I read somewhere that Australia only spends $50k on keeping the parasite out while NZ spends 750k on keeping it out of the south island. Sounds stupid when you think how much money this country wastes. This should be given priority and a whole lot of funding.This is not the issue to neglect.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/03/30/1885584.htm
Australian honey may be in danger from bee parasite
Posted Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:17pm AEST
The Australian honey industry fears a bee parasite that is spreading rapidly through New Zealand could arrive in Australia at any time.
Australia is the only continent free of the varroa mite.
The Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation has just funded a fact-finding tour of New Zealand, to study the impacts on apiarists.
Tour member and Tasmanian beekeeper Julian Woolfhagen says New Zealand has been unable to contain varroa.
He says it is almost certain the parasite will accidentally arrive in Australia, which will devastate the industry.
"It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when we're going to get it," he said.
"How long we can delay that is a key, because quite frankly with the Australian honey industry, which is a large-scale one by world standards, its economic base is not at all strong."
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/telegraph/content/2006/s1888384.htm
Bee Parasite
By Tara Vickers
Tuesday, 03/04/2007
Australian bee keepers have returned from a fact-finding tour to New Zealand to learn about a parasite which has the potential to damage Australia's disease-free honey bee industry.
Australian bee kepers met with New Zealand apiarists to discover how the varroa mite is wreacking havoc with the New Zealand bee and honey industry.
In New Zealand, 70 000 hives have already been lost after the bee arrived a few years earlier. The varroa mite has taken over every continent except Australia where the industry is worth $65 million.
President of the Tasmanian bee keepers Association Julian Woolfhagen attended the tour and says he has no doubt the mite will arrive in Australia.
so moxjo, I take it that the parasite is in North Island but not South (?)
Sounds like it's only a matter of time before we get it as well
thanks moxjo1. Considering how much the price of food will shoot up I'm surprised about the lack of funding and media attention. We send millions of $ in overseas aid, yet something that could threaten starvation around the globe in poorer countries due to food price rising is given very little attention.
2. At least the Aus apiarists might be breeding bees that are not affected as much (Russian strain possibly)
Bees in more trouble than ever after bad winter
MERCED, Calif. – The mysterious 4-year-old crisis of disappearing honeybees is deepening. A quick federal survey indicates a heavy bee die-off this winter, while a new study shows honeybees' pollen and hives laden with pesticides.
And finally, from Agweb comes warnings of drought conditions and disastrous harvest prospects in mid west grain producing states of the US could portent a disastrous winter grain harvest in the North American continent.The North American agricultural sector could be in for a major shock if Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd's (CP Rail) work stoppage is not resolved in a timely manner because it could spark a shortage of fertilizer and other shipments critical for the spring growing season, according to AP News.
AP News reports more than 3,000 CP Rail conductors, engineers, train, and yard workers represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference stepped off the job Sunday as the union and CP Rail couldn't strike a deal.
CP Rail is the leading carrier of potash, a potassium-rich salt mined from underground deposits formed from evaporated sea beds millions of years ago, used to support crop development. In prior investor documents, the rail company said it hauls 70% of the potash produced in North America, all from mines in Canada. The railroad also carries fertilizers, including phosphate, urea, ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate, and anhydrous ammonia.
A disruption of fertilizer shipments could significantly impact US farmers on the cusp of planting season. The work stoppage may exacerbate existing supply chain bottlenecks in North America stemming from COVID. The agricultural sector can't afford any more disruptions as Western economic sanctions on Russia and Belarus, two major fertilizer producers, have unleashed higher prices globally and shortage fears.
The only good part out of all this is that Australia continues to produce bumper harvests, and there will be plenty of markets paying good prices for the food basics.March 14 (Reuters) - A worsening drought in the southern U.S. Plains is threatening the region's winter wheat crop just as the Russian invasion of Ukraine dents global supplies.
Some farmers in southwestern Kansas, the top U.S. wheat producing state, have not received much measurable rain or snow since October. Winter wheat is planted in autumn, lays dormant in winter and begins sending up green shoots in spring. Proper soil moisture is critical at this stage for the crop to thrive.
More than half of Kansas was classified as under severe drought or worse as of March 8, the driest conditions since 2018, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center. Severe drought is also covering three-quarters of Oklahoma and more than two-thirds of Texas, both of which also are large wheat producers.
