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    The podcast discusses the impacts of pesticides on bees and the environment. Professor Dave Goulson argues that claims of crop devastation have been exaggerated and that the actual loss from a ban on neonicotinoids was only 1.3% of the oil seed rape crop. While farmers are concerned about protecting their crops, Goulson asserts that abandoning pesticides and using more sustainable techniques like crop rotations and encouraging natural predators could help manage pests without harming bees or leaving a healthy environment for future generations. The interview debates finding a balance between food production and conservation.

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    The podcast discusses the impacts of pesticides on bees and the environment. Professor Dave Goulson argues that claims of crop devastation have been exaggerated and that the actual loss from a ban on neonicotinoids was only 1.3% of the oil seed rape crop. While farmers are concerned about protecting their crops, Goulson asserts that abandoning pesticides and using more sustainable techniques like crop rotations and encouraging natural predators could help manage pests without harming bees or leaving a healthy environment for future generations. The interview debates finding a balance between food production and conservation.

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    The podcast discusses the impacts of pesticides on bees and the environment. Professor Dave Goulson argues that claims of crop devastation have been exaggerated and that the actual loss from a ban on neonicotinoids was only 1.3% of the oil seed rape crop. While farmers are concerned about protecting their crops, Goulson asserts that abandoning pesticides and using more sustainable techniques like crop rotations and encouraging natural predators could help manage pests without harming bees or leaving a healthy environment for future generations. The interview debates finding a balance between food production and conservation.

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    21 views2 pages

    Listbeesscript

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    picassent
    The podcast discusses the impacts of pesticides on bees and the environment. Professor Dave Goulson argues that claims of crop devastation have been exaggerated and that the actual loss from a ban on neonicotinoids was only 1.3% of the oil seed rape crop. While farmers are concerned about protecting their crops, Goulson asserts that abandoning pesticides and using more sustainable techniques like crop rotations and encouraging natural predators could help manage pests without harming bees or leaving a healthy environment for future generations. The interview debates finding a balance between food production and conservation.

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    Radio 4 Podcasts

    The Life Scientific.


    Interview with David Goulson, professor at University of Essex.
    Dave G: Theres an accumulating body of evidence that is not just bees we should
    be concerned about. Something is going wrong with our countryside and I am not
    trying to say its all to do with this particular group of pesticides, I think its more to do
    with the overall way we are managing the countryside, but everything is disappearing
    .
    Interviewer: But of course, we do rely on pesticides for our crops. This year farmers
    have been complaining that their crops have been destroyed by pests. Recently on
    the Today Programme, Hannah Barnes talked to Essex farmer Stuart Galloway.
    H. Barnes: In a good year or a normal year what should we be seeing now?
    Farmer: We should be seeing a green field with rape about six inches tall.
    H. B : And what can we see?
    Farmer: A brown field with very little rape in it. The cabbage flea beetle that has
    destroyed this crop, it makes potholes in the leaves, which basically destroy the leaf,
    and then it cant photosynthesize, and so it cant grow. Were growing crops to feed
    the population, and to do it as efficiently and as effectively as we can, but the
    industry as a whole is very concerned that the rape crop will be decimated.
    H.B : If the ban of neonicotinoids continues, what will you do going forward?
    Farmer: Well, I dont know yet, but Ive got to seriously think about whether its viable
    to grow rape.
    Interviewer: Dave, what do you say to farmers? Are there any alternatives to
    neonics?
    Dave G: Well, firstly the tales of crop devastation have been someway exaggerated.
    It has been a bad year for flea beetles, it has been a hot, dry summer. It wouldve
    been a bad year for flea beetles regardless of whether there was a moratorium on
    nionics or not. The home-grown cereals authority do a big survey to work out actually
    how bad is the damage and they announce that actually 2.6% of the oil seed rape
    crop was lost which about half has been successfully re-sown and is fine. If the price
    of saving our bees is losing 1.3% of our oil seed rape crop, then for me its nobrainer, but thats a price worth paying.
    Interviewer: Its a matter of balance. We have tried to balance having enough food to
    feed the population and conserving nature. And are we, for instance, prepared to pay
    more for food if thats what it comes to?
    Dave G: I think actually thats a sort of a false premise. Its Were in no danger of
    running out of food anytime soon, actually we waste extraordinary amount of food in
    this world. I think its more a case of: do we want to manage the environment in a
    sustainable way so that we can leave a healthy environment for our grandchildren?

    Or do we want to make a load of money right now? Our farming system is currently
    depending on a blizzard of pesticides. Every field is treated with at least 20 different
    pesticides in a single growing season. Farmers have pretty much abandoned most
    of the techniques that they used to rely on to manage pests like crop rotations, using
    resistant varieties, trying to encourage natural enemies, there are no natural
    enemies left on those farmers because theyve been wiped out by all the pesticides.

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