Grains growing again in Willamette Valley

A beautiful day in the Valley today, especially in Shedd, where the 2013 "Stock Your Pantry" event brought many local farmers together to sell direct to happy people like us, who took home a wonderful box of Fuji apples, 20# of terrific organic rolled oats from Greenwillow Grains, 5# of locally grown wild rice from Running Wild, and two giant blocks of the always-amazing and delicious cheese from Full Circle Creamery (nice story about them here).

We are still fully stocked up on wheat berries and flour, so we didn't need to buy anything from this fascinating farm family below, a nice lady and her husband, who was a professor of ecology and natural resources who retired from Rice University and returned to farm on 12 lovely acres in Albany.  We're eager to try their stuff as soon as we next need flour.  Note their great vision for their small holding:  To participate in the 21st-Century reinvention of small-scale agriculture, building on the perspective (and limitations) of our age and experience to create a sustainable subsistence farm.

Affordable Permaculture Class in Salem! Starts 10-22-13

Brighid's Circle, LLC is offering a Permaculture Design Certification Course, right here in Salem. See details below-

A Permaculture Design Course teaches how to design ethical, self sustaining food growing, water, housing, and energy systems of any size. Create a design to feed your family or work as a consultant for others.

Full Permaculture Design Certificate Course offered for donation of only $10-$20 per class.

1 class per week. 24 weeks. Call for more information or to reserve your seat, 503-449-8077.

Presented by Brighid's Circle, LLC.

Instructor L. June studied permaculture with world renowned permaculture designer & instructor, Geoff Lawton, of PRI, Australia.

Permaculture is "Earth Care, People Care, and Return of Surplus," creating systems that are not only sustainable, but also enriching to the soil and all life.


 Classes begin:
In Salem, October 22nd, 6:30-9:30pm, @ 5090 Center Street NE, Salem, OR 97317

For more info visit:
facebook.com/brighidscircle
brighidscircle.wordpress.com

At Brighid's Circle we believe people need permaculture, not just to create a sustainable future, but also to feed our families and communities now. We offer permaculture design courses on a sliding scale at a fraction of the usual course prices.

Oct. 9, 7 p.m. @ Salem Public Library's Loucks Auditorium: FOOD CORPS

October's Lecture:
FoodCorps with
Curt Ellis, Co-Founder and Executive Director

Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Salem Public Library Loucks Hall
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

When Curt Ellis left Iowa after creating the Peabody-winning documentary King Corn, something didn't sit right––and it wasn't just the home-brewed high-fructose corn syrup he'd consumed. Join Curt for a lively multimedia presentation as he shares the journey that led him to leave filmmaking and launch FoodCorps: a nationwide "Peace Corps" for healthy and sustainable school food.

A little more about FoodCorps:

Mission:  Through the hands and minds of emerging leaders, FoodCorps strives to give all youth an enduring relationship with healthy food.

We envision a nation of well-nourished children: children who know what healthy food is, how it grows and where it comes from, and who have access to it every day. These children, having grown up in a healthy food environment will learn better, live longer and liberate their generation from diet-related disease.

Join us after the lecture to meet Curt and enjoy some healthy refreshments provided by LifeSource Natural Foods.

* The Lecture Series is free of charge to those attending, however, if you like what you hear, we encourage you to contribute a $5 donation so that we might continue to offer these top-notch presenters on vital issues to our community and world.

Free chances to learn both vital & fascinating things

A local massage instructor has broadened her range to add teaching others how to grow food for the future; she has licensed some fascinating films and will be showing them in both Salem and Oregon City to kick off a series of classes (offered on a sliding scale) on the most vital topic of all:  how we can grow more food with fewer inputs.

Urgent: Tell your Reps to Protect the Valley by Supporting HB 2427

Pretty but deadly to organic farmers

This is an urgent call for YOU to tell your representatives that they need to stand up to help protect the unique, world-class Willamette Valley organic seed industry from the insanity of subsidized canola crops, which will destroy the valley as an organic seed nursery. 

The Oregon Ag. Dept. proposes to sacrifice the livelihood of small farmers and nursery growers, just to allow Big Ag to grow genetically modified canola so that they can suck up big subsidy dollars for canola as "biofuel."  

Despite the evidence of genetic drift every time genetically altered crops are planted out, Oregon Ag is pushing this scheme.

