^{Original Podcast Source: Edie.net}

‘Smart food waste tags and brilliant bees: The best green innovations of November 2021

As November comes to a close, edie and our innovation partner Springwise have rounded up some of the best breakthrough technologies and carbon-cutting solutions which could accelerate climate action over the coming months and years.

Bees, please!

Agriculture is directly responsible for 14% of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, while contributing to other systemic issues such as biodiversity loss. Reducing the impact of farming is one way we can move towards net-zero, and this requires we work with, rather than against nature.

Crop spraying is one contributory factor in the negative impact of agriculture. Spray tractors guzzle fossil fuels and conventional crop protectants are applied using hundreds of gallons of water per acre, further contributing to climate-change-exacerbated water scarcity.

Canadian company Bee Vectoring Technology has devised an alternative system that uses neither fossil fuels nor water. Best of all, it harnesses the power of bees doing what they do best – pollinating flowers. The bees take a natural fungicide powder that eliminates mould on growing fruits, directly to the flower.

The fungicide is dispensed through the openings of the bees’ hives. As the bees leave, they move through the powder, picking up a thick coating on their legs and wings. When they land on a flower to collect pollen, the powder naturally falls off. This process is very precise as the bees go direct to the flower meaning no fungicide is wasted. This avoids a further problem with crop spraying – much of the spray does not reach the intended plants, falling between the rows of crops and getting lost in spray drift or water runoff.