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.

Exploring Coffee's Past To Rescue Its Future

Dan Charles — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:45:00 +0000

At the Center for Tropical Agricultural Research and Education (CATIE) in Turrialba, Costa Rica, you can touch the history of coffee — and also, if the optimists have their way, part of its future.

Here, spread across 25 acres, are coffee trees that take you back to coffee's origins.

"The story starts in Africa, no? East Africa," says Eduardo Somarriba, a researcher at CATIE, as we walk through long rows of small coffee trees.

These trees came directly from forests in Africa.

How Coffee Brings The World Together

Dan Charles — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:22:00 +0000

Coffee is more than a drink.

Are Agriculture's Most Popular Insecticides Killing Our Bees?

Dan Charles — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 22:08:00 +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.

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.