The worst part is that this is an irrevocable blunder.  Once the gene modified crops are introduced, we will get gene drift, as canola is promiscuous, and all the brassica seed growers up and down the valley will be destroyed, as they will lose the organic certification for their seeds.  Then the big growers will benefit from destroying their neighbors' livelihoods.

If we let canola into the valley, we're trading top-dollar, high value, unique nursery crops for a cheap commodity canola that can be grown anywhere and that we don't need grown anywhere.

Call your state reps and senators and tell them to PROTECT THE VALLEY, SUPPORT HB 2427

Esp. if you live in Brian Clem's district, call!  He sits on (and is a former chair of House Ag Committee), and he's taking the position that it's up to Oregon Ag. to decide this -- but Oregon Ag Department follows the money, not the best interests of the people of the Willamette Valley.

We are in a critical juncture in our fight to protect our seed & vegetable growers in the Willamette Valley from the threats posed by canola, and we need you to weigh in with the Oregon Legislature.

The canola issue is coming up before the legislature in the form of HB 2427 and we have a chance to restore the protections that were in place until very recently. While we and our allied farmers won a lawsuit against ODA’s canola rule last fall, they have gone ahead despite the opposition, with a new rule that opens up half the Willamette Valley to the dangers of canola, and the Legislature is now our best hope to win this fight.

In the coming days, the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee is expected to take up a debate on HB 2427 and canola. Many legislators are still ‘on the fence’ on this issue and a call and email from you WILL help make a difference at this critical time. Many legislators are simply inclined to listen to ODA because they view them as the "experts" on agriculture, but ODA has ignored important research on the impacts of canola in the Willamette Valley, and instead has yielded to pressure from the biofuel industry and a handful of growers who would benefit from introducing this controversial crop.


At a February 14 Senate hearing, ODA Director Katy Coba told the committee that "it's fair to say in other parts of the world specialty seed industries have been destroyed by large amounts of canola. And that there is a level of canola where you do jeopardize specialty seeds but we just don't know what that acreage is." Our question is, if this is the case, why is the ODA gambling with the future of the Willamette Valley and our food supply? Canola poses major threats to specialty vegetable seed, fresh market vegetable, and clover producers by incubating several devastating pest and diseases and physically contaminating seed lots. These industries together are worth over $100 million annually in agricultural production, and sustain many farm families.

Further, the vast majority of canola is genetically engineered to be herbicide resistant, which adds an additional threat to our organic vegetable and seed industries, as cross-pollination with canola contaminates organic crops, eliminating their value, and cross-pollination between canola and certain weeds can lead to ‘super-weeds’ that will require more aggressive herbicides to control.


Your State Representative needs to hear from you as a constituent to give them the push they need to do the right thing as HB 2427 is debated and comes up for a vote.


Not sure who your legislator is? Use this link: http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/


To send your legislator an email use this link: http://www.leg.state.or.us/writelegsltr/

Here is a sample script. Please add any personal perspectives on this issue and what it means to you as a farmer or eater:

Dear Rep. _____

My name is ___.  As your constituent, I strongly urge you to support HB 2427. The Willamette Valley is the heart of Oregonʼs lucrative specialty seed, fresh market vegetable, clover, and organic industries.  It is recognized for having unique a climate and the perfect conditions which have allowed these industries to thrive.

The Willamette Valley should be preserved and protected for these special purposes from the pest, weed and cross-contamination risks from canola. Allowing canola production in the Willamette Valley protected district would undermine this world-renowned resource, and the Valley’s economically important vegetable seed production industry, and large network of vegetable growers as well as our local food supply.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture made a major mistake by abruptly changing the rules to open up significant portions of the Willamette Valley to canola earlier this year, abandoning its long-standing and science-backed protections that prevented canola from contaminating the Willamette Valley.

Canola can be, and is, grown in most of the rest of Oregon.  Let’s keep it that way. 
Please support HB 2427 and restore protections from canola to our one-of-a-kind Willamette Valley.

Sincerely,

Thank you for your continued efforts in this fight!

An important reminder of something we must never forget (aka why we must stop sprawl)

Having spent a few hours watching a truly bizarre performance where the supposedly neutral City of Salem Director of Public Works all but demanded that the City Council endorse the absurd $800 million "Bridgasaurus Boondogglus," it's good to remember why we must fight and defeat the Sprawl Lobby that's trying to line their pockets.

