Food Diversity Under Siege From Global Warming, U.N. Says

Reuters

Climate change threatens the genetic diversity of the world's food supply, and saving crops and animals at risk will be crucial for preserving yields and adapting to wild weather patterns, a U.N. policy paper said on Monday. Story here.

'Seedy Business': New Report Digs Beneath Agrichemical Industry's High-Cost PR Machine

CommonDreams

A typical "industrial-style," GMO farm  in Manitoba. PinP photo.

'The tremendous amount of money spent speaks to depth of public unease about GMOs,' says lead author. Story here.

Robert Redford: Stop the Big Polluter Agenda. PLEASE SIGN!

Please sign here!!!

Kate Storey Selected to Run Again for the Green Party of Canada in Dauphin – Swan River - Marquette.

Onanole, MB.  by Larry Powell - Green Party of Canada.

“It’s time to end ‘top-down’ politics in this country,” Storey declared, as a group of dedicated supporters voted unanimously to again endorse her this weekend as their party’s choice in the federal election later this year. "Vote Green and give your MPs the ability to actually represent the people for a change,” she declared.

If elected, Storey promised to dedicate herself to fight against the scourges of climate change, and for the principles of social justice and democracy.

Kate Storey, candidate, Green Party of Canada.
Dauphin - Swan River - Marquette.

She and her husband, Doug have been operating an organic farm near Grandview for years. They’ve become living examples of how sustainable agriculture can succeed in a sea of industrial farms, where genetic modification, pesticides and monoculture are increasingly compromising the quality of our food and the very survival of precious pollinators, such as honeybees. 

Storey comes to the candidate’s job with a wealth of political experience, having run both federally and provincially on previous occasions.

“I may not win,” she declares, “but I’ll be bringing an important message to you during the campaign which would otherwise be lost in the now familiar, but cynical clamor of the ‘old-line parties.'”

Radical Shift in Agriculture Critical to Making Future Food Systems Smarter, More Efficient

UN News

Climate change and increasing competition for natural resources have essentially rendered the agriculture model of the past 40 years unsustainable, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has stressed, calling for a ‘paradigm shift’ in food production. Story here.

Combining wheat in Manitoba. 

Larry Powell - PinP photo.

Richest 1% to Have More Than Rest Of Humanity Combined

CommonDreams

New Oxfam report shows the scale of global inequality is "simply staggering." Story here.

The Sale of Monsanto's Toxic Weedkiller is Banned in the Netherlands!

SumOfUs

The government of the Netherlands just took a huge step to protect its citizens and banned Monsanto’s super-toxic pesticide Roundup – and it's time more countries did the same. Sign here.

PinP photo.

Join Dr. Vandana Shiva in Telling President Obama to Protect Seed Freedom and Food Democracy

Center for Food Safety

President Obama will be meeting with the Indian  Prime Minister on January 25 and 26. In response, activist, author and physicist, Dr. Vandana Shiva has written an open letter to the President and the Prime Minister on seed freedom and food democracy. She urges the two leaders to renounce the patenting of life and to stop pursuing “harmonization” of seed patenting laws which would further extend corporate control of our seeds and food.  Click here to sign.

Organic fava beans. Will they be next? 

PinP photo.

"CHASING ICE" Captures Largest Glacier Calving Ever Filmed - OFFICIAL VIDEO

PinP - This video is 12 years old. I guess the deniers would have us believe this kind of
shit never happens, or at least hasn't happened since?

Computer Modelling Shows Climate Change Will Affect Wheat Yields

Manitoba Co-Operator

A combination of multiple computer models of weather’s impact on wheat warns of a six per cent dent in world wheat production for every degree Celsius in temperature increase. Story here.

Wheatfield. 
Larry Powell - PinP photo.

Honeybee Health and Colony Collapse Disorder. A Manitoba Beekeeper Tells it Like it Is.

by Larry Powell

Tim Wendell, above, his wife Isabel and a seasonal staff of about 30 tend to over 3,000 hives in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, south of the Town of Roblin. A PinP photo.

A veteran Canadian beekeeper whose operations produce almost half-a-million kilograms of honey per year, Tim Wendell, has learned the hard way, just how big a threat "neonicotinoids" pose to operations like his. "Neonics" are now the most widely used group of insecticides in the world. They are either sprayed on crops such as corn, soybeans and canola, or used to treat their seeds. 

On a recent speaking engagement, he told audiences in Neepawa, MB, he lost one "bee yard" himself in 2012. It was next to a field which had been planted 4 or 5 years straight to corn treated with "neonics." 

He estimates, of the 40 thousand bees in that colony, perhaps only 5 thousand were left. And they were "very disorganized - no longer a community." He says government tests confirmed the chemical had gotten into the wax and pollen of the colony, along with the nearby soil and water. 

He is believed to be one of the few, or perhaps the only beekeeper in Manitoba who has found such direct evidence that the "neonics" have contributed to the "colony collapse" syndrome in this province. Beekeepers in Ontario and Quebec reported huge losses in 2012, due to the same problem. 

Wendell gets upset at "greedy" multinational corporations who make  such harmful products, and their shareholders. 

And he is critical of methods used by commercial pollinators, who truck their bees long distances to pollinate food crops for others. Such methods are used widely in the U.S. Alberta and the Maritimes in Canada. Such practices weaken the bees by subjecting them to poor nutrition and stress.

But Wendell also admits he and his colleagues may, themselves be contributing to the poor state of honeybee health, worldwide. He says he places "miticide" chemical strips in his hives to help combat "Varroa destructor" parasites which have, for years, been attacking honeybees around the world. Otherwise, he believes, his bees would face huge losses. But Wendell also realizes he must use the strips sparingly because they may themselves be harming the bees. And, if they are overused, they may even be making the mites themselves, immune. He has therefore been searching for and trying more natural treatments that won't put his bees at risk but still control the mites.

Interviews with Wendell, along with his recent slide presentation to the Neepawa Rotary Club, are now being aired in rotation on NACTV. 

Just go to "Schedule and Programs" and check out the next "Coffee Chat!"