Scientists untangle multiple causes of bee colony disorder
Environmental News Service - 7/29/2009. Pullman, Washington: A microscopic pathogen and pesticides embedded in old honeycombs are two major contributors to the bee disease known as colony collapse disorder, which has wiped out thousands of beehives throughout the United States and Europe over the past three years, new research at Washington State University has confirmed. |
|
Maine’s wild blueberry crop imperiled by leaf spot fungus
Bangor Daily News - 7/28/2009. By Sharon Kiley Mack – Trescott, Maine: With fog swirling around her, Seanna Annis, a blueberry pathologist at the University of Maine, scanned the low bushes along a gravel road through the blueberry fields Sunday evening. She stopped, brought out a magnifying lens and pinched a leaf from a plant. “Yes,” she said, seconds after examining the spotted leaf. With that, the farmer knew his field was lost. Even though the plants are lush with fat blueberries just days from harvest, they must be burned. |
|
Northeast Tomatoes Lost, and Potatoes May Follow
New York Times - 7/28/2009. By Julia Moskin – Ripe local tomatoes, keenly anticipated by growers and cooks, will be missing from many markets, farm stands and farm shares this summer. Although there are no official estimates yet on crop loss, a severe outbreak of late blight fungus in tomatoes, first noted in June, is sweeping through farms and gardens in the Northeast. John Mishanec, an educator with the integrated pest management program at Cornell University, compared the highly contagious and incurable disease to a “nuclear explosion” in the region’s tomato crop. “And unless the weather changes, it’s going to get worse,” he said. |
|
Nature is the cure at County farm
Bangor Daily News - 7/27/2009. By Julia Bayly – WADE, Maine: Natalia Bragg has six generations’ worth of herbal and natural healing lore burning a hole in her soul to get out. She shared a fraction of that knowledge Sunday with members of the public who visited her Knot-II-Bragg Farm as part of Maine’s Open Farm Day. “We farmers are disappearing,” Bragg said during a break in a tour of her lush herb gardens. “To keep us from disappearing we need to become evident.” |
|