Bottom line:  Because we need to eat a lot more than we need more auto infrastructure. 

Council member Brad Nanke alluded to the hordes of people that are going to want to live in the Northwest because of the oncoming water shortages throughout much of the US.  Someone should remind Brad that people don't just need water, but also food, and that food comes from ag land -- and the Willamette Valley has some of the best in the world. 

If Salem has money to invest -- and it's not clear we have much -- then the last place to put it is into more facilities that are intended to serve and promote single-occupant car travel.  The best thing Salem can do with its money is invest in local resiliency, which starts with locally grown and raised food and fiber.  Kudos to Nanke for mentioning a basic, critical resource like water during a discussion of carburban infrastructure -- but food is just as important.

And, like the stickers say, NO FARMS, NO FOOD.

Click Photo to Get Your Sticker

Put your free No Farms No Food bumper sticker on your car, tractor, truck or your bulletin board at work. You can even distribute them at your local farmers market or county fair!

When you display your No Farms No Food bumper sticker, you're helping raise awareness about the importance of saving America's farmland and keeping family farmers on the land.
Get Your Free No Farms No Food Bumper Sticker today!
 

Why Save Farmland?

1 We have been losing more than 1 precious acre every minute.
2 Along with water and air, our fertile farmland is critical to sustaining life.
3 Farming employs nearly 16 million people, more than 9% of the labor force.
4 Well managed farmland provides clean water, air and wildlife habitat.

We live in a wonderful state for eaters

Oregon: Thanks to our land use laws and dedicated watchdogs
"No Farms No Food" should not be an issue

Spread it Around: Just Label It!

Free this Saturday: Get Vegucated at Salem Public Library!

Vegucated is an award-winning documentary that follows a bachelor, a single mother, and a college student who agree to adopt a vegan diet for six weeks. The film showcases the rapid and at times comedic journey towards creating a kinder, cleaner, greener world, one bite at a time.

Saturday, September 8, at 2:30 p.m.
Doors opening at 1:30 p.m. The audience is invited to stay after the film for an open question and answer session.

Salem Public Library’s Loucks Auditorium at 585 Liberty Street SE.

Event is free with seating available on a first-come, first-seated basis.

This event is sponsored by the Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary, a non-profit organization dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and placement of abused and neglected farm animals, which is located in Scio, Oregon.

• More information about Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary is available at www.lighthousefarmsanctuary.org or 503-394-4486.
  
  
• More information about the documentary Vegucated is available at www.getvegucated.com.

A worthy idea: FoodCorps: a Peace Corps for Child Nutrition in America

King Corn (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Oregon State Bar: Sustainable Futures Section Special Program –
National Leadership Series

FoodCorps – Connecting Children to Real Food

Tuesday, September 4, 2012, noon to 1:15

Curt Ellis, the co-creator of the documentary King Corn and co-founder of FoodCorps, will share his vision for FoodCorps as an antidote to the epidemic of childhood obesity and as an engine for supporting local food producers. A "Peace Corps for school food," FoodCorps is mobilizing a nationwide team of leaders to implement a three-ingredient recipe for kids in limited-resource communities: (1) delivering hands-on nutrition education, (2) building and tending school gardens, and (3) bringing high-quality local food into public school cafeterias.
Curt Ellis, Executive Director of New York and Portland-based FoodCorps, is a leading voice in America's sustainable food movement. Co-creator of the documentaries King Corn, winner of a Peabody Award, and The Greening of Southie, Curt and his longtime collaborator Ian Cheney received a coveted Heinz Award in 2010. At 31, Curt and Ian were the youngest people ever to receive this award.

The son of Stoel Rives lawyer Barnes Ellis, after graduation from Lakeridge High School in 1998, Curt found his passion for food and agriculture at The Mountain School and Yale. Upon graduation from Yale, he moved to Iowa to investigate the role of subsidized commodities in the American obesity epidemic. It was there that King Corn was conceived.

Date/Time: Tuesday, September 4, 2012, noon to 1:15 pm
Location: Standard Insurance Center Auditorium
900 SW Fifth Avenue, lower level, Portland

Cost: No cost for SFS members; $10 for others
RSVP to: maggie.vining@hklaw.com

True Dat. "Cow's milk is for suckling calves" -- Jack LaLanne

Interesting.

