Christmas Gifts For Gardeners

GARDENER in the family? We have some great gift ideas. From RAISED BED GARDEN KITS to the sweetest Butterfly, Dragonfly and Hummingbird pins you've ever seen.

Beautiful hand-sculpted hand painted HUMMINGBIRD, DRAGONFLY, and BUTTERFLY PINS. All quality made in the USA!

A great gift idea for the Gardener in your life! Pins are 1-1/2" - 2" in size.

Take a peak.................

Kim in the Garden ;o)

School Garden Projects On The Rise!!

Congratulations to all the School Gardeners this year! This year our sales for School Garden Projects has doubled over past years. Gardening is for everyone, young and old. A learned treasure that if taught to young kids, will be a blessing throughout their entire lifetime.

At RaisedBedGardenKits.com, much of our aim is at promoting the unique opportunities inherent in school gardens. We believe school gardens can play a vital role in creating a healthy, engaging educational atmosphere for today’s youth: one that encourages hands-on experiences, healthy eating, a connection with local food and curiosity about nature.

It all begins in Elementary School!!

Our top selling SCHOOL GARDEN PROJECT KIT for youth and educators. And of course, it's ABSOLUTELY TOXIC FREE - Recycled Plastic.

Kim In The Garden ;o)

Delicata Squash.....how do I know when it's ready to be picked?

Ahhhhhhhh, the 64,000 dollar question.

Most backyard gardeners know very little about the DELICATA SQUASH. These little delicate squash are cream or yellow colored with orange spots when they are ripe. It's best to raise them off the ground with some straw or some sort of object to ensure they don't rot while maturing.

DELICATA SQUASH (Cucurbita pepo) is a winter squash with distinctive longitudinal dark green stripes on a yellow or cream colored background. They have a sweet, orange-yellow flesh. It is also known as the peanut squash, Bohemian squash, or sweet potato squash (because they taste similar to a sweet potato).

Although considered a winter squash, DELICATA SQUASH belongs to the same group as all types of summer squash (including pattypan squash, zucchini and yellow crookneck squash).

They are absolutely delicious and easy to grow.

Kim in the Garden ;o)

The Chipmunk Stole My Stawberrys!

Yesterday, upon doing my morning garden inspection, I noticed all my strawberry's missing. EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!! And to top it off, I actually saw the culprit making his exit.

There he was, in full sight. One big fat chipmunk. He practically waved good bye to me!

Oh Well...................... part of being a gardener. But if anyone knows of a humane way to keep chipmunks out of the strawberry patch, please let me know.

Kim in the Garden ;o)

Mini Greenhouses

Mini Greenhouses, otherwise known as Cold Frames are a great way to get a jump on the growing season. With nine protective square feet of growing space, our newly added Double Cold Frame is perfect for the backyard gardener.

Cold Frames are a great way to start your plants early or extend and protect plants late into the growing season. Small and compact, these easy to assemble Cold Frames come in 2 sizes. Urban gardeners love them because of their convenient size and easy mobility.

Cold Frames are like Mini Greenhouses - only on a much smaller scale. Easy to assemble, portable, made of rust proof materials and SnapGlas panels which are nearly indestructible.

Take a peak.............

Kim in the Garden ;o)

GMO - Coming To A Town Near YOU!

I just had to share this article with you written by NaturalNews. It is so important that we be informed.

(NaturalNews) He who controls the seed controls the food supply; and he who controls the food supply controls the world. There is no question that Monsanto is on a mission to monopolize the conventional seed market. In fact, they are steadfastly working towards the goal of creating a world where 100% of all commercial seeds are genetically modified and patented- basically a world where natural seeds are extinct.(http://www.naturalnews.com/029325_M...)

Unfortunately for the global community Monsanto is accomplishing their purpose. They currently own 90% of the world's patents for GMO seed including cotton, soybeans, corn, sugar beets and canola. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environme...)

Yep, the creators of chemicals that will go down in history for their toxicity and horrific side effects, is attempting to take over the world's seed supply. Ask yourself- do you really want companies such as BASF, Bayer, DuPont, Syngenta, and Dow involved with your food? Sadly, to a large extent they already are. These Monsanto chemical and GMO cronies all share genetically engineered traits and create the patented herbicides and pesticides that GMO crops require to thrive.

