Are you squirting your plants in this lovely weather to keep the pests at bay? If you are, please take note of these two interesting articles and choose wisely.
First, the Soil Association is warning against the use of certain pesticides they feel are harming our honey bees. They advise:
anything that contains acetamiprid, imidacloprid, thiacloprid or thiamethoxam should be avoided.
You can find more info here and see which products they have found that contain those ingredients. I am ashamed to say I have one of them in my shed that a relative recommended when I had a problem with something completely decimating a large plant. Aargh! It is now in the bin. I guess I will plant something different.
Even scarier if you have any kind of barrier hyper-permeability is the next piece: a long article, published in Interdisciplinary Toxicology journal, on the possibility that glyphosphates like RoundUp are behind the increase in gluten related disorders. The authors are calling on governments to revise their policies on glyphosphate residue in food. All you need to do is read the abstract, which sets out the issue succinctly and quite powerfully, but, if you get chance, do read the whole thing, it’s fascinating:
Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases II: Celiac sprue and gluten intolerance
Interdiscip Toxicol. 2013; Vol. 6(4): 159–184.
doi: 10.2478/intox-2013-0026
Published online in:
http://www.intertox.sav.sk & http://www.versita.com/it