honeybees. UK has only about a quarter of its total honeybee requirement.

“We face a catastrophe in future years unless we act now,” said Prof Potts from the University of Reading, who a co-authored the report.

“Wild pollinators need greater protection. They are the unsung heroes of the countryside, providing a critical link in the food chain for humans and doing work for free that would otherwise cost British farmers £1.8b to replace.”

Percent supply of honeybees relative to demand – EU. Source and copyright: University of Reading, England. Map edited for brevity by FIRE-EARTH Blog.

Biofuel Before Food

The current EU renewable fuel directive dictates that 10% of transport fuel must be sourced from renewable sources by 2020.

The directive, backed by generous subsidies, has led to explosive growth in the area of biofuel crops including sunflowers, soybeans and rapeseed.

“There have been big increases in lots of countries with oilseed rape,” said lead author Dr Breeze from the University of Reading.

“In Greece in 2005, there were a few hundred hectares grown, but since then it has exploded because they can get biofuel subsidies for it.”

The increase in the production of biofuel crops requires more fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, not to mention massive amount of energy for farming, conversion to biofuel, and transport, the environmental consequences of which are beginning to surface.

Disconnect between agricultural and environmental policies across Europe

“There is a growing disconnection between agricultural and environmental policies across Europe,” said Potts.

“Farmers are encouraged to grow oil crops, yet there is not enough joined-up thinking about how to help the insects that will pollinate them.

“We need a proper strategy across Europe to conserve wild bees and pollinators through habitat protection, agricultural policy and farming methods – or we risk big financial losses to the farming sector and a potential food security crisis.”

Agricultural Policies Exacerbate Honeybee Pollination Service Supply-Demand Mismatches Across Europe
Copyright Tom D. Breeze et al.
Published by Plosone.org, January 8, 2014.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0082996

ABSTRACT

Declines in insect pollinators across Europe have raised concerns about the supply of pollination services to agriculture. Simultaneously, EU agricultural and biofuel policies have encouraged substantial growth in the cultivated area of insect pollinated crops across the continent. Using data from 41 European countries, this study demonstrates that the recommended number of honeybees required to provide crop pollination across Europe has risen 4.9 times as fast as honeybee stocks between 2005 and 2010. Consequently, honeybee stocks were insufficient to supply >90% of demands in 22 countries studied. These findings raise concerns about the capacity of many countries to cope with major losses of wild pollinators and highlight numerous critical gaps in current understanding of pollination service supplies and demands, pointing to a pressing need for further research into this issue.

Maize Madness

More Maize for Fuel than Food

US ethanol refiners use more maize than livestock and poultry farmers

The ethanol refiners in the U.S. are consuming more maize than livestock and poultry farmers, a report said.

USDA says in the year to August 31 ethanol producers will have consumed 5.05bn bushels of corn, just over 40 per cent of 2010’s harvest, against 5bn bushels used for animal feed and residual consumption.

The Death of Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Part 1): “Our slaveholder, the car, is taking the food right out of our mouths. The late Ivan Illich, a renowned sociologist, reported in the 1970s that when the miles Americans drive are divided by the time spent in the car (sitting on congested roadways, driving, parking, and servicing) and paying for it, they average 5 mph-about twice slower than riding a bike. Today, the cars are getting fatter and running even slower.”

Other Amazing Maize Stats

• Ethanol production has pushed up the corn prices by 90 per cent compared with a year earlier.
• US ethanol production could reach a record high of 13.7bn gallons in 2011
• Both Brazil and China are importing US corn; China to import 2MMT tons this year.
• USDA predicts global farm consumption could reach a record of about 878MMT.
• Corn futures topped $7 per bushel.
• Ethanol futures are currently traded 30 cents per gallon cheaper than gasoline futures.

Notes:

1. A bushel of shelled maize (corn) weighs 56 pounds (25.40 kg).
2. MMT = Million Metric Tons.

Related Links

• US: One drought away from food crisis
• Are Extreme Precipitation Events Nature’s Defense Mechanisms?
• Biofuels

The Climate Change Crusades

Are YOU a Climate Change Crusader?
How Do YOU Fight Climate Change?
Should YOU Crusade Against the Climate Change, or just STOP heating the globe?

A Shrinking World Series

Make No Mistake: Nature Always Has the Last Word!

Midwest Flood Update:

A dam near the Wisconsin Dells resort area broke on Monday, causing mudslides that swept away homes, as torrential rains caused more flooding across the U.S. Midwest.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle declared a state of emergency in 30 counties in the south of the state. In Iowa, where 33 counties were flooded, and Indiana, where flooding forced hundreds of people to evacuate homes in the central and western parts of the state, similar declarations have been made. Parts of Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota have been affected by flooding.

“This is an area that’s been bombarded with rain over the weekend, anywhere from 5 to 10 inches, and you’re dealing with saturated soils. So any rain that falls becomes run-off,” the National Weather Service’s Pat Slattery said.

