Chiapas Diaries: Day 8, Part 1 - Visit to a Family's Home

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Dec 31, 2010 at 00:09:17 AM PST

Previous diaries in this series:
Day 1, Part 1: My Yuppified Introduction to Chiapas
Day 1, Part 2: An Introduction to Zapatistas
Day 2, Part 1: Something's Weird in Zapatista Territory
Day 2, Part 2: Our First Day with the Zapatistas
Day 3, Part 1: A Full Day with the Zapatistas in the Highlands
Day 3, Part 2: A Trilingual, Multicultural Corn Experiment
Day 4, Part 1: Zapatista Agriculture and a Shower
Day 4, Part 2: This Corn Ain't Roundup Ready
Day 5, Part 1: Moi's Rant
Day 5, Part 2: The Students' Orchard
Day 5, Part 3: The Students' Ceremony
Day 5, Part 4: From the Highlands to the Jungle
Day 6, Part 1: The Market in Palenque
Day 6, Part 2: Zapatistas in the Jungle
Day 6, Part 3: The Poster
Day 6, Part 4: The Poster, Continued
Day 7, Part 1: The Stingless Bee Workshop
Day 7, Part 2: The Stingless Bee Workshop Continued

(I went with the group Schools for Chiapas, an organization that works with and provides aid to the Zapatistas. Check out their website if you are interested in either traveling with them to Chiapas yourself, or simply buying some artisanal goods or coffee produced by Zapatistas. Aside from the obvious politics involved in supporting Zapatistas, you are supporting human beings who live in extreme poverty and work their asses off to educate themselves and their children and provide for basic needs like water and health care.)

Chiapas Diaries: Day 7, Part 2 - The Stingless Bee Workshop, Continued

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Dec 17, 2010 at 12:32:24 PM PST

Previous diaries in this series:
Day 1, Part 1: My Yuppified Introduction to Chiapas
Day 1, Part 2: An Introduction to Zapatistas
Day 2, Part 1: Something's Weird in Zapatista Territory
Day 2, Part 2: Our First Day with the Zapatistas
Day 3, Part 1: A Full Day with the Zapatistas in the Highlands
Day 3, Part 2: A Trilingual, Multicultural Corn Experiment
Day 4, Part 1: Zapatista Agriculture and a Shower
Day 4, Part 2: This Corn Ain't Roundup Ready
Day 5, Part 1: Moi's Rant
Day 5, Part 2: The Students' Orchard
Day 5, Part 3: The Students' Ceremony
Day 5, Part 4: From the Highlands to the Jungle
Day 6, Part 1: The Market in Palenque
Day 6, Part 2: Zapatistas in the Jungle
Day 6, Part 3: The Poster
Day 6, Part 4: The Poster, Continued
Day 7, Part 1: The Stingless Bee Workshop

(I went with the group Schools for Chiapas, an organization that works with and provides aid to the Zapatistas. Check out their website if you are interested in either traveling with them to Chiapas yourself, or simply buying some artisanal goods or coffee produced by Zapatistas. Aside from the obvious politics involved in supporting Zapatistas, you are supporting human beings who live in extreme poverty and work their asses off to educate themselves and their children and provide for basic needs like water and health care.)

Chiapas Diaries: Day 7, Part 1 - The Stingless Bee Workshop

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Dec 16, 2010 at 12:55:33 PM PST

Previous diaries in this series:
Day 1, Part 1: My Yuppified Introduction to Chiapas
Day 1, Part 2: An Introduction to Zapatistas
Day 2, Part 1: Something's Weird in Zapatista Territory
Day 2, Part 2: Our First Day with the Zapatistas
Day 3, Part 1: A Full Day with the Zapatistas in the Highlands
Day 3, Part 2: A Trilingual, Multicultural Corn Experiment
Day 4, Part 1: Zapatista Agriculture and a Shower
Day 4, Part 2: This Corn Ain't Roundup Ready
Day 5, Part 1: Moi's Rant
Day 5, Part 2: The Students' Orchard
Day 5, Part 3: The Students' Ceremony
Day 5, Part 4: From the Highlands to the Jungle
Day 6, Part 1: The Market in Palenque
Day 6, Part 2: Zapatistas in the Jungle
Day 6, Part 3: The Poster
Day 6, Part 4: The Poster, Continued

(I went with the group Schools for Chiapas, an organization that works with and provides aid to the Zapatistas. Check out their website if you are interested in either traveling with them to Chiapas yourself, or simply buying some artisanal goods or coffee produced by Zapatistas. Aside from the obvious politics involved in supporting Zapatistas, you are supporting human beings who live in extreme poverty and work their asses off to educate themselves and their children and provide for basic needs like water and health care.)