Monsanto is infamous for taking advantage of small farmers, and with the advent of MoU's they are doing so with governmental license. Countries like India, Pakistan, Australia, and New Zealand have all executed MoU's with Monsanto. MoU's or memorandum's of understanding permit Monsanto to use publicly owned lands to create so called demonstration farms (GMO breeding camps) which in turn -at least in the case of Rajasthan - are subsidized by the government.

Monsanto literally takes farmer seeds, creates genetically engineered copycat versions, and then retains all intellectual property rights. Dr. Vandana Shiva, Executive Director of the Navdanya Trust, an Indian organization committed to organic biodiversity, states that "the MoU's will in effect, facilitate bio-piracy of Rajasthan's rich biodiversity of draught -resilient crops .... by failing to have any clauses that respect the Biodiversity Act and the Farmers' Rights Act, the MoU's promote bio-piracy and legalize the great seed robbery." (http://www.deccanchronicle.com/edit...).

It is common knowledge that GMO seeds are much worse than conventional ones. As with all of their agreements, Monsanto shields itself from any liability- so when the Monsanto's promises of higher yields with less work ring hollow, when farmers crops fail, or when mass suicides are committed because of crop failure and spirit crushing debt- Monsanto presses on with no worries. (http://healthfreedoms.org/2011/03/0...)

Farmers that sign up for Monsanto's seeds of destruction find themselves hooked. Year after year, no matter what prices are being charged, they are dependent on GMO seeds for new crops because GMO seeds - the bastardized versions they are - don't regenerate. (http://www.naturalnews.com/031742_G...)

Monsanto has no qualms about robbing farmers that don't play poker with them. As a mater of fact; it makes a business of it. Conventional and organic farmers in both Canada and the U.S., who have the misfortune of having lands that border GMO farms, often end up with trace contamination in their crops, making them (if organic), unsuitable for sale. Monsanto actually uses this situation against farmers and files patent infringement claims that they often win.

The result farm owners are left with exorbitant legal bills and fines often forcing them to shut down: clearing away Monsanto competition. In a savvy move for survival, a preemptive suit on behalf of almost 300,000 plaintiffs seeking legal safe harbor, has been filed in New York. (http://www.naturalnews.com/031922_M...)

Monsanto's product has changed from poison to food, but it has held true to its history of violating the rights and health of people around the globe. Monsanto is a 100% committed to the sale of their seeds of destruction no matter what it takes: bullying, infiltration of high government offices with company friendly individuals, or intimidation. The organic movement has taken up the standard against Monsanto's machinations in court as well as through grassroots education and activist efforts. The organic revolution is Monsanto's Achilles heel, and its goal is a world without Monsanto.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032826_Monsanto_seed_supply.html#ixzz1QVGd8gzD

Even YOU can compost!

Composting, it's easy. No one is wealthy enough to waste anything these days. So save all your kitchen waste. It's more VALUABLE then you know.

Here is a simple, inexpensive lazy man's way to compost.

1. You can purchase a commercial composter, or simply make a circle about 3 to 4 feet in diameter and 3 to 4 feet high out of wire garden fencing.

2. Place a 4 inch layer of long stemmed plants, sticks or other coarse material in the bottom of the bin. Now add your kitchen waste as it becomes available, dead plants, grass clipping and mulched leaves. Add water as needed to keep the pile moist - but not soggy.

3. You can turn the pile if you feel energetic, but this is not required.

4. The compost is ready to use when the materials you added are no longer recognizable.

It's easy, and you will be glad you did it. It's free dirt when you need to fill a pot or just want to give your garden a little "boost".

Kim in the Garden ;o)

School Garden Project

With all the budget cuts in public schools these days, it is great to see schools picking up the slack by teaching gardening.

This year we have seen a real boom in the number of elementary schools putting gardening into their curriculum. Now THAT'S PRACTICALITY!

Young kids love gardening. And as time marches on, we ALL will need to know more about how to grow our own food. With all the occupational opportunity for Organic Gardening that lies before us, how wonderful that these kids are getting early exposure.

Keep in mind, some city kids have no idea what a garden is all about. Many kids have no idea what a potato looks like, they think it looks like a French Fry. Sad, but true.

The top choice this year for school gardens is our Multi-Season Raised Bed growing system with Greenhouse Cover- A Complete Kit!! It's our overall best seller too. A simple and complete garden kit. Perfect for schools.

Kim In The Garden ;o)

Gardening Tips & Tidbits..........

