Health Hotline Magazine | April 2019

good4u HEALTH HOTLINE

the University of Texas at Austin exposed honeybees to glyphosate at levels known to occur in crop fields, yards, and roadsides. Within three days, exposure to the herbicide significantly reduced healthy gut bacteria in the bees, specifically, a species critical for processing food and defending against pathogens. When compared to bees with healthy guts, the bees with altered gut microbiota were more likely to die when exposed to a common bee pathogen. 19 The widespread use of glyphosate and other herbicides such as dicamba are also destroying many of the wild plants that pollinators depend on for food. Research has shown that doses of dicamba similar to those that “drift” from treated fields to surrounding areas delayed flowering and reduced the number of flowers in wild plant species; the plants affected by the drift were also less visited by pollinators. 20 21 ORGANIC AGRICULTURE CAN AVERT DISASTER A brand new review published this month in the journal Biological Conservation investigating the decline in insect populations revealed “dramatic” rates of decline, especially among butterflies, wasps, and bees. The authors listed habitat loss due to intensive agriculture and urbanization and pollution from synthetic pesticides and fertilizers as the top two drivers of the declines. “Habitat restoration, coupled with a drastic reduction in agro-chemical inputs and agricultural ‘redesign,’ is probably the most effective way to stop further declines,” the researchers wrote. “Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades.” 22 Fortunately, the crisis can be averted. Organic farms, which do not use synthetic pesticides or fertilizer, and increase habitats and food sources, have been found to have a greater abundance and diversity of pollinators. 23 A new study from Sweden confirms that organic farming methods support pollinator populations. Researchers from the Center for Environmental and Climate Research (CEC) at Lund University found that bumblebee populations thrived on organic farms and were more stable over time and space than on conventional farms.

APRIL | 2019 | ISSUE 22 7