Boosting Honeybee Immune System and Organic Production on Large Farms
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**Scientists have successfully tested a new way of boosting honeybees’ immune systems to help them fend off deadly viruses.
www.morningagclips.com reports, in a new study from entomologists at the University of Florida, the USDA’s Ag Research Service, and others, showed that prompting honeybees’ cells to produce free radicals helped the bees weather a host of viruses.
In fact, the treatment greatly reduced, and in some cases, nearly eliminated virus activity in full scale field studies.
www.morningagclips.com/immune-boosting-therapy-helps-honey-bees-resist-deadly-viruses/
**Organic production becomes more concentrated on larger farms when consumer demand for organic increases.
www.agrimarketing.com reports, that’s according to a new article published in the Journal of the Agricultural & Applied Economics.
The Washington State University authors say organic farms have the highest exit rates in the first couple years after becoming certified.
They also found large organic farms are more sensitive to organic market conditions than smaller farms.
www.agrimarketing.com/s/145831
**The USDA and the FDA would become members of a powerful U.S. committee that rules on national security implications of foreign ownership of U.S. assets under a new bipartisan Senate bill.
Sponsors, Senate Ag Chair, Debbie Stabenow, and Senator Joni Ernst tell www.agriculture.com, their bill would strengthen U.S. oversight of foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land.
Two House committees voted to block or heavily tax farmland purchases by foreign adversaries.
www.agriculture.com/news/business/tougher-scrutiny-of-land-purchases-by-foreigners-proposed