Gardening Tips for the "Garden Newbie." Your goal is to grow the most produce from the least amount of space. And here are a few simple tips.

* Plant succession plants every 2 weeks in early spring and fall.

* Grow vertical crops that can grow upwards to save space. Trellis snow peas, beans, pole beans, and cucumbers. You can even get Butternut and Spaghetti Squash to climb a very sturdy fence or trellis.

* Avoid over-planting any single vegetable. Zucchini and Yellow-Neck Squash are the biggest offenders when it comes to over-production. One plant is enough!! Really.

* Plant medium and small-fruited tomatoes and peppers. The smaller the fruits, the more plants tend to produce.

* Garden with LOVE and LOVE what you Garden!!


Kim In The Garden ;o)

Urban Gardening Is The Rage!

The Urban Garden is catching on with fury. My last blog brought attention to our 4 new Raised Bed Garden Kits just for the Urban Gardener. Well.......... the response was tremendous.

The need for Small Space Gardens is growing at such a rapid speed. People are realizing the need to grow their own food, even if they live in the city. And now there is finally an easy way to do it.

Stop be and see for yourself. Our Urban Garden Raised Bed Garden Kits are No-Tool Assembly, absolutely Non-toxic construction, and small enough for a Small Space Garden.

They're Small, they're Easy and they're ORGANIC! Made right here is the wonderful USA!!!

p.s.: They make a great gift as a child's first garden.


Kim In The Garden ;o)

Raised Bed Garden Kits Just For The Urban Gardener

We have just added 4 NEW Raised Bed Garden Kits just for the URBAN GARDENER! These beds are completely no-tool assembly, made of non-toxic materials.

As with ALL of our garden beds, everything is non-toxic and made in the USA - And ready for your Organic garden plans! Now the URBAN GARDENER has some great gardening in small space options.


We are VERY EXCITED about these SMALL SPACE GARDEN KITS. Take a look, you'll see why ..............

Kim in the Garden ;o)

Why Grow Heirloom Tomatoes?

If you love tomatoes........ Heirloom Tomatoes are simply the best when it comes to FLAVOR. They are old-fashioned vegetables that have been passed down through the generations. Heirloom seeds are old-time favorites that produce plants with exactly the same traits, planting after planting, season after season, generation after generation. Some heirlooms have been known to date back 100 years or more.

And you can save the seeds and replant them next year. Many of the seeds sold in stores are hybrid, or even organic. These seeds are only good for 1 year. If you plant the seeds the next year, you have no idea what fruit it will bear. Hybrid seeds want to revert back to the original parent seeds. A great tasting tomato one year might be a poor tasting one the next year.

If you stick with Heirlooms, you have consistency. Plus you can save your seeds and save money!

Kim in the Garden ;o)

Urban Gardening And Safe Soil

In regard to urban gardening and safe soil. This is an important question that MUST be considered when contemplating a city garden. With air pollution, chemicals from industry and household waste, it is important to make some wise decisions about your garden from the get-go.

If you are growing flowers, this is not so much of an issue. But if you are gardening food for your family, listen up.

In an effort to grow healthy food for your family, you don't want to do more harm than good. Your soil should be as clean as possible. You do not want to use soil with lead and toxic heavy metal contamination. Auto exhaust, paints, etc. could be hiding in your soil.

You should have your soil tested-$30.00 or less. If indeed your soil has heavy metal toxicity, you can simply start from scratch and erect some raised beds.

A raised bed garden kit is the easiest and safest way to garden in the city. Simply order a Raised Bed Kit - No tool assembly, made of Non-Toxic materials.
Get organic soil from your local nursery and fill your garden beds. It's that simple!

Each year after that, you can rehabilitate your soil by adding compost which will bind up the lead and make it unavailable to the roots of your plants.

No Need To Panic - You Can Still Grow Organic.

Kim in the garden............. ;o)

Organic Farming And Our Beloved Military!!

Another great article on meshing our military with organic gardening and farming.

VALLEY CENTER, Calif. — On an organic farm here in avocado country, a group of young Marines, veterans and Army reservists listened intently to an old hand from the front lines.

“Think of it in military terms,” he told the young recruits, some just back from Iraq or Afghanistan. “It’s a matter of survival, an uphill battle. You have to think everything is against you and hope to stay alive.”