OUCH! Too Close to the bank! Like the Kubeniks and the Pekars (see image caption), rivers are “living” creatures; they need room to complete their cycle of life!

The homes of the Kubeniks (R) and the Pekars are damaged after a dam broke at man-made Lake Delton, Wisconsin June 9 2008. REUTERS/Allen Fredrickson. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice.

“Flood damage estimated in the tens of millions of dollars were being added to recent storm damage in Iowa, including a tornado that flattened the town of Parkersburg two weeks ago.” Reuters reported.

In Iowa:

• The water treatment plant in Mason City was swamped by the Winnebago River.
• Three of four bridges in the town of Charles City were swept away by flooding of the Cedar River.
• The town of New Hartford was evacuated.

Corn and soybean fields were submerged under the floodwater in Midwestern states. Iowa and Illinois account for about 35% of U.S. corn and soybeans, usually the world’s largest harvests of those crops. However, the prospects of a bumper crop year were further eroded, following a wet spring that had already delayed planting. (Source)

Related Video:

• Home washed away in floods [like a matchbox!]

Related Links:

• US Tornado Brief
• UN Hypocrisy: Kick the CO2 Habit!
• Will California turn to desert by 2011?

• Italy: Submerged in Floodwaters, Sinking in Garbage

• Failing Ecosystems
• State of the World
• Future Scenarios
• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
  
• Nuking Earth for Lifestyle

• Giga Trends
• World Problems: The Root Cause Matrix
• Tipping Point
• Topsoil
• Drying Aquifers, Sinking Cities

• The Economy
• Energy
• Food Security
• Future in the Making: A Shrinking World

• Flood Puts City in Iowa ‘at God’s Mercy’ Iowa, June 12, 2008
  

The World’s one harvest from starvation!

UN planning to feed the world?

UN to draw up comprehensive plan to address world food crisis

30 April 2008 – UN News Center– The United Nations is aiming to have a comprehensive plan to tackle the global food crisis in place by the beginning of June, “around which the institutions and leaders around the world can coalesce,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said today.

Mr. Holmes is one of two coordinators, along with UN System Influenza Coordinator David Nabarro, of a new high-powered task force that was announced yesterday by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to organize responses to the global rise in food prices.

Speaking at a news conference today in Geneva, Mr. Holmes said that although the breadth and complexity of the issue needed to be recognized, there was no need to panic. “I think it is clear we can fix these problems. The solutions can be found; the solutions are there. They are very difficult, some of them, in the short term, but they can be done.”

The United Nations Office [Palace?] at Geneva (UNOG) is the representative office of the United Nations in Geneva. More than 1,600 super-privileged front-row individuals handsomely “earn their keep” here!

On the role of biofuel production in the current crisis, Mr. Holmes said: “It is something that needs a new look in present circumstances without wanting to fall in any sense into knee-jerk reactions of saying all biofuels are bad or good. We need to look at it in a careful, sophisticated and differentiated way, between different regions of the world and between different products.”

The Under-Secretary-General also said the crisis was not affecting every country in the same way. “For many countries and population groups it is inconvenient, a problem for their daily budget and their purses, but it is not a matter of life and death. In some places and for some groups, particularly those living on less than a dollar a day, that quickly could become a matter of life and death, or certainly of increased suffering and malnutrition.”

The UN’s action plan is to be in place in time for a meeting of UN agencies in Rome at the beginning of June. The task force is chaired by Mr. Ban and consists of the heads of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and other organizations which will be invited to join.

News Tracker: past stories on this issue

• Ban Ki-moon to lead task force to tackle global food crisis

Can the world’s poor sue Ban ki-moon, John Holmes and the rest of their lot if they don’t deliver?

But Will It Prevent Food Riots in the US?

‘Clean’ Energy Scam: U.S. senator seeks to freeze ethanol requirement

ASHINGTON (Reuters) – Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is drawing up legislation to cap the U.S. renewable fuels requirement at 2008 levels – 9 billion gallons per year. Texas ranches are home to 2.8 million head of cattle. Cattle and poultry producers rely on grain for feed and have been hit hard by skyrocketing corn prices.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry petitioned the federal government to cut its renewable fuel requirement by 50 percent this year to break the vicious circle of grain price hikes.

Corn Belt lawmakers such as Iowa’s Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, whose state farmers are profiting handsomely from the soaring grains prices, have vowed to combat any legislative attempt to reduce or postpone the renewable fuels mandate.

A tiny sliver of transitional rain forest is surrounded by hectares of soybean fields in the Mato Grosso state, Brazil. (Caption: TIME). Photo:  John Lee / Aurora Select for TIME. (Image may be subject to copyright). See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

President [sic] George W. Bush said on Tuesday he is deeply concerned about high food prices but believes ethanol production is responsible for only a small part [sic] of food inflation.

