The bright yellow rapeseed flowers that adorn the British countryside have largely disappeared after crops this season failed.
The flaxen dandelion – used to make rapeseed oil – is a common sight on farmland in late spring but has suffered a downturn partly due to flea beetle larvae infestations, Farmers Weekly reported.
Farmers have struggled to control the pest after the EU banned neonicotinoid seed treatments in rapeseed crops six years ago.
A number of hectares of the crop completely failed, and any others that made it through the tough winter months then had to contend with the flea beetle – leading to a very small rapeseed crop
I saw a lamestream media news report from France 24 around March that the earth only has 15 years of topsoil left because pesticide use. The hysterical reporter then went on to say how euro countries were fighting back by ending pesticide use everywhere.
Climate hysteria is moving into the killing fields phase. These people are insane.
https://www.france24.com/en/20200316-restore-soil-to-absorb-billions-of-tonnes-of-carbon-study
I guess he doesn’t know about composting. I just dug a couple of cubic feet of new soil out of my compost bin.
and crop rotation is an invention of Big Plow.
(not to be confused with any pseudonyms granted me by past girlfriends)
((hic! Rum, what trouble are you aiming my way now?))
The people who will starve to death don’t live in Europe or America. Just like banning DDT didn’t kill tens of millions of Europeans and Americans.
If only there were safe pesticides (and an end to human ignorance).
Looks like our canola producers might have a nice place to send their crop to instead of China!
Bingo, the U.K. has fettered it’s agriculture, energy industry, internal security, social cohesion, justice system… but with Brexit there is hope. She will rise again.
Western Civilization needs all her Knights of the Realm, Crusaders, and a few Robin Hoods and Merry Men, happy warriors all.
Umm. Dandelions (taraxacum officinale) and canola (Brassica napus, Brassica rapa, or Brassica juncea) are NOT the same kind of plant, even if to someone not in the know thinks their flowers are similar (they are both yellow…).
Huh. This former beef farmer learned something today. Rapeseed = canola (more or less).
You dirt farmers are full of tricks !
: o )
A farmer I know said that in the early days of rapeseed, a common term for the oil produced was “Quaker State”.
I tasted an òrganic`Malbec from Argentina; it tasted like pig-shit
You have to try a few to find a good one. I tried one that honestly tasted like it was cut with grape Kool-aid.
You know what pig shit tastes like??? Just how did you find that out?
If you grow up on a farm you know what pig shit and cow shit taste like because periodically you end up with a mouth full of it. When it’s wet, it splashes. You also wear it a lot.
And if you drive a tractor with a spreader and forget about the wind….
Isn’t that what our federal government insists we eat whenever we expect it to do something sensible?
Yea…so let’s toss 2000 years of experimentation – cross breeding – genetics research etc, and simply go back to using absolutely nothing to enhance N2 enrichment of the soil…sorta like how it goes in the Amazon. Burn everything down – plant one crop and move on…NEXT..!!
And maybe you can feed a few hundred million…
(but that’s the plan now isn’t it..??)
It’s not that the climate is in trouble
It’s not that the Oil industry is bad
Its not that using Ammonia is bad
It’s not that Monsanto is “bad”
It’s not that Genetic manipulation to prevent disease and survive against predaotry insects is wrong….all to increase # of crops lbs / acre.
Its cause all that has allowed ALL A YOU Humans to thrive…….And we, your betters simply can’t allow that.
Canola is a health hazard. Should burn the rapeseed in the fields.
None of this is necessary if we stop insisting on enriching ourselves by feeding billions in Africa and Asia.
The humankind had become what it is without feeding backwards nations to the total of 7 billion retarded freeloaders who cannot find their rear end with both hands, while espousing murderous religious views and ignoring immigration laws to spread jihad into our lands. Careful with what you ask for. Western agriculture is more than capable of feeding the West but you insist on feeding our enemies. Thanks for allowing them to procreate to the total of 7 billion heads. Now they are spilling into the West and you are bemoaning rampant, uncontrollable “refugee” problem. Once in a lifetime, make up you effin’ mind!
I attended a talk by a British vendor of rapeseed. He said that the farmers that grow it have to now spray their crops 4 times with regular insecticide, which creates insect resistance in surprisingly little time. Not only that, but the substitute pesticides also kill bees if you are not careful in timing your spraying.
Learn how to farm. If you need neonics you are doing something wrong. Often it’s a crutch for poor management decisions like tight rotations, compaction, and select nutrition deficiencies. H
Maybe 100 years ago, people spent 1/3 of their incomes on food – commodity type food. Today we spend virtually nothing. We can always go back to the way it was.
And are you a farmer or a commenter? If so, of what?
I’m a miner. Unless you like harvesting meteorites come to earth, you’ve used the results of my labour.
How long will they listen to and make policy based on the demented ravings of environuts?
The nutcases said the collapse of bee colonies was due to neonicotinoid pesticides. But science said it was due to a parasitic mite. So they ignored the science and catered to the insane.
DDT, ozone depletion, global warming, now neonicotinoids – you can’t fix stupid, but one would think that they would have noticed by now the catastrophic results of adhering to the environmentalist religion.
And reality says we produce more honey ever year – with a dip here and there. Number of hives going up as is production per hive. Hint – they’re lying to us.
Modern pesticides now require only a few grams per hectare to achieve control. The amount of residue is literally microscopic.
Noenicitinoids do not harm bees.
“Organic” pesticides require massive volume applications per hectare and are genuinely harmful to people and livestock if not properly washed. They do massive damage to soil chemistry and biology.
The amount of scientific ignorance of EU politicians is staggering.
Same goes for GMO’s which the EU has also banned.
This is actually good news because it allows North American farmers to massively scale up and deliver staggeringly large yields with modern genetics, nutrition and pest management and high tech application, management and harvesting equipment. Enormous scale is required to afford the technology capital and equipment to deliver these yields.
The EU and the UK now face an impossible situation, they do not have the scale to compete as North American growers have now kept the price of agricultural products low enough for them to make money but much too low for the Europeans who must subsidize, drain their treasury and still be net food importers.
The EU have done permanent damage to their ag sector. They will never recover. Ever.
“Rape”seed? “Nicotine”oids? … I’d say this is an issue with no advocacy group.
https://youtu.be/xvFD6DRn0Cg
Oh goody, the canola cranks have shown up.
(s) but they’re against RAPE! How can you support RAPE(seed)? (/s)
(s) in this case is Stupid.
Are you calling me a “canola crank” Kate?