WEIRD: Oregon Ag Dept working to undermine Oregon Ag

The Willamette River Valley (Photo credit: Wikipedia)This is another example of how moneyed interests capture public agencies and bend them back and use them as weapons against the public interest instead of regulators on behalf of the public well-being.

Allowing genetically tampered crops loose in the Willamette Valley is unwise, unnecessary, and totally undesirable. There is no benefit to Oregonians from allowing the gene tampered foods to intermix in the Willamette Valley -- the only benefit is to the corporate interests who would be only too happy to despoil the Willamette Valley and destroy its status as a haven for organic producers.

The industrial "phood" that results from gene tampering is designed solely to allow corporate interests to capture the entire food supply and destroy peoples' ability to grow pure, real food.

Good afternoon ~

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has fast-tracked the approval of canola production in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. This would include Genetically Modified Canola.

This would mean that our crops that are related to canola (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussel sprouts, etc) would be at risk for cross pollination and contamination by GM canola.

Many gardeners rely on seed grown in the Willamette Valley for their home gardens.
Please read the letter below from the Seed Ambassadors and act now to express your thoughts on this issue.

Please comment by THIS FRIDAY to prevent the Oregon Department of Agriculture's temporary rule permitting GM canola and thus, bypassing the public comment period.

It is up to us to protect the genetics of our food.
Thanks!
Marisha

Hello Everyone!

We here at the Seed Ambassadors Project haven't sent out any e-mails in a while, but are compelled to do so today: There is an immediate threat to our food supply because the Oregon Department of Agriculture has fast- tracked the approval of canola (including GM canola) production here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.

As many of you may know the Willamette Valley is one of the top 5 places in the world for growing and supplying specialty seed and maintaining seed diversity. Seed grown here not only is sold by local Oregon companies, such as Adaptive Seeds, but is also bought by other seed companies such as Johnny's, Fedco, and lots of others both nationally and internationally. Basically, seed grown here supplies the world with food.

One of the specialty seeds that the Valley is perfect for is brassicas, which includes broccoli, cauliflower, arugula, rutabaga, turnip, radish, kale, cabbage, etc. Canola is also a brassica but spreads rampantly and cross pollinates with a lot of other brassicas with detrimental effects. Oregon State University has conducted research proving that canola will cross pollinate with many different crops including turnips, broccoli raab, some kales, rutabaga, and possibly radish and broccoli.

Meaning the presence of canola production in the Willamette Valley will definitely contaminate and destroy those other seed crops. Without doubt.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) has previously maintained a canola exclusion zone in the Valley. However, in the past few months there have been a series of meetings held behind closed doors to change this zone to allow canola (including genetically modified canola) to be grown in the valley unchecked and with disregard to existing seed pinning map isolation guidelines.

ODA only just released a press release on Friday, August 3rd saying they will grant a temporary rule to allow canola this Friday, August 10th.
By issuing a temporary rule the ODA is avoiding the requirement for public comment and therefore behaving unilaterally with only special interests in mind. Not only does this decision harm seed growers but GM canola cross pollination will also potentially threaten the livelihood of any of the certified organic growers in the area. There are good reasons why canola has been banned in the Willamette Valley by ODA up to this point, and pressure on ODA to lift these bans needs to be countered.

Please contact the ODA and Governor Kitzhaber yourself and make your voice heard! It does not matter if you are not an Oregon resident, this decision effects everyone in a huge way and they need to be reminded of that.

And spread the word!

ODA phone number: (503) 986-4552
ODA Director Coba: KCoba@oda.state.or.us

Governor Kitzhaber: (503) 378-4582 ; or email

Remember, we only have until this Friday, August 10th to change this decision!


Check out the following links for more information:

Friends of Family Farmers: Willamette Valley Immediately Threatened by Canola

2006 OSU Special Report on Canola Outcrossing Potential in the Willamette Valley

GMOs At The Door, Wild Garden Seeds, Frank Morton

Willamette Valley Farmers Continue the Canola Debate, OregonLive.com

Thanks for your time and help!

Sarah Kleeger
Andrew Still

Visit Beaver State Permaculture

Related articles

• the last thing we need: gmo canola oil in the willamette valley

Yay! Pop some corn in celebration

Department of Good Stuff
Web MD - Popcorn, already known to be a good source of fiber, has higher levels of healthy antioxidants than some fruits and vegetables, according to new research.

