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Less milkweed due to herbicide likely contributed to early monarch butterfly declines, study finds
[Monarch butterfly] numbers ... are shrinking. New research at Michigan State University, published in the current issue of the journal ...
Genetic Literacy Project’s Top 6 Stories for the Week – May 22, 2017
Activists claim that without long-term studies, GMOs cannot be considered safe: What does science say? | Jon Entine Colon cancer rates spiking ...
10 years after Colony Collapse Disorder scare, what have we learned about the plight of bees?
Managed honey bees are afflicted by a range of pests, viruses and predators--the worst being the Varroa mite--that have been ...
UK’s Labour Party ‘pledges to ban’ neonicotinoid insecticides if it takes power
Neonicotinoid seed treatments will be banned if Labour forms the next government, according to a leaked draft of the party’s ...
European Commission: Scientists find neonicotinoids don’t harm bees, restrictions hurt farmers—but support permanent ban
The EU's Joint Research Center found that the temporary ban on neonics did not help bees and hurt farmers' ability ...
Viewpoint: Pesticide regulation in the European Union: The worst has become the norm
This article originally appeared at Forbes and has been republished here with permission of the author. TWEET THIS The kicker ...
Federal judge rules EPA did not consider potential impact of neonicotinoids on insects besides bees
A Minnesota beekeeper has won a round against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a protracted lawsuit over a ...
Varroa mites—‘leading culprit’ of honey bee losses—hitchhike to nearby hives to spread disease
As the managed honey bee industry continues to grapple with significant annual colony losses, the Varroa destructor mite is emerging ...
How a permanent ban on neonicotinoid insecticides would impact UK farmers
The world’s most widely used insecticides could be banned for use on all field crops [in 2017], if proposals are ...
Do farming and chemicals hurt overall honey bee health? Much the opposite, concludes independent study
While recent media reports have condemned a commonly used agricultural pesticide as detrimental to honey bee health, scientists with the ...
Neonicotinoid insecticide may reduce wild bumblebee queens’ egg development, lab study finds
Use of a common pesticide in spring could have an impact on wild bumblebees by interfering with their life cycle, ...
UK government advisors: Farmers’ emergency application for neonicotinoid insecticide use should be refused
The National Farming Union’s (NFU) application for an emergency authorisation for neonicotinoid seed treatments is not looking hopeful as Government ...
Neonicotinoid ban cost UK farmers $23.7 million in 2016, while replacement pesticide use soared
The full cost to farmers of the neonicotinoid ban in 2016 was £18.4 million ($23.7) and resulted in almost 28,800 ...
Largest threat to honey bees in Canada? Bears
Contrary to what some headlines and marketing campaigns would lead us to believe, honey bee numbers in Canada are at ...
Genetic Literacy Project’s Top 6 Stories for the Week – May 1, 2017
How US NGOs are exploiting Europe’s precautionary chemophobia to ban glyphosate and GMOs | David Zaruk Can epigenetics help fuel personalized ...
Are neonicotinoid insecticide seed treatments endangering wild bees?
Environmentalists often blame neonicotinoid insecticides for the plight of wild bee species. But the science doesn't support this hypothesis, and ...
Wide range, high levels of pesticides found in apple orchard honeybee colonies
Honeybees - employed to pollinate crops during the blooming season - encounter danger due to lingering and wandering pesticides, according ...
How US NGOs are exploiting Europe’s precautionary chemophobia to ban glyphosate and GMOs
Environmental NGOs have a harder time influencing the evidence-based US regulatory system, so they're taking the fight to Europe — ...
‘Wouldn’t help much’: What would a ban on neonicotinoid insecticides do for bee health?
“Everyone knows insecticides can kill bees,” says honeybee biologist Francis Ratnieks at the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK. “The ...
Epigenetics Around the Web: Evolution of instincts — How ‘real’ is behavioral plasticity?
A researcher's decision to broadcast his controversial hypothesis about the evolution of instincts is irresponsible, and a study throws cold ...
Genetic Literacy Project’s Top 6 Stories for the Week – April 24, 2017
GMO corn that resists cancer-causing aflatoxin showcases biotech’s life-saving potential | Steve Savage Behold the octopus: Problem solver, tool user and now, ...
Bee experts say ditch Cheerios’ wildflower seeds, plant native ones to fight pollinator decline
[Editor's note: Jenna Gallegos is a 5th year plant biology PhD student at the University of California, Davis.] Honeybees are ...
Boulder County, Colorado to phase out GMO crops and neonicotinoid insecticides
Boulder County commissioners voted 2-1 on Thursday [April 13, 2017] to approve the latest version of their plan for phasing ...
Neonicotinoid fiasco: How American NGOs turn Europe against science, push EU towards insecticide ban
The current EU ban on neonics has been disastrously counterproductive, resulting in an increased use of more damaging pesticides, mainly ...
Urban ‘treatment-free’ beekeeping leads to explosion in killer Varroa mites
[Editor's note: Toni Burnham runs one of 10 hives at the National Arboretum in Washington, DC.] In this season of vitriol ...
Biotech and non-GMO crops may need less separation than believed to prevent ‘contamination’
“Trying to figure out how far GM pollen will travel is really difficult,” says study co-author Rebecca Tyson, associate professor ...
Hobbyist beekeeping practices and rejection of chemical treatments major driver of bee-killing Varroa mites and disease
Hobby beekeeping is very common. A European Bee Health Report found that in many countries, the majority of beekeepers pursue the activity ...
Will rusty patched bumble bee’s endangered listing become a legal weapon for anti-development activists?
[Editor's note: Paul Driessen is a policy adviser for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow.] Trump’s Interior Department opened a ...