Radiation a viable alternative to pesticides?

Posted by Gavin on November 30, 2009 in Environment, Farming

Scientists from the IAEA and the UN´s Food and Agriculture Organisation are working on a project to control agricultural pests using the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), which uses radiation to sterilise pests, as reported by the Nuclear Power Industry News Blog.

Focusing on the Olive Fruit Fly (Bactrocera oleae) a project is underway to investigate the success of using nuclear technologies to render male flies sterile through exposure to radiation. Radiated male flies are released into the wild, theoretically reducing the number of successfully fertilised fly eggs.

This is a form of pest control known as Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), which also includes the production of genetically modified insects.

It would be interesting to compare the efficiency and environmental impacts of releasing sterile radiated pests for crop protection and the use of pesticides with active ingredients such as endocrine disruptors.

PesticideInformation will follow developments. If you have an opinion on this, or would like to share a useful link, please leave us a comment below…

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More on Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) from around the web

Posted by Gavin on November 18, 2009 in Environment, Farming, Food & health, Global issues

Another round-up of online press and research covering the debate on Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the name given to an apparent global decline in the pollinating bee population. Comments and link contributions are welcomed - look for the ‘Comments’ link at the base of this post.

Press

Trying to Diagnose the Disappearing Bees (Voice of Sandiego.org)
10 Possible Causes of Colony Collapse Disorder (About.com)
Scientists Untangle Multiple Causes of Bee Colony Disorder (Environment News Service)
Habitat loss and disease are bees’ bane, not pesticides (Farmers Weekly Interactive)
Pesticides blamed for killing bees (Telegraph.co.uk)
Global Honey Bee Population Increasing, Despite Local Losses (ecoworldly.com)

Mysterious decline in bee population creates worry (WorldFocusOnline via YouTube)

General reference

Colony collapse disorder (Wikipedia)
Colony collapse disorder - Possible causes and research (Wikipedia)

Research

Colony Collapse Disorder: A Descriptive Study
(van Engelsdorp et al. plosone.org)
Honeybee colony collapse due to Nosema ceranae in professional apiaries
(Higes et al. Environmental Microbiology Reports, via Wiley InterScience)
Distribution and decline of British bumblebees
(Williams / Natural History Museum UK)

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Recent press on pesticides

Posted by Phil on November 06, 2009 in Uncategorized

Some articles on pesticides and related topics from the last two weeks. Feel free to recommend more articles by selecting “Recommend a page or site” above or access a more comprehensive list of articles by using the Delicious cloud in the right-hand column.

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Recent articles on pesticides and related topics

Posted by Phil on September 25, 2009 in Uncategorized

Please find below some articles on pesticides and related topics from the last two weeks. Do feel free to recommend more articles by selecting “Recommend a page or site” above or access a more comprehensive list of articles by using the Delicious cloud in the right-hand colmumn.

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