The Garden Jungle: how to save our insects, Prof Dave Goulson

[@helenhawkins4054]

What a inspirational talk, it lifted my spirits , made my re wilding attempts with my garden seem worthwhile.🤗

[@Travellersjoy3]

Thanks a really excellent talk, I live in Southern Ireland and have found the Moors Meadows talks and films so inspiring, it would be wonderful if these ideas and work could be encouraged throughout Britain and Ireland. I’m managing my 25 acres here to increase biodiversity and I’m learning so much from Moor meadows thank you.

[@asensibleyoungman2978]

I'm turning my garden into a wildlife garden. Wildlife ponds, wildflower meadows, native hedges, trees and pollinators.

[@jsul2086]

For collaborative efforts, in the US, a group of similar mindsets is doing what is called "soil food web" basically if you seen avatar, they are saying earth is like that. fungi and bacteria break down minerals into a bio available form for plants... They elaborate a lot like plants help each other under the ground and communicate thru the fungi network!... I enjoy this, I was looking at my year old broccoli covered in aphids, they are not eating it, it is just their home until they turn to fruit fly's or so it appears to my almost year long observations of insects in my greenhouse. I watched a lady bug eat an aphid, I did not enjoy watching that, it was like a lion eating a deer. Anyways not all pests are really pests. I mean they are all over my plants, though they dont seem to hurt them. The flower peddles falling on the leaves and no wind to wash them off is the only thing that has hurt some parts, which I thought was the bugs fault at first...

[@MUSTASCH1O]

"Sterilised grassland" might be a good replacement for "improved". Part of the issue with farming is economic; we subsidise farmers' diesel and chemicals, and we don't charge farmers for chemical pollution into our rivers and natural spaces, thus we end up with an irresponsible overuse of chemicals and heavy machinery and a glut of cheap carbohydrates. We even used to subsidise the grubbing out of hedgerows! Utterly tragic. Part of the "problem" is choice though; people love meat and will continue to demand it, therefore we need technological solutions (robotic spot fertilising and weeding, and lab-based meat production are promising avenues). However, due to the subsidies the economic incentive to conduct this research is blunted, so development has been slower than economically and environmentally optimal. I think the economist Dieter Helm writes some compelling ideas on the policy and systemic issues that have led agriculture to what it is today, and what changes could be made to shift agricultural practises towards sustainability. A lot of it is about incentives.