World's Food Supply Needs Bees & Bees Need Help

One study found 40% of bee and butterfly pollinators are in decline around the world. As if bees didn't have enough problems with the neonicotinoid type of insecticide that has been causing their colonies to collapse since 2006, now they have to deal with the effects of climate change. When spring-like warming occurs too early, flowers can bloom before bees are ready to make their rounds. Crops of at least 140 nuts, fruits, and vegetables can suffer from a lack of pollination.

     In the US, clocks are about to be moved an hour ahead this weekend to signal the beginning of daylight saving time and the time to get seeds for planting flowers and food crops on commercial farms and in backyards, rain gardens at the curb, and community plots. The Sierra Club has been sending members packets of what the organization calls a "Bee Feed Flower Mix." These packets contain seeds for bee-tasty nectar and pollen from forget-me-nots, poppies, asters, blue flax, white sweet alyssum, lavender, fleabane daisies, and purple coneflowers. What is important is the seeds in these packets are Untreated.

     Untreated seeds are important because treated seeds, such as corn and soybean seeds, are coated with neonicotinoid insecticide to kill pests as soon as the seeds sprout. Frequent exposure to neuro-toxic pesticides that spread through a plant's leaves, pollen, and even nectar damage a bee's nervous and immune systems. While insects destroy plants, so too are strawberries, avocados, peaches, almonds, and other crops lost due to a lack of pollination by bees.

     Presented with a decade of evidence about simultaneous bee colony collapse and neonicotinoid use, the European Union suspended the use of neonicotinoid in 2013. In the US, the Department of Agriculture continues to study the problem, and the Saving America's Pollinators Act of 2015 failed to get out of a House of Representatives subcommittee.

     US consumers and farmers began to take matters into their own hands. There have been consumer campaigns against stores that sell neonicotinoid-treated plants. Gardeners started to grow bee-friendly flowers and to leave woody debris, leaf litter, and bare soil where bees can breed. You can find more on this subject in the earlier post, "Be Kind to Bees."

     Some farms also began to meet the bee health challenge. Besides planting vegetables, an organic farm couple in Minnesota planted flowering dogwood and elderberry hedgerows to attract bees, butterflies, and other insects that pollinate their crops. General Mills, a company that uses honey, fruit, and vegetable ingredients requiring pollination, is working with the Xerces Society and the Department of Agriculture to preserve pollinator habitat on 100,000 acres of US farmland. A plan to grow flowers and shrubs in narrow strips around crop fields is designed to restore seven million acres of land for pollinators in the next five years. But for farmers who usually grow single crops, a shift to diversify with flowers that attract pollinators is not easy. It requires analysis of farm land, how wet and dry it is, for example, and which plants will not attract the insects that could destroy their farm's crops.

     The battle to save bees, and the world's food supply, continues.
   

You've Got To Move It, Move It. Trees, that is.

If you've seen the movie, Madagascar, you remember King Julien, the saucy lemur whose dances encouraged other animals to "Move, it, move it."

     Although Arbor Day began in the United States in 1972 as a way to celebrate trees for their ability to provide clean air, shade, lower energy costs, and control of storm water run-off, when rain forests began to be burned or bulldozed and animals, such as the lemur, were endangered because their habitats were disappearing, tree planting conservation needed to move it, move it, move it to other parts of the world.

     Islands like Madagascar, just like the Galapagos made famous by Darwin, have unique biodiversity environments. When Jean Norbert Rakotonirina, known as Dadalioka, guided Dr. Edward Louis, Jr. to his tropical village, the black and white ruffed lemur population was almost gone. By 2009, only eight lemurs lived in the Sangasanga Mountain of Madagascar.

     Thanks to the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership, which includes the Arbor Day Foundation, 1,700, once unemployed young and old Madagascar residents have worked in nurseries and planted one million trees, especially fruit trees that are a lemur's main diet. Even the lemur population, that increased to 50 in the Sangasanga Mountain by 2015, helps the reforestation effort. When lemurs eat fruit, the seeds their tummies don't digest plant more fruit trees.

     By working on the tree planting project, single mothers in Madagascar have been able to send their children to school, support their aging relatives, start small poultry farms, repair their homes, and trade points for non-polluting stoves and sewing machines. People have learned the value of trees and of the conservation of forests, up to 80% of which were destroyed in Madagascar by 2012.

     What I especially like about the Arbor Day Foundation (arborday.org) is its modest financial request. A tax-deductible contribution of $10 plants 10 trees in an endangered rain forest that produces as much as 40% of the world's oxygen and ingredients for almost a quarter of our medicines. Also, a tree is planted in the recipient's name for each holiday card you purchase and send. Cards are shipped to you within five days. For details, go to arborday.org/giveatree. Other gift ideas, such as rain forest-saving coffee, can be found at arborday.org/holiday gifts.