The battle in question was not the typical ground assault, but organic farming — how to identify beneficial insects, for instance, or to prevent stray frogs from clogging an irrigation system. It was Day 2 of a novel boot camp for veterans and active-duty military personnel, including Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton, who might be interested in new careers as farmers.

“In the military, grunts are the guys who get dirty, do the work and are generally under appreciated,” said Colin Archipley, a decorated Marine Corps infantry sergeant turned organic farmer, who developed the program with his wife Karen, after his three tours in Iraq. “I think farmers are the same.”

At their farm, called Archi’s Acres, the sound of crickets and croaking frogs communes with the drone of choppers. The syllabus, approved by Camp Pendleton’s transition assistance program, includes hands-on planting and irrigating, lectures about “high-value niche markets” and production of a business plan that is assessed by food professionals and business professors.

Along with Combat Boots to Cowboy Boots, a new program for veterans at the University of Nebraska’s College of Technical Agriculture, and farming fellowships for wounded soldiers, the six-week course offered here is part of a nascent “veteran-centric” farming movement. Its goal is to bring the energy of young soldiers re-entering civilian life to the aging farm population of rural America. Half of all farmers are likely to retire in the next decade, according to the Department of Agriculture.

“The military is not for the faint of heart, and farming isn’t either,” said Michael O’Gorman, an organic farmer who founded the nonprofit Farmer-Veteran Coalition, which supports sustainable-agriculture training. “There are eight times as many farmers over age 65 as under. There is a tremendous need for young farmers, and a big wave of young people inspired to go into the service who are coming home.”

About 45 percent of the military comes from rural communities, compared with one-sixth of the total population, according to the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. In 2009, the Department of Agriculture began offering low-interest loans in its campaign to add 100,000 farmers to the nation’s ranks each year.

Among them will probably be Sgt. Matt Holzmann, 33, a Marine at Camp Pendleton who spent seven months in Afghanistan. He did counterinsurgency work and tried to introduce aquaponics, a self-replenishing agricultural system, to rural villages.

His zeal for aquaponics led him to the farming class. “It’s a national security issue,” he said the other day outside a garage-turned-classroom filled with boxes of Dr. Earth Kelp Meal. “The more responsibly we use water and energy, the greater it is for our country.”

Mr. O’Gorman, a pacifist and a pioneer of the baby-lettuce business, started the coalition after his son joined the Coast Guard. The group recently received a grant from the Bob Woodruff Foundation, co-founded by the ABC News journalist who was wounded in Iraq, to provide farming fellowships for wounded young veterans.

“Beginning farming has become the cause du jour among young people with college degrees and trust funds,” Mr. O’Gorman said at the farm, where there were stacks of Mother Earth News magazines in the bathroom and a batch of fresh kale in the sink. “My gut sense is a lot of them won’t be farming five years from now. But these vets will.”

Mr. Archipley’s own journey into organic farming was somewhat serendipitous. He joined the Marines in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and married between his second and third tours in Iraq. The couple bought three acres of avocado orchards north of San Diego.

Mr. Archipley, whose looks bring to mind a surfer dude, found pleasure tending his grove after leaving the Marines and eventually secured a loan from the Department of Agriculture to build a greenhouse. His farm now sells organic produce to Whole Foods Markets in San Diego and Los Angeles.

In 2007, the couple started training veterans informally, financing the effort themselves. The new course, administered through MiraCosta College costs $4,500, with Camp Pendleton offering assistance for active-duty Marines.

Farming offers veterans a chance to decompress, Mr. Archipley said, but more important, provides a sense of purpose. “It allows them to be physically active, be part of a unit,” he said. “It gives them a mission statement — a responsibility to the consumer eating their food.”

Even in this idyllic setting, it can be a challenging process. Mike Nelson Hanes, now 34, enlisted in the Marines at 18. In 1994, six days into his basic training in South Carolina, his drill instructor committed suicide with an M-16 rifle in front of 59 recruits.

“He blew his head off,” Mr. Hanes said. “That was right from the get-go, at age 18.”

In Baghdad, Mr. Hanes served as a .50-caliber machine gunner atop a Humvee. “I was the one they were trying to kill,” he said. He returned home with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and a traumatic brain injury. He was homeless for over a year, managing nevertheless to get a degree in environmental social services.

“Being outside was my comfort zone — still is,” he said. Two years ago, he stumbled upon the Archipleys’ “Veterans for Sustainable Agriculture” booth at an Earth Day festival in Balboa Park in San Diego. Mr. Hanes still struggles but is gaining ground.

