this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2026
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Using CRISPR-Cas9, scientists engineered a yeast to produce the nutrient feed. Farmers could have it in two years.

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[–] motruck@lemmy.zip 3 points 31 minutes ago

And so the house of cards grows by another level. We'll just modify this to add this missing thing. Never mind why it is missing. 10 years later we are 9 layers deep on plugging holes we've created that technological advancements got us out if until they don't and whoosh the cards come crashing down. The hardiness of nature replaced by the frivolity of man.

[–] Nomad@infosec.pub 31 points 2 hours ago

Here in Germany farmers are payed for a strip of each field to be planted with wild flowers instead. They don't lose money at all and nature keeps a bit of land. Simple and cheap.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 35 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

That is awesome news BUT

The real reason is humanity being a bunch of irresponsible greedy fuckwads, and I fear that this will be used not in the "let's be less greedy, let's fix the problems and let's use this to help the bees" but more as a "woohoo, bee factory farming!" and "W00T, this means we can fuck over bees even more, let's go!"

Can we please stop it with the greed?

[–] Vupware@lemmy.zip 17 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Greed is incentivized both neurologically and economically. You cannot count on all of humanity rewiring their brain. We must destroy the economic incentives and then work on countering the neurological component.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 0 points 29 minutes ago* (last edited 27 minutes ago)

I dont think this is very true. How do you explain that 99.99% of people are super happy living their lives with just enough money to have somewhere to live and pay for food and some vehicle?

To me it seems that we have like 0.0001% of the population being super greedy and mentally ill, and they are the ones being talked about in the media and the ones turning Earth into a shitty place because of their enormous greed and lust for power.

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I doubt we can remove the neurological component, let alone without it fucking up. Greed is an abstraction of our old survival instincts since as a general rule the tribe, clan, village or whatever would counter the worst effects. The end goal should be to reimplement those social control mechanisms, what that looks like is probably regulation's and maybe beating some folks over the head with a 2x4.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Maybe we can steer the neurological component to focus on activity that offers positive benefits to society, like art. Substitute something good for something bad. It just takes a bit of time for the brain to find the satisfaction it used to get from greed in a different behavior, like music, or exercise.

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago

We can always gun for glory through selfless action, still selfish reasons but good results.

[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

explain how one would we or us stop it with the greed

[–] D_C@sh.itjust.works 1 points 48 minutes ago

It's a bit extreme, but I say we kill all billionaires and then fairly redistribute their cash and see what happens.
If there's no real change in greed then kill the top 0.1% of wealth hoarders and see what happens.

At some point the greed will have to stop.

[–] azureskypirate@lemmy.zip -3 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

Bioengineer some humans to not be greedy. 

Some humans because you can opt out, or you can choose it for your designer baby. Then there is a control and an experimental group.

The mad scientist in me is dying to see whether behaviors with moral connotations (greed) confer an advantage for survival.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)
[–] azureskypirate@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

licks fingers and wets eyebrows 

Hahah! An unethical study to quantify the survival value of ethics! Isaac Newton would agree that experiments are a necessity!

An economst's natural experiment, hehe! oh Adam Smith, when does self interest become greed?

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 18 minutes ago

Are you okay?

[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 63 points 8 hours ago (5 children)

So they solved a problem we create ourselves, by destroying nature, by making a product that now increases the cost of food and makes farmers even more dependent on corporate chemical companies to grow it.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 3 points 2 hours ago

Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland will be demanding a percentage of the farmer's crop because they saved the bees that pollinated it.

[–] HasturInYellow@lemmy.world 20 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

The GOOD news is that yeast doesn't really respect property lines. Or quarantines. Or much of anything. That shit will spread organically easily enough. It will be a while, but now that the strain exists (and is being constantly refreshed with the corpro product) it should help all beast everywhere. Maybe beast will start farming it like ants do. Would be fun

[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 13 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

So does Monsanto with their GMO crops and they successfully sue farmers for having it, whose farms were invaded by it. I don't see it as good news when a company can't control their IP. They'll criminalize possession and use that to drive weak competitors out all together. These people are psychopaths.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 2 points 4 hours ago

That's a lot easier to do with plants than single celled organisms.

[–] Tharkys@lemmy.wtf 20 points 7 hours ago (4 children)

Yep, you can't charge money in perpetuity if you solve the actual problem. Not only that, but bees will eventually become reliant on the product. This is how the US Healthcare system works as well.

