Farmland Ecology Blog

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This Thursday (20 May) marks the fourth annual World Bee Day. Given that more than 75% of the world’s food crops depend on pollination, it’s remarkable that this has been so long in the making.

A new paper from the GWCT’s Head of Farmland Ecology, Professor John Holland, has been published in the journal Insects, discussing Conservation Biological Control – a component of integrated pest management that allows more sustainable farming, using insects as natural predator control to reduce the reliance on expensive and potentially damaging pesticides.

The EU has now extended the ban on the use of neonicotinoid insecticides to all field crops which includes cereals and sugar beet. John Holland looks at some alternatives.

With New Zealand’s dairy farmers currently getting a lot of stick about their impact on the environment and especially water quality. John Holland asks who should pay for environmental protection?

A recent paper on insect declines on nature reserves in Germany attracted a surprising amount of media attention last week. But then bad news always gets the limelight. Should we be worried? And is it good for farmers to have fewer pesky creatures around?