     King Julien, the original party animal, says, "Thank you, and you've got to move it, move it."

     

The Challenge of New Technologies: Prepare to Think

IBM recognized what the future would require by showing the lack of space planned for the "K" slipping down the side of its "THINK" signs. The need to think was on display at last night's poster and presentation session given by high school students who spent their summer in science labs and departments at the University of Wisconsin.

     Students needed to be willing to expend a major effort just preparing for their experiments. One young woman dragged branches, plants, and flowers to the lab to find that birds need to be motivated by an attractive, secure area in order to breed. Multiple times a young man rowed a boat into the middle of a lake at night in order to scoop up water that showed what destroyed undesirable algae multiplied faster than the invasive species that destroyed the helpful algae remover. Another student had to find a sausage factory where he could procure the pig livers he needed to test how their properties changed during heating in a microwave. Various purifying procedures were needed before testing and careful math calculations were needed before a machine could emit radiation to attack tumors. Findings, such as the dangers of the toxic nano particles lithium batteries give off as they decompose, were preliminary but important.

     Heading into the future, artificial intelligence (AI); robotics, CRISPR and other medical technologies; the relationship of technology, human values, and public policy; and other technical subjects will play a major role in lives throughout the world. Yet in recent elections, electorates have cast their votes based on emotion: anger about the rich who are getting richer while they're not, anger about their countries filling up with people who don't look like them, and anger about a perceived attack on their values.

     Away from the disillusioned voters back home, members of the World Economic Forum (weforum.org) met in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, this week to discuss the impact of  new technologies. Their discussions need to make it back home to those have to understand how they will be affected by the good and bad impacts these technologies will have on their lives.

      However, you can't help but sympathize with anyone who tries to deal with the complexity and scientific jargon in an article about a technology, such as CRISPR-Cas9. First there is a description. CRISPR-Cas9 can genetically edit cells to improve crops and fight disease. In humans, if used to alter the genetic make-up of cells in an egg, sperm, or embryo, the same mutation will be transmitted from generation to generation. In order for the latter process to work, genes injected from outside need to be accepted by cells that store the germline, the biochemical unit of heredity.

     Then, articles tout the benefits of the new technology. Pig organs could be produced without the genes that prevent transplants in humans. Malaria-carrying mosquitoes could be eliminated the way genetically altered Atlantic salmon already grow double the size of ordinary salmon in half the time. Diseases could be cured, even though the complex interrelationship of genes often makes this unlikely in many cases.

     Articles frequently ignore problems associated with new technologies. It is up to the reader to ask, "Couldn't a rogue scientist use CRISPR-Cas9 to inject unhealthy mutations into human cells that would be transmitted from generation to generation?" Or might only wealthy people be able: to afford the cures that CRISPR-Cas9 technology could provide. While CRISPR-altered seeds produce uniform crops that can be harvested by machines, farmers in poor countries may not be able to pay for the annual purchase of patented hybrid seeds that grow food in drought conditions.

     Some call the biomedical duel between China and the United States to achieve dramatic CRISPR-Cas9 results "Sputnik 2.0." On October 18, 2016 scientists at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, used CRISPR-Cas9 technology to see whether they could disable a gene in the patient's immune cells and reprogram the lung cancer patient's cells not only to resist but to fight back against the cancer. To date, results of the test are not known and neither are side effects. At the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Dr. Carl June also is about to use CRISPR editing to enable three genes in the immune cells of 18 cancer patients, who have not been helped by other treatments, to seek and destroy their cancerous tumors.

     Guarding against technology bias also needs to keep up with fast-paced artificial intelligence (AI) developments. Joy Buolamwini's Algorithmic Justice League found facial-analysis software was prone to making mistakes recognizing the female gender, especially of darker-skinned women. AI is developed by and often tested primarily on light-skinned men, but recognition technology, for example, is promoted for hiring, policing, and military applications involving diverse populations.

     Finally, we all need to think about and act on the guidelines, regulations, and other checks needed to keep up with the effects of rapidly progressing new technologies.

   

New Art Forms and Functions

Joining innovative artists like Christo, who wrapped a bridge in Paris with cloth, and those who create sculptures out of sand and ice are contemporaries using solar power in their art and creating digital art that exists as a piece of software. Other artists are activists expressing environmental concerns and promoting participatory art that can flourish outside galleries and museums.