Water woes come on top of a freak December wind storm that swept away some topsoil in parts of the U.S. wheat belt, damaging some cropland.
U.S. hard red winter wheat represents nearly half of the country's overall wheat production and is milled mainly for bread flour. A reduced crop could further stoke food inflation that the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said was the highest-ever in February. The FAO's Food Price Index averaged 140.7 points last month, a 20.7% increase from a year earlier and surpassing the 2011 record.
U.S. wheat futures soared to the highest levels in 14 years early last week as the Russia-Ukraine conflict pushed two of the world's largest wheat exporters out of the market. That has importing countries scrambling for replacement sources. Meanwhile, the winter wheat crop in China, the world's largest producer of the grain, is expected to be among the worst ever after heavy rainfall delayed planting.
I sympathise with those who have been flooded, it would be terrible to watch the water rise into your home, But we tend to forget that on the other side of the ocean they are getting the other side of the coin, heat and drought.Not much been talked about on Food shortages of recent times, but a couple of world events need to be taken into consideration.
Firstly,
one of the biggest grain producers, Ukraine, has been effectively taken out of the world market courtesy of the Russians.
Secondly, Russia one of the biggest suppliers of Urea to North America has been taken out of the market. The shortage of Urea and thus basic fertilizers for food production has already been documented on other threads.
Now to add to that, Canada, one of the big five producers of grains, has some issues.
From Zero hedge
And finally, from Agweb comes warnings of drought conditions and disastrous harvest prospects in mid west grain producing states of the US could portent a disastrous winter grain harvest in the North American continent.
The only good part out of all this is that Australia continues to produce bumper harvests, and there will be plenty of markets paying good prices for the food basics.
Might help to pay off some of that huge debt the various levels of Government has raked up.
Mick
Fertilizer prices are at record highs because of rising natural gas costs and Russia limiting fertilizer exports to 'unfriendly' countries. Russia is one of the biggest exporters globally -- the U.S. just so happens to be a large importer of nitrogen and potash from Russia.The global outlook for corn supplies has plunged since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in late February. The war-torn country supplies a fifth of the world's corn and could experience a 50% decline in output this year.
And the latest development pushing corn prices to the stratosphere is the Biden administration's announcement of emergency measures last week to expand biofuel sales to curb soaring gasoline prices. The problem with this move is that the ethanol industry absorbs a larger share of the corn crop, which would curb supplies to the food industry. So ultimately, it would increase prices.
For the carnivores, it'll be a sad day if the literal term for larder actually comes back into play.I've said it before on this forum that the Mormons have the right idea (notwithstanding any religious disagreements).
Like them we do have a year supply of non perishables (and no we are definitely not Mormon).
This problem did telegraph itself long before now. Anyone with not some sort of reserve supply food was not listening in my opinion.
In 2020 Mrs Nazarenko and her husband Andriy inherited the 400-hectare (1,000-acre) farm, now named Rosa after that founding horse. Early this year they took out a substantial loan to cover fertiliser for the coming spring-wheat crop.
On March 9th, well before they had planted any, Russian troops occupied the village and the couple fled. On March 31st, when the invaders had turned tail, they returned. It was a harsh homecoming. The main farm building was shelled out. Three tractors had been vandalised and their diesel drained. Of their 117 cows, 42 were dead and the rest were roaming fields littered with debris, mines, mortar shells, unexploded cluster bombs and burnt-out trucks. Fifty tonnes of wheat, sunflower seed and rye had been destroyed,
Lukashivka and the villages around it have seen thousands of tonnes of grain destroyed or left to rot; much the same is true throughout the country’s war zones. Russian forces have targeted grain elevators and fertiliser plants, leaving the infrastructure in pieces. The share of last year’s grain harvest still in the country—about 25m tonnes of grain, a lot of it maize (corn)—is stuck there, because Odessa’s ports, through which 98% of the grain exports normally pass, are blockaded. Getting the grain to alternative ports in Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltics is hard. “Before the war Ukraine exported about 5m tonnes of grain a month,” says Mykola Solskiy, the minister for agriculture. “Last month we managed to get 1.1m tonnes out.”
A world grain shortage puts tens of millions at risk
War, extreme weather and export controls are all contributingwww.economist.com
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