“And the truth of the matter is, it’s in our national interest that we—our farmers—grow energy, as opposed to us purchasing energy from parts of the world that are unstable or may not like us.”

The new energy law calls for the production of 9 billion gallons of biofuel in 2008 and 10.5 billion gallons next year, and a rise to 36 billion gallons in 2022 – with ethanol supply from corn capped at 15 billion gallons.

About 26 percent of corn production would be diverted to make biofuel in 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The grain prices hit record highs breaking above $6.50 a bushel. (Source)

Related links:

• As Bush signs energy bill, new issues come to the fore (Background)
  

• Fueling Food Shortages
• Corn for Food, NOT for Fuel
• Former U.N. boss Annan warns of “hunger disasters”
  
• Growing world needs every form of energy: Shell

• UN food aid agency’s gap grows, ration cuts loom
• Brazil Lula defends biofuels from growing criticism
• Corn eyes new peaks, may add to food woes
• Bolivia Morales: biofuels serious problem to poor

• Biofuels won’t solve world energy problem: Shell
• Food price crisis may hit world growth and security: U.N.
• U.N. food aid agency’s gap grows, ration cuts loom
• Oil World expects states to cut back biofuel plans

• Lifstyle Winning Against Life?
• Emerging Food Crisis
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Topsoil

• Index of Human Impact on Nature
• 500 Weather-Related Disasters A Year
• Producing corn ethanol consumes as much fossil fuel as the ethanol itself replaces
• The Clean Energy Scam

• U.S. eyes shift away from corn ethanol
• Scientists: Stop Biofuels to fight world hunger

..

Famous Last words …

“With the worsening of the global food crisis, the time is coming when it will be inevitable to discuss whether we preserve the environment or produce more food. There is no way to produce more food without occupying more land and taking down more trees … In this moment of crisis, the world needs to understand that the country has space to raise its production.” ~ Blairo Maggi, the governor of Mato Grosso state and Brazil’s largest soy producer (aka, “King of Soy”)

Soybean USDA

Between August and December 2007, at least 2,700 square miles of Amazon rain forest were clearcut illegally for soy farming and cattle ranching.

In the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, verdant green Amazon Rainforest is broken up by broad tracts of pale green and tan deforested land. In 2005, the government of Brazil said that 48 percent of Amazon deforestation that took place in 2003 and 2004 occurred in Mato Grosso.

The transformation from forest to farm is evident in the photo-like images, taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. The top image was taken on June 28, 2006, while the middle image is from June 17, 2002. The bottom map shows the difference in deforested areas over the time period, with some of the largest cleared areas marked in red. On this map, areas that were non-forested (either naturally or already deforested) in 2002 are light gray, while areas that remained forested in 2006 are darker gray.

Although some deforestation is part of the country’s plans to develop its agriculture and timber industries, other deforestation is the result of illegal logging and squatters. The Brazilian government uses MODIS images such as these to detect illegal deforestation. Because the forest is so large and is difficult to access or patrol, the satellite images can provide an initial alert that tells officials where to look for illegal logging.

These images were produced by the MODIS Rapid Response Team, which provides both the 2006 and 2002 images in a variety of resolutions, including MODIS’maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel.

NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at Goddard Space Flight Center. Map by Robert Simmon. (Text: NASA Earth Observatory)

Relate Links:

• Only One Guess Allowed!

• Brazil “soy king” sees Amazon as food solution

• Corn for Food, NOT for Fuel

Are the poor terrorists?

Delivering Climate Security: International Security Responses to a Climate-Changed World

According to the above-titled report written for Britain’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), governments around the world have hugely underestimated the potential conflicts resulting from climate change. The highlights of the report are:

• If climate change is not slowed and critical environmental thresholds are exceeded, then it will become a primary driver of conflicts between and within states

• In the next decades, climate change will drive as significant a change in the strategic security environment as the end of the Cold War,” said Mabey.

• If uncontrolled, climate change will have security implications of similar magnitude to the World Wars, but which will last for centuries

• A failure to acknowledge and prepare for the worst case scenario is as dangerous in the case of climate change as it is for managing the risks of terrorism or nuclear weapons proliferation

• Unless achieving climate security is seen as a vital and existential national interest it will be too easy to delay action on the basis of avoiding immediate costs and perceived threats to economic competitiveness

Source

Would the world elite brand the poor and starving masses as “terrorists” in order to eliminate them?

Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.” According to a report by New York Sun.

News Reports:

• U.N. Security Council must act preemptively – on climate change – this global threat requires a war-room mentality

• Security risk from climate said underestimated
• Sam’s Club, Costco limit bulk rice purchases
• Sam’s Club, Costco Ration Rice Amid Hoarding Worries
  

Special Links:

• Future in the Making
• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) March 2008
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Giga Trends
• World Problems: The Root Cause Matrix