"Based on fiber, whole grains, and antioxidant levels, popcorn is the king of snack foods," says Joe Vinson, PhD, professor of chemistry at the University of Scranton. 

Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay

The losing game

The one thing we should NOT be doing is buidling more autosprawl . . .

NY Times's Frank Bruni:

 

 What if we have it backward? What if the 310-pound man trying to jam into the middle seat and the 225-pound woman breaking into a sweat only halfway up the stairs aren't the undisciplined miscreants of modern American life but the very emblems of it? 

 

What if fatness, even obesity, is less a lurking danger than a likely destiny, and the surprise isn't how many seriously overweight people are out there but how few? . . .

Following in the heavy footsteps of "The Omnivore's Dilemma," "The End of Overeating," "The End of Food" and much else, "The Weight of the Nation" makes an especially persuasive case that gluttony isn't Americans' problem. Agriculture and abundance are.

Over the last century, we became expert at the mass production of crops like corn, soybeans and wheat — a positive development, for the most part.

We also became expert at feedlots for livestock and at processing those crops into salty, sweet, fatty, cheap and addictive seductions. This has downsides.

Densely caloric and all too convenient food now envelops us, and many of us do what we're chromosomally hard-wired to, thanks to millenniums of feast-and-famine cycles. We devour it, creating plump savings accounts of excess energy, sometimes known as love handles, for an imagined future shortage that, in America today, doesn't come. . . .

John Hoffman, an executive producer of the documentary, told me: "Evolutionarily, there was no condition that existed when we were living with too much fat storage. We've only known a world of plenty for maybe 100 years. Our biological systems haven't adapted to it."

This is probably summed up best by Michael L. Power and Jay Schulkin in their book "The Evolution of Obesity." "We evolved on the savannahs of Africa," they write. "We now live in Candyland."

Our systems aren't just rigged to gorge. They're also rigged in many cases to rebound from weight loss and put pounds back on, as Tara Parker-Pope explained in a cover story for The Times's Sunday magazine last year. So we're fighting againstthat bit of nature, too. . . . 

 

 If we're going to wage a successful war against unhealthy weight gain and obesity, we need to understand all of that. We need to stop vilifying obese people, who aren't likely to be helped by it
And we need to rethink and remake our environment much more thoroughly than we seem poised to do.

The kind of consciousness-raising and corporate prodding being done by Michelle Obama — laudable as it is — won't be nearly enough. Neither will the extra green space for exercise that cities like Nashville have commendably created, or New York City officials' admirable exile of sugary sodas from public school vending machines.

These important steps, plus others under consideration, are just the start. Let's move, yes. But let's do it a whole lot faster, because what we may be trying to hold back is a near inevitable tide.

Food Co-op Meeting at Grand Theatre, 7:30 pm, February 21

This is a meeting to explore a great idea to fill a big gap in Salem. Lots of good potential here. a very dynamic core group of organizers bodes well. See you there!

WORD: Joel Salatin: How to Prepare for A Future Increasingly Defined By Localized Food & Energy - Blogs at Chris Martenson

Image via Wikipedia

A very, very smart guy.  Given our natural gifts, Salem should be a leader in this type of thinking, which is going to be evermore valuable.

Salem's best pizza, Church St. Pizza, now offers delivery!

Church St. Pizza now delivers! Due to customer inquiries, we have decided to offer delivery service during all business hours. Please note that our weekly specials on Tuesday and Saturday apply only to dine in and take out and not delivery. Thank you to our customers for your continued support! Tuesday thru Friday 11 AM - 2 PM lunch 5 PM - 8 PM dinner Saturday      11 AM - 8 PM Fall pizzas are coming soon including the new and improved potato and bacon as well as some tasty new additions! Church St. Pizza, 324 Church St. N.E. Salem, Oregon 97301 (503) 363-4638

Greybeards in Feedcaps: another reason to preserve public farmlands

Image via WikipediaBecause the biggest barrier to young people getting into farming is access to affordable land. Thus, when places like Salem sell an easement that will prevent farming 200+ precious acres of fabulous farmland located right in the City, they sold out young farmers. As Wendell Berry says, "Eating is an agricultural act."

Silverton, ho!

Image via WikipediaLOVESalem normally doesn't look too far afield for fun but we do have a soft spot for Silverton, home of the amazing and wonderful Oregon Garden. And now there's a special locavore breakfast coming up, with pancakes and even options for us non-carnivores! Yum.

