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the_mullet_fondler251 karma

As a fruit farmer, thank you for taking a holistic approach to bee awareness. Too many people just beat on pesticides, when they are really only responsible for acute damage and evidence clearly shows a multiplicity of factors in large scale, long term bee collapse.

Treating our bees like cattle, moving them from one massive monoculture to another hundreds of miles away days later. Many deeper issues I am glad you're going over here.

the_mullet_fondler82 karma

I'll be honest - we run a conventional farm. We just do all we can to mitigate damage and promote sustainable agriculture.

Everything is small, 1-2 acre plots, rotated as much as possible for perrenial crops such as ours. Minimal pest control (twice a year). This is easy for a <50 acre operation - you can scout the whole thing in a couple hours a week. Never spray with blooms or fruit on the vine.

We have a few hives, and are here for 4 crops over the season. We overwinter at our beekeeper's warehouse a few miles away (we tried outdoors and they didn't fare well, just too cold here in Ontario). We plant lots of native flowers on headlands to keep them happy in the off season. Bumblebees love blueberries... without them, honestly, we wouldn't have blueberries. Wish people would realize that.

It's easy for us, but what can we do? Monoculture isn't going away. It's expensive to grow like we do - I can't ask those who have to choose between rent and food for their families as it is to support the several times higher cost of growing food on a small scale like we do. I hate it more than anyone, but our economy is hooked on cheap food. It's easy for the rich yuppie to say, 'oh, I bought my $10 loaf of heirloom grain bread grown sustainably, everyone should do it too'. But what about those who can't afford to buy any at all, as it is?

We can just change our small corner, and hope to hand it to someone in years to come the same way we found it.

the_mullet_fondler42 karma

I'm a PhD in nanoscience - mostly working on analytical development for biomaterials and work closely with colleagues in microfluidics and microfabrication.

I remember in 2014 or so having a happy hour discussion about Theranos and our consensus was that it was assuredly vaporware... major technical hurdles had not even been surpassed by us yet, let alone robust enough to be commercialized into a GMP instrument that would satisfy the FDA.

We were all left shaking our heads as to why their VC's didn't do some simple due diligence... just a few phone calls to some academic engineering experts would have vetoed this immediately.

the_mullet_fondler10 karma

Who are the easiest people to track? In other words, how can I make your job more difficult?

the_mullet_fondler2 karma

Thank you for the reference, I will look into it. I'm a bigger believer in permaculture as a whole than what organic agriculture has become (a total farce). We grow pumpkins around sweet corn, as an example, to keep pests and rodents out.

I stress the economics again here, mostly because it's been on my mind a lot lately, and evidence reiterates my point. There is, on average, 1/3 the yield from organic crops, with questionable benefits on par with homeopathic medicine. See imidan vs pyrethrin for a case of it may being even worse for the environment. I'm not convinced, and neither are many of my peers.

In addition, that's land that could be used for conventional farming, now with decreased yield and less supply in the commodity pool, raising prices for all consumers, not just those buying organic.

I think the second tenet of permaculture is access to those resources for people, and it's something that needs to be in the back of everyone's head as we have these conversations.

Margin allows business owners room for innovation, that's a pan-industry truth. But we aren't talking about smartphones or furniture design. This is a fundamental requirement for existence. Accessibility is always on my mind.

Edit: I want to add to this. I'm an evidence-based environmentalist at heart, but a scientist by training. I look at the data, and I know we are shooting ourselves in the foot. The big chem companies know it, the food scientists know it, even some of the farmers know it. What we're doing can't last forever and it makes me sick that we aren't doing more. GMO's are a potential faster route to the solution but no one is buying. All I'm saying is the human factor makes it much more complicated.