I'm reading a very interesting book. Fruitless Fall, by Rowan Jacobsen. It's subtitle is The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis. I'm pretty sure I will have to post more about it. What is interesting is the web of interconnectedness of the ecosystem we call earth. (The ecosystem that we think we humans are at the center of.) The interconnected web leads to potentially horrifying consequences from things that seem as if we should know better (like systemic pesticides that "live" inside of seeds before they are planted and travel throughout the plant during its whole life), as well as things that seem innocent (like using bees to pollinate crops so large they couldn't be well pollinated without "migrant bee labor" trucked in from across the country).
Here is quick example of unintended consequences. Clementines. You know, those little tiny mandarin oranges. They were from Spain. Then they got really popular. No seeds, easy to peel, good for you. So now they are "California Cuties." Acres of orange trees replaced by these because the market was better and growers want to make a living/profit. But guess what? If they are cross pollinated with other oranges they make Cuties that aren't so cute. Auuurrrrrgghhhhhh! They have SEEDS!!!!! So now guess what? Cuties growers don't want bees anywhere near their trees. This in areas that are home to other citrus crops, almond crops, and many others that rely on bees for pollination.
Can you claim the "airspace" around your orchard? Why should I be surprised, we live in a world where plants can be patented and it's illegal to take a cutting of a patented rose to propagate it, or to save seed from patented crops.
I'm sure you'll be hearing more rants from me as I read this book. Human beings are so arrogant!
2 comments:
Hi Kelly! Who owns the "airspace" indeed...saw this article awhile back
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-contested-rainwater18-2009mar18,0,5585599.story
It's about a woman in Colorado whose family catches rain in water barrels (55 gallon kind) and she's being told that she shouldn't be allowed to harvest the rainwater, because water agencies and farmers have bought the rights to the waterways in the area, and she's illegally keeping water from shedding into those areas!
So fascinating.
It's going to be really interesting, and probably scary, to see how some of these things play out, especially as resources become ever scarcer.
A few seasons ago, we were virtually bee-less in our yards. I'm happy to say that's no longer the case, but I plant so many flowers, shrubs, and groundcover to specifically attract them, and it's still nowhere near the levels it should be.
Hi Mia, rights to rain water. HMMMMM. The book I am reading makes me think that what we are doing in our yards is making such a small difference. On the other hand, I combat despair when I remember a quote from a speech I heard while in college from Frances Moore Lappe (Diet for a Small Planet). Her book had a huge impact on me and so did this statement. It was something like this... "We can make only a small difference, or make none at all."
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