Dan Charles

Bee Deaths May Have Reached A Crisis Point For Crops

Dan Charles — Tue, 07 May 2013 22:12:00 +0000

According to a new survey of America's beekeepers, almost a third of the country's honeybee colonies did not make it through the winter.

That's been the case, in fact, almost every year since the U.S. Department of Agriculture began this annual survey, six years ago.

Over the past six years, on average, 30 percent of all the honeybee colonies in the U.S. died off over the winter. The worst year was five years ago.

Are Agriculture's Most Popular Insecticides Killing Our Bees?

Dan Charles — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 22:39:00 +0000

Environmentalists and beekeepers are calling on the government to ban some of the country's most widely used insect-killing chemicals.

The pesticides, called neonicotinoids, became popular among farmers during the 1990s. They're used to coat the seeds of many agricultural crops, including the biggest crop of all: corn.

In A Grain Of Golden Rice, A World Of Controversy Over GMO Foods

Dan Charles — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 20:28:12 +0000

There's a kind of rice growing in some test plots in the Philippines that's unlike any rice ever seen before. It's yellow.

Farmer's Fight With Monsanto Reaches The Supreme Court

Dan Charles — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 09:28:00 +0000

This week, the Supreme Court will take up a classic David-and-Goliath case. On one side, there's a 75-year-old farmer in Indiana named Vernon Hugh Bowman; on the other, the agribusiness giant Monsanto.

The farmer is fighting the long reach of Monsanto's patents on seeds — but he's up against more than just Monsanto.

Gut Microbes May Play Deadly Role In Malnutrition

Dan Charles — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:28:00 +0000

There's a part of our body that's only now getting mapped: the trillions of microbes, mostly bacteria, that live in our guts.

Some scientists describe this community as a previously unnoticed vital organ.