In 2016, 417 farmers and farm workers died from a work-related injury in the United States and 312 in Japan, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2018 agricultural safety report. And overturning tractors are the leading cause of death for farmers around the world.
In order to reduce the rate of overturned tractors, researchers in Japan have developed a model for understanding the conditions that lead to a tractor overturning from an unlikely source: They based their model on one used to understand the unpredictability of a bouncing ball.
Controversial insecticides known as neonicotinoids pose a danger to wild bees and managed honey bees, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in Parma, Italy, said in a report released today. Bayer, a maker of so-called neonics, disputed EFSA's findings. But the report is likely to give a boost to those pushing for tighter European regulation of the chemicals.
“This report certainly strengthens the case for further restrictions on neonicotinoid use,” entomologist Dave Goulson of the University of Sussex in Brighton, U.K., said in a statement. The European Commission last year proposed—but has not yet adopted—extending a partial ban on neonics to all field crops.
Neonicotinoids are systemic pesticides. Often, they are used to coat seeds to protect them when they are planted in the ground. After the seed germinates, the pesticide spreads throughout the growing plant and guards it against nibbling insects. But the insecticide is also present in the nectar and pollen, meaning pollinators get dosed, too. Many studies have shown that the chemicals can affect the ability of honey bees to learn and forage, although industry scientists have disputed whether the experiments are realistic enough.
In 2013, the commission banned the use of three neonics—imidacloprid, clothianidin, and thiamethoxam—on flowering field crops such as corn, sunflower, and rapeseed. The pesticides can still be used in greenhouses, winter cereals, and for spraying certain crops after they flower. The ban was based on a review by EFSA.
First applied commercially in the 1990s, ‘neonics’ are among the most popular insecticides in the world. They are coated onto crop seeds and – being water soluble –taken up and dispersed throughout the plant. Sometimes they are sprayed onto foliage. They are especially effective against sucking pests (such as aphids), but also chewing insects.
Why are they so widely used?
Treating seeds with neonics can protect seedlings for up to 10 weeks, a vulnerable stage in their lives. This also reduces the need for multiple pesticide sprays. When neonics were introduced, carbamates, organochlorine and organophosphorus compounds dominated the market: these were not very selective and toxic to mammals. The newcomers were viewed as safer and more efficient.
(WBNG) — Dairy farmers and local legislators are asking for answers after a recent proposal to ban chocolate milk in New York City schools. Legislators say the ban would greatly hurt the dairy industry of the Southern Tier. Local dairy farmer Judi Whittaker of Whittaker Farms is concerned about the proposal.
“Why would you consider taking choices from children that is encouraging them to consumer a healthy product, white or chocolate, why would you take a choice away from a child like that,” said Whittaker. Whittaker Farms has been in business for over 100 years, but the potential ban, would greatly hurt sales.
“It’s all going to affect us, because if they take away the chocolate component, that’s less consumption that’ll be going on. It’s going to lower consumption and the amount of milk they’ll be buying,” said Whittaker.