Bright Wings

Hungry for change - Food, Inc

Those who were disturbed by the film Food, Inc - recently screened in Masterton - might like to follow their blog - Hungry for change.

You can also follow them on Twitter at @takepart 

Science needs to focus on science, not form filling

Thirty years ago science in New Zealand was a free-range activity: research institutes - mostly under the umbrella of the DSIR (Department of Scientific and Industrial Research) - were given on-going, assured funding streams and pretty much left to get on with whatever research they wanted.

Out of that free-range approach came many of our great scientific discoveries, especially in agriculture.

It was taken as a given that scientists needed to have room to explore any avenue they saw fit to get good results.

The reforms of the 1990s put paid to that. The DSIR was broken up into crown research institutes and scientists since then - the ones that are left - have spent much of their time writing business cases and begging for funds.  Many scientists - and much research - has moved offshore. 

According to Unlimited  science regulatory controls are about to be relaxed. The appointment of Sir Peter Gluckman as Chief Science Advisor to Prime Minister John Key has put science and research up on the radar once more.

According to Sir Peter

“We seem to have forgotten that science and technology, particularly in the agricultural sector, played an essential role in getting this nation to the social and economic pinnacle it once reached, and in my view is absolutely central to us again moving ahead,” the Liggins Institute professor says.

We’ve got “ambivalent” about science, he says. There’s an “unhealthy level of scepticism” about science and scientists, the science system has become more focused on survival than what it can contribute and scientists have “worn out their credibility” with pleas for more public money without making a real case for the investment.

“Science is at the heart of almost everything this country must do to meet the collective ambition of virtually every New Zealander — a healthy, socially connected community in a good environment enjoying a very high standard of living.

“I cannot think of one challenge we face as a planet, as a society, as individuals in which science is not part of the solution.”

Dr William Rolleston, NZBio’s ‘distinguished biotechnologist’ of 2009, Life Sciences Network chair, and a Foundation for Research Science and Technology board member, says biotechnology in this country is “a great story waiting to be told”.

“Onerous and unnecessary regulation distracts our scientists with compliance and stifles creative thought. This is a silent crisis in our country.”

Anthony Scott, CEO of Science New Zealand, says big changes are needed:

“Investment is necessary but not sufficient. We have to do other things, too, like improve and simplify the system, change the culture, clear away the thicket of regulations.”

And grow more scientists:

New Zealand needs 40,000 full time science workers to catch up with Australia’s GDP, Scott’s group estimates. That is five times more than we have now.

Despite formidable funding challenges and a difficult culture, Science New Zealand's website shows there is some great research going on in New Zealand.

Film exposes dark side of American food industry

Food, Inc. exposes America's industrialized food system and its effect on our environment, health, economy and workers' rights.

The Wairarapa Farmers' Market is holding a premiere of this excellent movie on Wednesday, 14 October, at 8.30 pm.

If you care about the environment, about what you eat, the epidemic of junk food, diabetes and obesity, factory farming, the global food crisis and genetic engineering, you must see this film.

Further background material on the on the issues covered in the film

Earlier post on Wairarapa Farmers' Market.

Wairarapa Farmers' Market in action

Some of the highlights from last Saturday's Wairarapa Farmers' Market

The market is a happy bustle of shoppers looking for interesting, locally grown vegetables and produce.

Gay Farmer's fish cakes are absolutely delicious.  Her fish comes from the nextdoor stall, Splashzone, who supply excellent fresh fish, caught off the Wairarapa coast

Artisanal breads - including sourdough - are popular

Blackcurrant syrups

Bee colony collapse disorder poses worldwide threat to food production

Widespread bee deaths are the focus of attention at Apimonda, the World Apiculture Congress, according to a report on Seed Daily

Across parts of North America and swathes of Europe, but also now in patches of Asia, bee hives have been struck by a mysterious ailment dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

At normal times, bee communities naturally lose around five percent of their numbers. But in CCD, a third, a half -- sometimes even 90 percent -- of the insects can be wiped out. Eerily, no bodies are typically found near the hive.

The phenomenon is alarming for beekeepers, many of them small-scale operators or hobbyists, who lack the clout and subsidy support that other agricultural sectors enjoy.

But food experts and environmental scientists are also worried. The Western honey bee is a vital link in the food chain, fertilising nearly 100 kinds of crops.

Around a third of the food on our plates gets there thanks to Apis mellifera. By some estimates, this unseen, unsung work is worth more than 200 billion dollars a year, often through hives that are trucked to monoculture farms to do pollinating magic at specific times of the year.

Wild bees, bats and other pollinators are simply not numerous enough to do the trick. So when honey bees and beekeeping are devastated, the impact for large-scale agricultural production is clear.

"In China, fruit farmers in Sichuan are having to hand-pollinate their orchards," says Henri Clement, president of the National Union of French Beekeepers.

Despite intense investigation, the cause of CCD remains unclear. Mooted culprits include a blood-sucking mite called varroa; a single-celled fungal parasite called Nosema cerenae that causes bee dystentery and pesticides used in fields that are pollinated by bees.

Fingers in Europe have also pointed at an intruder, the Asian hornet, Vespa velutina, which lurks near hives and captures the poor honey bee in flight and devours it.

Other proferred explanations include poor nutrition -- that mega farms, stripped of hedgerows and wild flowers, and spreading suburbs, with their concrete, roads and lawns, are depriving bees of a decent diet.

Despite the many suspects, there has been no conviction, or at least none that singly explains why bee colonies should be collapsing in so many parts of the world at the same time. Climate change may also be an aggravating factor, say some experts.

One possibility is that CCD is a complex web of factors. Last month, entomologists at the University of Illinois reported that bees in CCD-ravaged hives had high levels of damaged ribosomes -- a key protein-making machine within cells. Their ribosomes appear to have been hijacked by so-called picornia-like viruses, which seize control of cellular machinary to make it crank out only viral components. Picorna-like viruses are carried by the varroa mite, which has spread by being accidentally introduced through commercial transactions of bees. "If your ribosome is compromised, then you can't respond to pesticides, you can't respond to fungal infections or bacteria or inadequate nutrition because the ribosome is central to the survival organism," said researcher May Berenbaum.

Meanwhile, researchers at Britain's University of Leeds have begun a three-year study to see if the bees' decline could have an earthier cause -- a lack of variety in the sex life of queen bees. They are investigating whether a decreasing number of potential mates means colonies are becoming less genetically diverse and more prone to disease.

Cellphone towers killing bees

Those of us who live in rural New Zealand know only too well the importance of the honey bee to horticulture, particularly the fruit industry.

InfoNews carries a disturbing report of research that shows that cell phone towers are killing bees because the electromagnetic waves interfere with the bees' ability to navigate back to their hives.

Last week I wrote a post about a bee swarm in my garden. A Greytown resident commented that she had seen very few bees. Greytown is well-served with cellphone coverage: I wonder if there is a connection between that and the absence of bees.