Activist converting former strip mines into bee colonies

by: desmoinesdem

Mon Feb 08, 2010 at 18:22:18 PM PST

By federal law, coal companies have to restore the land they used back to an as-good-or-better condition than it was in when they started mining. However, that is in terms of commercial value, not ecological value. Coal mining can wreak havoc on a landscape, and then turn that ravaged landscape into something like big box stores or residential housing. But thanks to the efforts of one bee enthusiast by the name of Tammy Horn, there are wide swaths of former coal strip mines that are returning to ecologically diverse forest land, bolstering hope for not only a once-again thriving local ecosystem but also a stronger local economy. [...]

Currently there are 53 hives on five sites, but Horn hopes some 25,000 hives could be supported on former strip mines. "Coal companies have created over 33,000 acres of reclaimed land. Within these isolated areas, we can produce bees that are better acclimated to the region and, in effect, create 'genetic islands' of bee colonies that will aid in preserving biodiversity of bees and plants in North America."

The article by Jaymi Heimbuch at Planet Green goes on to explain how Horn got the right people interested in restoring the forest undercanopy at former strip mine sites, as opposed to just growing hardwood trees for future logging.  

Several of the sites are next to communities with high poverty rates. The sites, while also the object of some vandalism, have helped to educate people on how bees benefit them, and how they can be used in cottage industries like soap making and honey. Horn hosts field trips for community members and school children, and these sites serve as training sites rather than production.

The more remote sites are used for research on bee populations, including how to breed bees that are stronger, and more adapted to the area. Horn is working on research for raising queen bees at these locations, hoping that their distance from industrial agriculture will help with research.

More power to her.  

More On Nicotine and Bees

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Jan 31, 2010 at 17:43:54 PM PST

I read your post Nicotine: Bad for People, Bad for Bees with much interest.
I would like to bring to your attention a new study that has just been published that explores a causal link between the neonicotinoid imidacloprid to honeybee decline in France.

The study shows that by applying widely accepted criteria for causality, scientist were able to identify exposure to the systemic insecticide imidacloprid (a neonicotinoid used in plant protection products such as Guacho and Admire) as the main cause for honeybee decline in the sunflower and maize area's in France. The method allowed researchers to conclude that 73% of the increased colony collapse in areas of extensive agriculture in France is caused by imidacloprid. The remaining 27% of the increased colony mortality can be attributed to diseases (9%), illegal pesticides (8%) and a number of minor causes such as genetics, climate change, availability of pollen and new sunflower strains (each 2 or 3%). Note that these figures are not for France as a whole but only for the regions where the pesticide has been used on a large scale. We also show that other actors have different beliefs of what the relative importance is of the various causes (see figure 4 of the paper).

You can see the study summarized here and here or you can read the study itself, which is linked to above.

ACTION: Save the Bees

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Jan 27, 2010 at 11:37:46 AM PST

Contact EPA's Steve Owens at owens.steve at epa dot gov or call him at 1-202-5642902 to request a suspension of the neonicotinoid seed coatings until independent scientists verify safety.

Find more information from the Sierra Club below.

Sampler Platter 07.16.09

by: JayinPortland

Thu Jul 16, 2009 at 17:22:04 PM PDT

• Boo!  California's Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee, the board charged under that state's Proposition 65 with identifying and listing substances that can cause birth defects, developmental or reproductive harm, quivered and kneeled down before NAMPA and their other BPA industry chronies, voting 7-0 against listing BPA as a chemical believed to cause reproductive harm.  The difference between the US and the EU's approach to the public health was clearly on display here - the board members "voiced concerns over the growing scientific research", yet ignored their own concerns because human lives have always taken a back seat to corporate profits in America.

• Beware of stealth Starbucks stores posing as local independent coffee shops, coming soon to a neighborhood near you...

• A massive, jellyfish-entangling mystery blob has been found floating off the Alaskan Coast.  The US Coast Guard has ruled out any manmade explanations (i.e. - oil spill); although it may be an algae bloom, none of the researchers have ever before seen anything quite like this.

• A second breeding pair of wolves have now taken up residence in Eastern Washington.

• A Bush Administration-era bull trout protection plan was just tossed by a judge in Montana, now giving the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service six months to come up with a new plan to protect the endangered fish's habitat.  Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Julie MacDonald was found in December 2008 to have taken "actions that potentially jeopardized the Endangered Species Act decisional process in 13 of the 20" decisions investigated by the Office of the Inspector General, and this (bull trout habitat protection) plan was deemed "too illogical to withstand legal review" by the court.