“One thing I’ve noticed about agriculture is that you become a creator rather than a destroyer,” he said amid ornamental eucalyptus shrubs.

John Maki, Camp Pendleton’s transition assistance program specialist, said the life experiences of young veterans equip them for demanding work. “For a comparable age, you won’t find people who have had as much responsibility,” he said. “They’ve been tasked with making life-and-death decisions.”

Weldon Sleight, dean of the University of Nebraska’s College of Technical Agriculture, which has six enrolled veterans, said discipline — a mainstay of the armed forces — was critically important in agriculture. “A lot of these rural vets have this wonderful knowledge base about agriculture,” he added. “But we’ve told them for years there’s no future in it.”

In Central Florida, Adam Burke, who left farming to join the military, came full circle, designing a wheelchair-accessible farm in which his signature “red, white and blueberries” grow in containers on elevated beds.

Mr. Burke, a Purple Heart recipient who suffered a traumatic brain injury in Iraq, recently opened a second farm. “Squeezing a ball in physical therapy gets monotonous,” he said. “And you don’t get the mist from the sprinklers or a cool breeze in a psychologist’s office.”

Matthew McCue, 29, formerly Sergeant McCue, runs Shooting Star CSA outside San Francisco with his partner Lily Schneider, delivering boxes of organic produce directly to consumers.

He recalled how orchard farmers in Iraq pridefully shared their pomegranates, tomatoes and melons.

“You learn how to face death,” he said of his service in Iraq. But in farming, he learned, “There was life all around.”

By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN

The Military And Organic Farming

Here is an article submitted by Annie White. What great news for our beloved military and for our economy as a whole!

The military is not for the faint of heart, and farming isn’t either,” said Michael O’Gorman, an organic farmer who founded the nonprofit Farmer-Veteran Coalition, which supports sustainable-agriculture training. “There are eight times as many farmers over age 65 as under. There is a tremendous need for young farmers, and a big wave of young people inspired to go into the service who are coming home.”

Sustainable-agriculture training offers this county a new generation of capable and knowledgeable organic farmers. It also offers an opportunity to soldiers returning from war to have a new lease on life as their attention turns from the stress of military duties to growth and the pride of providing. With programs such as this, those who are returning from service can truly ‘beat their swords into plowshares’.

Our Food Supply And The Freezing Temps!

Here is an excerpt from a NaturalNews article...................


Now there's news from Mexico that the fresh produce normally shipped to U.S. grocery stores has been largely destroyed by the freak cold weather snap that struck the continental United States over the past 10 days. As a result, prices on cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes and asparagus are set to double or triple starting right now.

Even worse, it looks like the supply of many of these items will be completely wiped out. You won't be able to buy them, in other words, at any price!

This is the fallout from the worst freeze event recorded in North America in 60 years. It has affected not just Northern Mexico, but also much of the U.S. Southwest. It also raises the question: Is the food supply further threatened by radical weather events?

Time to start planning that Organic Home Garden!!

What's Up With This New Food Safety Mondernization Act?

Here is a fascinating article by NaturalNews. Take a look...............

(NaturalNews) How will the new Food Safety Modernization Act actually impact small, local farmers who grow food for CSA's, local restaurants and grocers? To find out, I took a road trip to Texas and interviewed several small, local farmers to ask them, face to face, how the S.510 Food Safety Modernization Act would impact them.

I spoke to Farmer Brad from HomeSweetFarm.com and captured the conversation on video. You can watch it here:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=3F59F...

Here's a quick excerpt from our conversation about S.510 and the small farm exemption in the Tester Amendment:

Farmer Brad: To me, that's so un-American to say hey, you're going to stay in this box, and you can never grow your business bigger than that. $500,000 [in revenue] is your cap.

Health Ranger: It's destroying farming jobs.

Farmer Brad: It has made us start to totally re-look at our business plans and how we're going to sell our food. We're no longer going to sell wholesale, no longer going to sell to chefs or restaurants, it's consumer direct only.

Health Ranger: So you're actually pulling back from some of your expansion plans?

Farmer Brad: We are. We have actually, this last year as we've been watching this happen, we've been putting plans on hold, and pulling back our business... so again, that's how this is going to affect the local food system.

Health Ranger: Right.

Farmer Brad: Because we don't want to get too successful.

