>...her research seemed to suggest that an organic farmer could make more
money by leaving an uncultivated area in the centre of his crop. ( I
believe she suggested 160 acres uncultivated for 480 acres cultivated)...
Interesting idea. I'm not sure how it would work in practise, though,
assuming crops are rotated, many pollinators don't travel far from their
homes (like ants, some flies, and leafcutters). Also, many crops in North
America -- more than beekeepers like to think -- don't need (and some do
not want) uncontrolled insect pollination. Organic apples, for example,
have to hand-thinned if over-pollinated.
* * * *
While discussing the influence of honey bees pollination on food
production, let me say that I'd be *most* interested to see the data
underlying the oft-repeated claim that 1/3 of our food requires bee
pollination.
I wonder if that estimate is by plant species count, by bulk tonnage, by
dollar value, or ...by what measure?
I also wonder also how many of those foods are staples, and how many are
non-essential. Are crops which do not need (or even want) pollination in
the production fields, but which depend on pollination for their seed
crops (maybe 1/100th the acreage).
After all, we all know that 96.859% of all statistics are made up on the
spot. Is this one among them?
* * * *
Going back to the the question of potential yield increase on GMO fields
were were discussing in an earlier message. I have since been wondering if
pollination is often the *limiting* factor in canola yield, since
moisture, temperatures, available nutrients, plant density and other
factors can have a large and limiting influence on the pods per plant,
seeds per pod, oil content, protein content, and seed fill. Some of them
are mentioned at the site I gave as a reference last time.
And, going on to something else since we often quote studies here like
scripture (which is another topic)...
We tend to forget that studies are just studies, and although a particular
study may well examine and analyse a specific situation and point to
trends or influences, studies often as not fail to prove anything
conclusive.
Subsequent extrapolating and applying the findings requires careful
consideration of the many things that may not have been present or which
may have been controlled. Besides, sometimes the same study, when
repeated, gives different, conflicting or non-confirming results.
Moreover, a study that shows a clear trend, may not show the scatter.
Scatter, while often ignored in presentations, is important in real life --
especially if you just happen to be an outlier -- a specific instance
that falls far above or below the line.
Lastly, and unfortunately, sometimes -- too often, maybe always -- part of
the data has been massaged or discarded. The devil is in the details.
Caveat emptor.
* * * *
I finally discovered how to subscribe and unsubscribe and change BEE-L
settings from the web interface! Although the "Subscriber's Corner" does
not work, the link from an icon at the top of each post does work, at
least when logged in. I've been trying to have the LISTSERV send me
copies of my own posts for along time, with no success. I found a setting
error when I accessed the options from the subscribe/unsubscribe icon, and
hopefully rectified the problem.
Also, when posting from the web interface, I recommend either writing in
notepad, then pasting into the box on the page, or clicking the pane,
selecting all, then copying rthe article and pastingh it into notepad and
saving locally before pressing send. Otherwise, if you web connection
happens to have died, all you work will be lost!
Also check the whole page and the recipients before sending. By default,
the receients box seems to be blank!
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* Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm *
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