     Visitors need to go deep inside a limestone cave in Puerto Rico to see a work by minimalist artist, Dan Flavin. Solar panels at the mouth of the cave power the pink, yellow, and red fluorescent lightbulbs that cast a reddish glow on the surrounding rock formations. To protect the lights from humidity and bats, the bulbs are hermetically sealed in a glass case.

      The Phillips Gallery in New York reports that a digital image of a grain silo in Kansas that was created using algorithms appealed to a geneticist and a high-frequency trader, because it related to the mathematical processes they used in their jobs.

     During a UN conference on climate change in Paris in December, 2015, visitors saw ice from Greenland slowly melting at the Place du Pantheon. Danish-Icelandic artist, Olafur Eliasson, created his work of art, "Ice Watch," by breaking an 80-ton block of ice into 12 chunks arranged in a circle.

     Artists, activists, researchers, farmers, scientists, and architects have come together to dramatize the importance of preserving the seeds of ancient grains no longer in wide use. A sailing ship will return the seeds from Oslo to their native soil in Istanbul and the Middle East. Some students are designing and making the ship's sail and sailing outfits out of plants grown from seeds used for ages.

    Not only can students be on the look out for new forms and functions of art around the world, they can try creating some themselves. Try attracting bees by planting a variety of flowers and vegetables in an artistic design this summer.

All I Want for Christmas Is Seeds

Who knew elves occasionally take a break from making toys to store seeds in Santa's warehouse. Although many put Syria on their naughty lists, in October, 2015 the Svalbard global seed vault half way between the north pole and Norway responded to an urgent request from the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (Icarda) and sent the 128 crates of wheat, barley lentil, chickpea, fava bean, pea, and legume seeds Syria needed.

     After seeds for another 70,000 crops were added to the Global Seed Vault in 2018, Svalbard now stores 1,059,646 seeds. 

     Svalbard, known as the "Noah's Ark of seeds," is just one of the storehouses for the diversity of seeds needed to grow fruits, vegetables, and grains; the collections of plants, like apples and grapes, that are not cultivated from seeds; and even the genetic material essential to maintain the bees that pollinate many crops.

     Individual farmers also are essential in the process of ensuring a lasting food supply. On one of his "Parts Unknown" TV programs, David Bourdain found restaurant owners in the US South have been searching for the seeds that grew foods popular before the US Civil War. They located seeds that had come down through the families of former slaves, when war wiped out the seeds held by plantation owners. When kids start collecting and drying seeds for diverse crops, they also will be getting involved in the vital task of protecting the world's food supply.

 Why is the world's food supply in danger? There are many reasons:

• Wars destroy farms. Research stations in Lebanon and Morocco are working to produce seeds and saplings to resupply Syria's farmers.
• Globalization of agriculture has concentrated seed production in companies that abandon many plant varieties in order to produce uniform, high-yield varieties. (See the earlier post, "World (Food) Expo. Hybrid Crops & New Farming Practices.")
• Pests and diseases can wipe out crops. (See the earlier post, "The Bees and the Birds.")
• Global warming has reduced the area suitable for farming. (See the earlier post, "Coffee Prices Going Up; Allowances Going Down?")
• Farmers have moved to urban areas to find work.
• Without a market, farmers have stopped growing foods that have gone out of favor when diets shifted to wheat, rice, potatoes, maize, soybeans, and palm oil.
• Deforestation has removed forests where plants thrive and evolve.

Kids used to get oranges and apples in their Christmas stockings. To be sure these fruits continue to exist, the world is counting on Santa to bring these goodies along with toys and candy.

Back to the Land

The world needs food. Too many are starving, and too many are unemployed. As summer approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, it is the perfect time for kids to discover the art of farming, not only to feed their families, but also to earn money. Whether at a roadside stand, farmers' market, or open bazaar, there is income to be made by selling vegetables, herbs, fruit, plants, flowers, and seeds. A youth group, for example, grows tomatoes and peppers in a community garden, cooks them, and packages salsa for sale. A bride who wanted her reception to be filled with sunflowers paid neighborhood youngsters to grow them.

     Farming can be simple or sophisticated. There are ready-made kits that include the proper seeds and soils children need for indoor gardens of basil, parsley, thyme, and other herbs that can be used in cooking. These kits come with directions for the amount of light and moisture plants need. Usually plants need 12 to 16 hours of light a day near a window, but strong, prolonged sunlight is harmful. It is a good idea to turn plants around once a week, since they will grow lopsided toward the light otherwise. The best water for plants is tap water that has been left out overnight to reach room temperature and to let some of its chemical content evaporate. Adding eggshells to the water left out overnight enriches the solution.