So, Saturday after tomorrow (August 28) we'll be having breakfast in Silverton at the Grange and then enjoying the Oregon Garden, one of the best things around Salem that isn't in Salem. Then a stop at Willamette Fruit Company's lovely newish store on the way home to round out the perfect "Last Saturday of Summer."

Silverton Grange 50 Mile Breakfast

Aug 28, 2010 -- 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Produced by Silverton People for Peace

Once again, the Silverton Grange is hosting our “localvore” Breakfast. Originally our breakfast featured foods made from scratch with ingredients grown or produced within 100 miles of Silverton. This year we have decided to shrink our reach and to focus on those items within a 50 mile radius. The event is intended to encourage people to consume foods from their local area. There is a $7 suggested donation. Everyone is welcome.

The menu will include buckwheat pancakes, Silverton's own vegan SortaSausage, vegetable frittata, fresh fruit, fruit compotes, sausage, and beverages.

Information and resources will be available at the event to show people the benefits of eating local food and where they can buy local products.

Founded in 1867, the Grange is the nation’s oldest farm organization. The Silverton Grange Hall is located at 201 Division Street, off of South Water Street, in Silverton. For more information about the event or the Silverton Grange, visit us on the Web.

Whoops, almost forgot! Later that day will also be the KMUZ benefit gourmet dinner with high-class acoustic music from Austin, Texas! Shaping up to be an amazing day!

Bee colony collapse disorder worsens

Image via Wikipedia

Whoa -- you mean we can't just keep dumping poisons into the living spaces of our tiny little spaceship?

. . . Disturbing evidence that honeybees are in terminal decline has emerged from the United States where, for the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies have failed to survive the winter.

The decline of the country's estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees worldwide have died and scientists are no nearer to knowing what is causing the catastrophic fall in numbers.

The number of managed honeybee colonies in the US fell by 33.8% last winter, according to the annual survey by the Apiary Inspectors of America and the US government's Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

The collapse in the global honeybee population is a major threat to crops. It is estimated that a third of everything we eat depends upon honeybee pollination, which means that bees contribute some £26bn to the global economy.

Potential causes range from parasites, such as the bloodsucking varroa mite, to viral and bacterial infections, pesticides and poor nutrition stemming from intensive farming methods. The disappearance of so many colonies has also been dubbed "Mary Celeste syndrome" due to the absence of dead bees in many of the empty hives.

US scientists have found 121 different pesticides in samples of bees, wax and pollen, lending credence to the notion that pesticides are a key problem. "We believe that some subtle interactions between nutrition, pesticide exposure and other stressors are converging to kill colonies," said Jeffery Pettis, of the ARS's bee research laboratory.

A global review of honeybee deaths by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) reported last week that there was no one single cause, but pointed the finger at the "irresponsible use" of pesticides that may damage bee health and make them more susceptible to diseases. Bernard Vallat, the OIE's director-general, warned: "Bees contribute to global food security, and their extinction would represent a terrible biological disaster."

Dave Hackenberg of Hackenberg Apiaries, the Pennsylvania-based commercial beekeeper who first raised the alarm about CCD, said that last year had been the worst yet for bee losses, with 62% of his 2,600 hives dying between May 2009 and April 2010. "It's getting worse," he said. "The AIA survey doesn't give you the full picture because it is only measuring losses through the winter. In the summer the bees are exposed to lots of pesticides. Farmers mix them together and no one has any idea what the effects might be."

Pettis agreed that losses in some commercial operations are running at 50% or greater. "Continued losses of this magnitude are not economically sustainable for commercial beekeepers," he said, adding that a solution may be years away. "Look at AIDS, they have billions in research dollars and a causative agent and still no cure. Research takes time and beehives are complex organisms." . . .

WHY BEES MATTER

Flowering plants require insects for pollination. The most effective is the honeybee, which pollinates 90 commercial crops worldwide. As well as most fruits and vegetables – including apples, oranges, strawberries, onions and carrots – they pollinate nuts, sunflowers and oil-seed rape. Coffee, soya beans, clovers – like alfafa, which is used for cattle feed – and even cotton are all dependent on honeybee pollination to increase yields.

UPDATE: The Oregonian runs a story on this with a little new stuff about OSU response.