Programa del 05/02/2012

Interview with  engineer Santiago Herrero who gives his opinion on the issue of GMOs and their future perspectives

In response to the serious health problems facing honey bees, a Tech-Transfer Team was initiated to work with beekeepers in Northern California. Three trained crop protection agents (the Bee Team) are now established in Butte County working as an extension program of the University of California Cooperative Extension. The Team is part of a nation-wide effort to help the honey bee.

A new generation of pesticides may be to blame for the catastrophic decline in Britain’s honey bees. The contain chemicals, routinely used on farms and in garden centres make bees more vulnerable to disease, a study has shown. There have been concerns for some years about neonicotinoids, a family of chemicals based on nicotine, but a study by an expert based in the US finally confirms a link. The findings were published by the US government’s top bee expert Dr Jeffrey Pettis, who found that even minute doses of the chemical made bees three times more vulnerable to infections from parasites.