     It also is fun for children to try to grow a plant from plump apple, lemon, orange, or grapefruit seeds that have been washed and dried. Begin by covering the drainage hole in a 4-inch flowerpot with a thin layer of clean small stones and adding about 2 cups of potting soil up to an inch from the top of the pot. (It is possible to remove insects and disease from any outdoor soil by spreading it in a pan, heating it in an oven at 180 degrees for a half hour, and letting it cool.) Lay several seeds of the same fruit on the soil, cover with 1/4-inch of soil, carefully water with room temperature tap water and repeat when needed to keep soil moist, place in a sunny spot, and see if sprouts develop in 3 weeks or longer.

      At the end of the earlier post, "A Healthy Environment," there is a detailed description for growing an outdoor garden. According to the National Gardening Association, about 40 million households in the U.S. are growing herbs, vegetables, or fruits, because they want to save money and to raise healthy, organic produce. In an item in the AARP magazine (August/September, 2014), frugal living expert Erin Huffstetler claimed many fruits and nuts are very easy to grow and that there are varieties that suit almost any climate. In particular, she mentiond raspberry, blueberry, and strawberry plants, red seedless grapes, cherry bushes, and almond trees.

     In a backyard or community garden, planting a mixture of crops and flowers discourages the pests that like to feast on one particular plant, and using compost cuts down on the need for and cost of using synthetic fertilizer. Using compost, other natural fertilizers and pesticides, mulch, hand-weeding, crop rotation, and earthworms, it is possible to feed the soil, reduce pest infestations, and manage weeds without pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, or other chemicals. (At the end of the earlier blog post, "A Healthy Environment," How Does Your Garden Grow? describes the composting process.) African subsistence farmers even have increased yields by composting and reducing the need for pesticides by growing diverse crops.

      Iroquois Valley Farms in Illinois has come up with a way to help farmers, at any age, become organic farmers. Before leasing a conventional farm of at least 80 acres to a tenant, it takes three years for a diverse rotation of crops and earthworms to rebuild soil fertility naturally. After seven years, Iroquois Valley Farms offers the new organic farmer a purchase option.

     School projects often lend themselves to farming experiments. Water one part of a garden at night and one during the day to see which plants thrive best. Take a photo of each plot. Supposedly, since less water evaporates at night, that section should look better. Or weed one section and not another. Plants that share water and soil nutrients with weeds should be smaller. Over several years a student could document the effect of rotating crops by planting the same crop over and over every year in one section of a garden and, in other years, alternating that crop with different ones, even flowers, in a nearby section of the same garden. If there are trees on the southern and western sides of a building, see how much cooler the temperature is there compared to the temperature on the other sides of the building.

     Experiments with cross-breeding are not new to farmers who have wanted to deter pests, increase yields, and produce crops that tolerate drought, floods, and soil contamination by salt water.The fast growing, high yield rice strain credited with preventing famine in India was the result of cross-breeding a dwarf strain of rice from Taiwan and a taller variety from Indonesia. What is new is the ability to identify the DNA marker or markers in seedlings with desirable genes and to use marker-assisted breeding to produce high yield and other specialized crops. It should be noted, however, that U.S. Department of Agriculture standards do not permit organic farms to use genetically modified hybrid seeds.

     Companies, such as Monsanto and DuPont, have profitable seed patents on genetically modified seeds that grow corn, soybeans, and cotton. Before the U.S. pressured Sudan to expel Osama bin Laden in order to purge the country of involvement in al-Qaeda's terrorist attacks, he used to invite visitors to the laboratory where he was developing high quality seeds appropriate for Africa. According to Lawrence Wright's book, The Looming Tower, bin Laden claimed the Dutch had a monopoly on the best banana pods, and he thought Muslims should devote similar diligence to the process of genetically engineering plants.

     Whether children live in the city or the suburbs, they can develop an appreciation for how farmers around the world produce the food they eat. An earlier post, "The Bees and the Birds," tells how the pollination process for producing fruits and nuts relies on bees. Why do radio stations like WGN have farm reports telling how much soybeans are selling for? Farmers who know corn is going for $6 a bushel figure the cost of growing a bushel of corn to see if they can make a profit. (An earlier post, "Dairy Cows on the Moove," discusses the costs and income of cows.) Children cannot see the sensors embedded in some fields that monitor when water is needed or the drip irrigation methods other fields use to prevent water loss to wind, runoff, and evaporation. But on a drive in rural areas, they may see the long arms of machines irrigating a dry field. At petting zoos, kids can get up close to goats, and at state and county fairs, they can see prize winning animals and produce. In fall, they might visit a farm for a hay ride or walk through a corn maze.

     Away from video games and trash littered highways, in the country, children and adults come face to face with their interrelationship with the natural environment.