Watch the complete interview here:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=3F59F...

If you ever wonder who is destroying America's economy...
The answer, of course, is the U.S. Congress. By slapping onerous new paperwork and reporting requirements on small farmers (who aren't even the source of the food problem to begin with), the U.S. Congress is forcing farmers out of business and causing agriculture jobs to be shifted to Mexico and elsewhere.

When you hear American farmers saying they are going to "scale back" their businesses because they "don't want to get too successful" (to fall under the authority of expanded FDA tyranny over the food supply), you know the country is headed for economic disaster.

America was once founded on ideas of opportunity and that hard work is supposed to pay off. People who invest in their small businesses and grow them should be rewarded, not punished. But now, thanks to the U.S. Congress and the Food Safety Modernization Act, small farmers who find even a little bit of success selling food (because selling $500,000 worth of food is still a very small scale operation, and the actual profit on that might only be $50,000 for a full year of work) are about to find themselves punished for being successful.

So much for free enterprise in America. So much for local food production. Watch for food prices to skyrocket in the coming years, and watch as America's local food security collapses under the iron fist of the FDA driving small farmers out of business.

But that's what the empire wants, of course: Complete control over food production so that people are forced to buy their food from the sources Big Government tells them to. Those monopolistic sources are, of course, the powerful, centralized mega-corporations planting GMO crops and spraying them with chemical pesticides. Thanks to the FSMA, we are now living under a bona-fide system of food fascism.

But don't take my word for it: Ask the farmers yourself! That's what I've been doing, and their answers reveal a disturbing truth: America's food security is headed South.

Watch my interview with Farmer Brad here:
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=3F59F...

And it might be a good idea to start buying some heirloom seeds while you still can, by the way. Before long, local food prices are going to skyrocket, and you'll need to grow some portion of your own diet. That is, unless you want to eat mega-corporate "food" sprayed with Roundup and containing transgenic "biotechnology" approved by the FDA.

I bet that makes you hungry just thinking about it. GMO corn, anyone?

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030986_food_safety_farmers.html#ixzz1ApuUnJe8

Toxic Strawberries

Here is an interesting excerpt from an article in NaturalNews.

California recently approved the use of a chemical regularly used to create cancer in lab animals for use on strawberries that will be shipped around the world. The chemical is methyl iodide and some scientists call it the most dangerous chemical known to man. Scientists use protective gear when using it in the lab because of the cancer risk and the chemical's easy ability to damage our DNA. Of course, damaged DNA leads to problems for the holder of that DNA, and for all future generations that inherit it too. The chemical is also known to cause brain and reproductive damage, so it's a move that California has made to ensure strawberries will be about as unsafe as possible.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030958_strawberries_pesticides.html#ixzz1AgkEieC1

Now is the time to start up that organic backyard garden you have been thinking about.

Bumblebees On The Decline

(NaturalNews) New research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found that another vitally important pollinator, the bumblebee, is in serious decline. According to the figures, there has been a shocking 96 percent decline in four major species of the bumblebee, and an up to 87 percent decrease in their overall geographic coverage.

"We provide incontrovertible evidence that multiple Bombus species have experienced sharp population declines at the national level," explained researchers in their report. And in a phone interview with Reuters, study author Sydney Cameron from the University of Illinois, Urbana, explained that these bumblebee species are "one of the most important pollinators of native plants."

Over the course of three years, the research team evaluated 382 different sites in 40 states, and mulled data from over 73,000 museum records. They determined that bumblebees are needed to pollinate various fruits and vegetables, and that they accomplish this task in a very unique way.

"The 50 species (of bumblebees) in the United States are traditionally associated with prairies and with high alpine vegetations," said Cameron. "Just as important -- they land on a flower and they have this behavior called buzz pollination that enables them to cause pollen to fly off the flower."

In other words, without bumblebees and the special way in which they pollinate, entire segments of agriculture are threatened with extinction. Like honeybees (http://www.naturalnews.com/028899_h...) and bats (http://www.naturalnews.com/027971_p...), bumblebees are vital in order to grow food. Without them, humanity will starve to death.

Misleadingly, many experts largely blame various pathogens, fungi and viruses for the die-offs of these pollinators, while giving only a brief mention -- if any at all -- to the toxic pesticides and herbicides that are increasingly being linked to things like colony collapse disorder (CCD), the name given to the mass bee die-off phenomenon.