The world’s bees face a major threat from deformed wing virus, a pathogen transmitted by the parasitic varroa mite.

Working with world-class development chef Dale Bowie, whose career has included working at Heston Blumenthal’s Michelin three-star restaurant- The Fat Duck in the UK, the scientists used a unique approach of analysing biochemical changes in beef steak during the cooking process.

Scientists used next-generation sequencing to look inside bumblebees for evidence of pesticide exposure, including neonicotinoids, as well as pathogens, and found both.

The explanation for this phenomenon ranges from dryness in parts of South America in the past few months, which affected the crop that the region is currently harvesting, to other weather-related concerns in Europe and North America, where plantings for the new season of 2021/22 are at completion stages. But more fundamentally, the two critical issues adding upward pressure on global grains prices are the lower stocks and expectations of increased grain usage in the US renewable energy industry. 

Soil carbon is in the spotlight in Australia. A key plank in the Morrison government’s technology-led emissions reduction policy, it involves changing farming techniques so soils store more carbon from the atmosphere.

On the morning of 27 May 2021, beekeeper Craig Campbell visited his apiary site (an area ideal for bees to forage), to find that overnight, 235 of his bee boxes had been destroyed.