• From the Christian Science Monitor, another article on urban beekeeping.

• Homeless advocacy groups, after reviewing policy and practices in 273 US cities, have released a report this week naming Los Angeles as the American city which most criminalizes homelessness; other cities on the "Top 10 Meanest" list include Orlando, Atlanta, Honolulu, San Francisco and Berkeley, CA.

Sampler Platter 06.07.09

by: JayinPortland

Sun Jun 07, 2009 at 15:17:52 PM PDT

• The annual summer bat count will soon be underway in New Jersey, 6 months after the first confirmed appearance of white-nose syndrome in the state.  Biologists fear that as many as 95 percent of New Jersey bats may have died from the syndrome over the winter.  Bats are important pollinators and seed dispersers; and New York Department of Environmental Conservation bat expert Alan Hicks has described white-nose syndrome as "unprecedented", and "the gravest threat to bats [...] ever seen".

• Check out this awesome profile of a Yemeni-born beekeeper and his operation in Oakland, California.

• Go Oakland!  (Again!)  The long-awaited Mandela Foods Cooperative opened yesterday in the hopefully-will-very-soon-no-longer-be-a-food-desert neighborhood of West Oakland.

• Despite the fact that you can barely walk a dozen blocks here in Portland without tripping over a community garden, there are still long waiting lists for plots.  The Oregonian's Lynne Terry takes a look at formal and informal yard / garden-sharing groups here, and mentions that City Commissioner Nick Fish (who is in charge of the Portland Community Gardens office) is aiming to double community garden capacity over the next five years.

• Continuing the garden theme, the food grown at the Portland City Hall garden inaugurated last month, which replaced two small grass lawns on the SW 4th Avenue side of the building, will be donated to a downtown community kitchen serving 250 meals a day.  Multnomah County is also planting a garden at their headquarters building here on the east side of the city.

• Deep sea coral forests off the coast of British Columbia are being damaged by bottom trawling fishing methods.

• The NY Daily News has just discovered that local sustainable food can taste good!  Bravo!  Of course, being the NY Daily News, they had to qualify their praise with a "conservative populist", I assume, shot at arugula and a really odd title, but hey.  Anyways, decent tour of Dan Barber's Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture.

Sampler Platter 05.06.09

by: JayinPortland

Wed May 06, 2009 at 14:50:13 PM PDT

• Another victory for the precautionary principle - Monsanto has just lost a court ruling in Germany, in which they were attempting to overturn the country's ban on a variety of their genetically-modified corn.

• Deborah Lehmann at School Food Policy (which is quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs) writes about the importance of putting the "school" back into school lunches.

• An article in the New York Times takes a look at how agribiz giant Smithfield is rapidly bringing factory hog farming to Eastern Europe -

  In Poland, there were 1.1 million hog farmers in 1996. That number fell 56 percent by 2008, as the advent of modern farming methods transformed agriculture, according to the Polish National Agricultural Chamber.

  [...]

  The impact on the environment is even more marked. With almost 40 farms in western Romania, Smithfield has built enormous metal manure containers to inject waste into the soil. "We go crazy with the daily smell," said Aura Danielescu, the principal of a school in Masloc, who closes her windows tight.

More below the fold...

Scientists isolate one cause of "colony collapse disorder"

by: desmoinesdem

Sun Apr 19, 2009 at 17:47:24 PM PDT

It's too early to say "case closed" on the honeybee die-offs. In all likelihood more than one factor has contributed to colony collapse disorder. Devilstower laid out seven possibilities in this diary.

Several European countries have banned the use of neonicotinoid pesticides in order to protect honeybees. Beyond Pesticides and Pesticide Action Network North America sent an open letter to President Barack Obama earlier this year calling for more regulation of pesticides, putting a high priority on protecting bees and other pollinators.

To my knowledge, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has not taken any steps in this direction--that is, I have been unable to find any reports on new USDA plans to fund research regarding pesticides and pollinators. The Bush USDA refused to halt or even thoroughly study the use of neonicotinoid pesticides.

I did find out that the "USDA will be providing two types of parasite-resistant honey bees developed by USDA scientists" to pollinate plants in the organic White House garden.  

