This The Guardian article discusses how Trump’s EPA is allowing a bee-killing pesticide to be used. EPA said studies it considered, most of which were sponsored by industry, found sulfoxaflor isn’t dangerous for the pollinators.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says the studies it considered, most of which were sponsored by industry, found the chemical is not dangerous for the pollinators responsible for $15bn in US crops each year. Beekeepers in the US lost 40% of their colonies in the past year, raising concerns about the effects of pesticides.
An Environmental Health News article discusses a study that shows that monoculture farming is not good for bees. Farmers around the world are increasingly relying on pollinators—but not providing the crop diversity bees and other insects need to thrive.
The research, published today in Global Change Biology and led by Marcelo Aizen at the Universidad Nacional del Comahue in Argentina, sounds what the authors describe as an “alarm call” on the mismatch between crop diversity and pollinator demand, and states that there could be environmental, social, and economic consequences from planting just one type of crop in an area, a practice called monoculture farming.