News Items - 1/08/09 - Agriculture

Researchers focus on bringing bees back. Alarmed by the mysterious
decline in honeybees, researchers are focusing on how the habitat
surrounding a hive can affect the health of bees, and on how
pesticides and other chemicals used in fields and gardens might
affect bees.
http://www.timesleader.com/news/ap?articleID=1383572

Crops absorb livestock antibiotics, new science shows. Consumers have
long been exposed to antibiotics in meat and milk. Now, new research
shows that they also may be ingesting them from vegetables, even ones
grown on organic farms.
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/antibiotics-in-crops

Pesticide use in California declined in 2007. Pesticide use declined
statewide in California and in San Joaquin County in 2007, and, while
weather, economics and farming activities are factors, state and
local regulators pointed to a downward trend in the application of
many of the most toxic materials.
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090106/A_BIZ/901060310

New rules to be enforced on poultry farms' manure. Maryland will soon
begin enforcing new limits on the amount of manure that is allowed to
wash off Eastern Shore poultry farms--cracking down on what had been
a lightly regulated Chesapeake Bay pollutant.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/06/AR2009010601967.html

Australia refuses to join ban on pesticide. An internationally
recognised highly toxic insecticide will continue to be used widely
by Australian horticultural industries.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/australia-refuses-to-join-ban-on-pesticide/2009/01/07/1231004105849.html