
Bad News, No News and Good News
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I haven't written much recently. The weather's been as grim as the news, and to be honest I just haven't felt much like it.
In the past I might have written a cheery horticultural "how to" blog to keep things ticking over, but this kind of thing is suddenly irrelevant. AI does a great job of telling you how to do 99% of gardening jobs, neatly presented on Google.
This is problem for a small business, as it closes down a helpful marketing tool. It's consistent with a bigger picture. Ethical SMEs have increasingly limited room for manouevre in terms of online marketing. Meta didn't give a toss about larger advertisers boycotting it, because it's SMEs who have to use it. I gave up on Twitter when it got stupid - actually quite early on. I restarted our corporate account, but jacked it in again last year. I don't see how a business with ethical values can be associated with a social media channel like X.
The alternatives aren't great, and - surprise surprise - they're getting more toxic. Even LinkedIn, which used to be a relative oasis of calm, is increasingly political and unpleasant. There are so many now too it's difficult for a small business to keep up - particularly one run by an old bloke. We're on Facebook and have Bluesky and Threads accounts too, which I'm not wildly excited about. There's our YouTube channel and Instagram as well, when I remember to post!
Some Good News
As for legacy media, it continues to be thin on the environment. I guess because resources become increasingly inadequate and it's a relatively apolitical area, so editors can't be bothered. I suppose indifference is better than criminality and incitement to riot!
One story which did make it into my paper this morning gives me cause for cheer, though. Neonicotinoids were outlawed in the EU in 2018. Yesterday the government here finally agreed to ban the last one in use here, Cruiser SB, a neonic based insecticide.
Governments have granted an annual "emergency derogation" for the use of Cruiser SB on sugar beet for several years. It's used to kill aphids, which are the vector for virus yellows. This has been a really significant problem for growers as winters are warmer, meaning larger aphids populations.
I've written regularly about neonics since early 2011. There has been a steadily growing body of evidence that they're doing no good not just to pollinators, but also to wider ecosystems. Their continuing use has been a classic and damaging example of our failure to stick with the precautionary principle which is supposed to underpin environmental policy. While finally banning Cruiser SB is a victory for the environmental lobby, it's been a stupidly long time coming.
Farmers and sugar producers don't like it, which explains why previous administrations have ducked the issue. I was accosted by a furious farmer at Chelsea Garden Show last year, when volunteering with the mighty Bumblebee Conservation Trust. "Why are you so keen to ruin farmers? What do you suggest I do if I can't protect my crop?". I'm sympathetic. Alternative methods are being developed, but there's apparently nothing which currently does the trick like thiamethoxam.*
And yet. The environmental cost is far, far too high. Easy for me to say, I know, but until we work out how to control virus yellows some other way, sugarbeet growing in the UK looks to me like another casualty of climate change. Perhaps - controversial content alert - we could do with less sugar anyway.
It's a divisive subject. As usual. I hope people will be reasonable about it on social media.
*Necessity, I suspect, will be the mother of invention.