Sunday Sampler Platter

by: JayinPortland

Sun Apr 12, 2009 at 14:55:03 PM PDT

• A bill currently in the Montana State Legislature, referred to by some as the Water Theft Bill, would allow gas companies more control over water pumped out of coalbed methane wells.  The magnificent trick by which this would be accomplished is in the bill's defining the water source as the (apparently magical) company's pipes, rather than the underground aquifers from which the pipes draw the water.

• An article in the Portland Mercury looks at the state of our school lunch program and the Farm to School Bill, HB 2800, which is currently in the Oregon State Legislature.

• The deadly infection that has been decimating bat populations in New York and New England for the past couple of years has spread into caves in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia.  Bats are important pollinators and play a vital role in pest control.

• In good wildlife news: the City of Vancouver, BC has embarked on a project aimed at restoring the urban bee population, and Pacific herring are once again spawning in a once-toxic British Columbia creek.

• Yes, Virginia, Utah's odd liquor laws are finally changing!  A nice piece on home brewing from Ed Quillen...

• After a conference in Germany last month, an international consortium of industry, academic and government scientists will soon come out strongly against the FDA's assertion that the dangerous industrial chemical bisphenol a is "safe".

• If you're near Flemington, NJ on Saturday April 18th - stop by one of my old favorite market / delis, and celebrate Earth Day and Basil Bandwagon Natural Market's 16th anniversary with "Your Local Earth Fair'' from 10 am to 4 pm.  There will also be a pledge challenge in support of the fantastic Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance.

Urban Beekeeping

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Apr 02, 2009 at 15:02:50 PM PDT

"beekeeping backwards" -- working with nature and not thinking that keeping is just about money and honey.

To illustrate that, the article quotes a couple who raises bees:

Russell Bates and Amy Seidenwurm, a married couple living in Silver Lake, are new keepers...

"At first, we thought: 'We're gonna get honey! We're gonna get honey!' " Bates said. But now the couple are excited about the bees themselves.

"We have a lot of affection for our bees. They're like our 50,000 pets," Seidenwurm said.

They even describe an urban beekeeper who does house calls to rescue bees and give them happy new homes. And it makes a rather simple case that Colony Collapse Disorder is no mystery at all. When your #1 purpose is money and honey and you forget about the bees, no wonder they are dying - whether it's pesticides, crappy food, trekking all over the country each year with no opportunity to adapt to local seasons, etc.

Apparently the article was so popular that the LA Times had to follow it up with a blog post with instructions on how to be a beekeeper.

My Garden, A Picture Diary with Food News

by: Curtis Abbey

Tue Mar 24, 2009 at 11:08:26 AM PDT

fullsize
This is my newest addition, it's an avocado tree. I brought a Mexicola variety down from Chico about five years ago. But the gophers ate the roots. This is a typical Haas avocado tree.
Follow me below the fold, and I'll show you how my garden has been doing.

Monday Evening Sampler Platter

by: JayinPortland

Mon Mar 23, 2009 at 16:00:00 PM PDT

• A new restaurant near the University of Texas at Arlington, which uses locally grown, organic ingredients as much as possible, has a no-set-price policy, and asks customers to discreetly pay (in an envelope) afterwards for what they thought the meal was worth.  The idea is based upon an existing Salt Lake City non-profit community kitchen's model.  Can it work for a commercial establishment?  So far, the restaurant is coming up just short, although it's only two months old and the business itself is always a rough one.

• The City of Berkeley, CA may soon transform all of its parks and open spaces into habitats for bees, in an effort to reverse the recent global decline of pollinators.

• If you're in Kansas, you can vote for the best food in the state from now until March 31.  Unfortunately, restaurants must be at least a decade old in order to be considered, so that rules out Lawrence's Local Burger for at least the next 7 years.  I'm sure there's something else worth considering in Lawrence, though...

• USDA will update its Plant Hardiness Zone Map later this year, for the first time since 1990, to reflect the climate-change induced shifts of planting zones northward.

More below the fold...

Honey and Bee Sampler Platter

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Mar 03, 2009 at 16:54:01 PM PST

• From the USDA: In 2008, honey production was up 8 percent over 2007 (PDF). You might wonder how this can be if we are suffering from CCD - colony collapse disorder. Well, there are 6 percent less colonies in 2008 than in 2007 BUT each one produced more honey by an average of 15 percent. And despite the increase in supply, the price went up too (to a record high), by 31 percent over 2007.

• About that Colony Collapse Disorder, here's a great piece on honeybees under attack on all fronts. Apparently even though France banned the suspected cause of CCD, neonicotinoid insecticides, French bees are still dying! Another possible cause is the varroa mite, which has spread from Siberia around the world (except Australia).