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Almost a third of global farm output depends on animal pollination, largely by honey bees. These foods provide 35pc of our calories, most of our minerals, vitamins, and anti-oxidants, and the foundations of gastronomy. Yet the bees are dying – or being killed – at a disturbing pace. The bee crisis has been treated as a niche concern until now, but as the UN's index of food prices hits an all time-high in real terms (not just nominal) and grain shortages trigger revolutions in the Middle East, it is becoming urgent to know whether the plight of the honey bee...

Beepods are handsome, made-in-Wisconsin wooden beehives designed for optimum bee comfort and user-friendliness. The cost? Under $500. Now show me the honey ... Along with backyard chicken-keeping, urban beekeeping is another exercise in countrified self-sufficiency that’s really picked up steam over the past couple of years and been embraced by city dwellers … the latest “urban agricultural must-have,” as the New York Times put it back in 2009. The whole bees-in-the-city movement reached an unofficial climax back in March when the ban on residential beekeeping was lifted in New York City (although NYC beekeepers had been practicing and celebrating it...

LAKEVILLE, Minn. - A second person has died in a four-vehicle crash on Interstate 35 in Lakeville that released a swarm of bees from a semi. Two semi trucks, including one carrying millions of bees, and two cars collided on Interstate 35 late Monday morning . The driver of one of the cars died at the scene. The driver of the other car was airlifted to a hospital and died Monday evening. The drivers killed in the crash have been identified as 24-year-old Kari Rasmussen of St. Anthony, Minn. and 50-year-old Pamela Brinkhaus of Elko, Minn. Several first responders were...

5/3/2010 - JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq (AFNS) -- The local buzz around Balad isn't just about a new agricultural development program, it's also literal. A beekeeper taught Iraqi women and families how to care for bees during a three-day class in Yethrib, a sub-district of Balad, to help spur economic independence and benefit local agriculture. In a small room of a village house, Franklin Johnson, a United States Department of Agriculture agricultural advisor, and Sara Aziz, a Department of State interpreter, joined seven burqa-draped women sitting cross-legged on rugs awaiting a honeybee lecture. Local villager and 18-year beekeeper Alahin Aziz...

Something is killing the nation's honeybees. Dave Hackenberg of central Pennsylvania had 3,000 hives and figures he has lost all but about 800 of them. In labs at Pennsylvania State University, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, and elsewhere in the nation, researchers have been stunned by the number of calls about the mysterious losses. "Every day, you hear of another operator," said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, acting state apiarist with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. "It's just causing so much death so quickly that it's startling." At stake is the work the honeybees do, pollinating more than $15 billion worth of U.S....

Life has been anything but sweet lately for New Jersey's state insect, the honeybee. First, an onslaught of tiny mites began killing bees in massive numbers. Then a few towns banned beekeeping. And beekeepers, a folksy group who raise the insects in backyards and on farms, started to dwindle. "It's very discouraging. They're a very important insect," said Bob Hughes of Hamilton Township, president of the New Jersey Beekeepers Association and owner of Bob's Buzzy Bees. He said the association's membership has fallen dramatically since the 1980s. After years of feeling a sting, New Jersey's beekeepers have something to buzz...

A penny-per-pound marketing fee on honey producers has survived a legal challenge from a group of beekeepers at odds with the National Honey Board. An administrative law judge in Washington ruled last week that the national honey checkoff program was constitutional. In a 27-page ruling, Judge Jill S. Clifton cited a May Supreme Court opinion that kept intact a mandatory beef promotion "tax" administered by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. Clifton observed that the honey and beef checkoff programs, both passed by Congress and overseen by the Agriculture Department, constitute "government speech" that is not subject to the First Amendment....

FRIDAY, June 10 (HealthDay News) -- Cancer researchers have been given a million-dollar grant to investigate the therapeutic value of the folk medicine propolis and the food spice turmeric. The U.S. National Cancer Institute grant is earmarked for the study of the two alternative remedies, each of which has shown promise in reducing risks for breast, prostate and colorectal malignancies, and in enhancing cancer treatment. Propolis and turmeric are rich in plant polyphenolic compounds that exhibit potent antitumor activities, the researchers said. "A very interesting property of these compounds is that they have been shown to cause cell death in...