Using pesticides and other chemical-based agents in agriculture has too many potential risks, not just to humans but also to the environment and wildlife. So researchers continue to find ways so that we could farm without chemicals. Now, they are turning to bees to fight pests in a more natural way.
While the GMO controversy rages, a handful of companies are taking another innovative approach to crop protection. Instead of engineering pest-resistant plants, they’re developing products known as biologicals—natural compounds that protect crops but don’t harm beneficial insects or threaten human health.
Ontario-based Bee Vectoring Technologies (BVT) is taking the growth of biologicals one step further by recruiting bees to spread a natural fungus that controls pests and aids plant growth as they pollinate crops.
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