Colony Collapse Disorder, don’t get excited no cure yet

After watching a great BBC4 doc about CCD earlier this week all about the demise of the honey bee I have been worrying about it quite a lot.  The general problem seems to be a multitude of different issues – namely pests and pesticides that are killing off the bees.  A great many minds here and in the US have been working on it and there doesn’t seem to be one common problem.   The final consensus is that the bee is the ‘canary in the coalmine’ – our early warning sign about environmental destruction and intensive agriculture.  A scary thought.

And then only yesterday my husband said, oh its ok they’ve found a cure for that and sent me this link:

Cure for CCD

It all seemed a little bit too easy – we found a parasite that no-one else could find and fixed it.  Sadly it doesn’t seem to be a miracle cure.  In the US studies they had also found this parasite but it was by no means common to all incidents of CCD so that really appears to be it.  They’ve found a fix for one of the many many problems.

No cure for CCD

Plastic bags vs cling film

We’re all getting very careful with our plastic bags.  In the supermarket the other day, I noticed that at least 50% of shoppers had re-usable bags with them.  I always re-use and recycle any that I get, just like most of my friends.  But what do I do about cling film? Nothing.  At all.  And I use it a lot.  One roll every 3-4 weeks I think.  And obviously I just throw it away.  Its so small I hardly even notice it.

But cling film actually makes up a bigger percentage of our household waste than plastic bags (4.1% as opposed to 3.2% according to a survey by South Glos County council).   I imagine too that those non-recyclable plastic trays (in our area anyway) that contain anything from fruit to ready meals make up a far higher percentage of our plastic waste.

So why are we so obsessed with plastic bags?  I think the amount of press plastic bags has got over the last few years has been huge.  And this is having an effect.  But only on such a small aspect of our behaviour that it is now negligible.  But we feel we have been green by doing it.  Hence we allow ourselves to carry on doing other things which are far worse for the environment because we feel that we have already ‘checked that box’.

http://tinyurl.com/bessny (Monbiot)

http://tinyurl.com/clmpjz (PDF by South Glos County council)

A farm for the future

I have recently watched and been inspired by this film by Rebecca Hosking:

http://tinyurl.com/cpfye2

It is a really fascinating film about the future of farming in Britain. Rebecca has inherited a working farm but is struggling against some great obstacles as she tries to make it future proof.
The problem she highlights is absolutely huge. Absolutely all farming in the western world is totally and completely dependent on fossil fuels. Be that tractors for harvesting or the fertilizers that are derived from oil. What do we do as the fossil fuels that we depend on start to dwindle? It is inevitable that food costs will go up and possible that agriculture will have to change completely beyond recognition if we are not to starve.

From reading my description, this film sounds heavy, depressing and scare-mongering. But yet it is none of those things. Instead it is inspiring.

Rebecca chooses to explore new methods of farming and see how possible they are in a real setting on her farm. She investigates using different grasses for cattle that would enable them to stay outside all year: cutting out the need for a hay harvest. And then she talks about permaculture. I had no idea what permaculture was until I saw this. It is, if you didn’t already know, farming or gardening within a natural setting such as woodland.

Things that I found out from this film:

1. farming is the second biggest user of fossil fuels after transport

2. new methods such as GM are as dependent on fossil fuels as the old

3. organic food uses less fossil fuels as it is does not use fertilizers derived from oil, but is equally dependent on heavy machinery

4. permaculture can have a higher yield per acre than conventional farming

5. we’re screwed for cereal crops as you can’t grow them except in vast fields.  So potatoes are the future i’m afraid.

6. that apparently one day I should be retiring to a little wood somewhere.