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[–] emmy67@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

It's exactly the way they said drug dealers would work

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[–] Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca 257 points 11 hours ago (9 children)

The solution is so simple. Crop/pollen diversity. Instead of letting fields lay fallow for crop rotation, they could plant diverse wildflower meadows to improve quality of bee health for the traveling bees that get shipped around for crop rotation. Or the bee keepers themselves that sell the services of their bees, could ensure diverse flower and pollen options when their bees aren't traveling.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 32 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Instead of letting fields lay fallow for crop rotation, they could plant diverse wildflower meadows to improve quality of bee health for the traveling bees that get shipped around for crop rotation.

I can see a potential problem with this suggestion. How many of those wildflowers are net nitrogen fixers? If they are net-negative this approach could be draining all the nitrogen out of the soil during off-rotation years meaning large amounts of petrochemical fertilizer would have to be used to make the field productive again for nitrogen consuming crops (like wheat and corn).

[–] Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca 22 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

Key Native Nitrogen-Fixing Wildflowers:

  • Lupines (Lupinus spp.): Includes Texas Bluebonnet and various perennial species; they thrive in poor soil and are loved by pollinators.
  • Prairie Clover (Dalea spp.): Purple (Dalea purpurea) and White (Dalea candida) are drought-tolerant perennials that fix high levels of nitrogen.
  • False Indigo (Baptisia spp.): Sturdy perennials with showy, pea-like flower spikes (e.g., Blue False Indigo).
  • Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata): An annual that grows rapidly, making it excellent for disturbed soils.
  • Wild Senna (Senna hebecarpa): A tall perennial that produces yellow flowers.
  • Canada Milkvetch (Astragalus canadensis): A hardy, native perennial.
  • Groundnut (Apios americana): A vine-like wildflower with edible tubers.

https://edgeofthewoodsnursery.com/wp-content/uploads/Native-Plants-for-Nitrogen-Fixation.pdf

Cheers

[–] GreenBeard@lemmy.ca 17 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Several of those are going to be perennial and end up competing with mono-culture crops the following year(s) (not that I'm trying to defend mono-culture crops, but that's what they're planting). It's a good idea, but not necessarily as simple as you're implying. Still it's an idea that's not without some merit. The biggest obstacle to adoption is no one is making a significant profit off of it, so it's unlikely to see much uptake.

[–] Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca 7 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

You aren't wrong, but soil can be turned over, and the wildflowers can be removed.

[–] protist@retrofed.com 5 points 5 hours ago

What about the seeds they dropped the year prior

[–] Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 hours ago

Bees went fucking nuts for my lupine, even while living in an urban environment. Only problem was that the aphids did too. So many that it was revolting. I had to aggressively remove them every single day of the colonies would explode and destroy my lupine within a very short time. They'd suck it dry.

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[–] manxu@piefed.social 121 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Get outta here with your sensible, practical solutions! ;-)

[–] Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca 54 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (12 children)

Seems easier than engineering edible yeast to get them the sterols they need.

[–] protist@retrofed.com 3 points 5 hours ago

In the end, it probably isn't easier at all. Once the yeast is created, yeast is dirt cheap and easy as hell to grow, and wouldn't require managing a field of wildflowers that are going to drop seeds for the following year when you intend to plant crops there. I'm not saying it's a good or ethical choice, but the yeast definitely has the potential to be easier and cheaper

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[–] cobysev@lemmy.world 63 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Note for those passing through and not reading articles:

This is not a summary of the article, but OP's suggestion for a solution. The article talks about creating a yeast product that's lacking in bees' diet due to climate change and a lack of diversity in flowers.

OP suggests combatting the effects climate change has on biodiversity by planting your own diverse flowers. Which may work, or climate change may just kill those too.

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[–] sartalon@lemmy.world 28 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (2 children)

Do you want fat bees? Because this is how you get fat bees.

Ok~maybe I want fat bees.~

[–] braxy29@lemmy.world 19 points 6 hours ago
[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago

Though what if honey bees are only so docile because they don't have the energy to be assholes and this is the first step in a total bee world takeover?

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 18 points 7 hours ago

Wonder if I would grow some extra inches, if I made bread out of this yeast?

[–] inconceivable@feddit.org 10 points 6 hours ago
[–] FUCKING_CUNO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 95 points 11 hours ago (6 children)

This is both great and terrible. Great because "yay bees", terrible because now they have a synthetic stand in for a natural process which will almost certainly be misused

Instead of just PLANTING SOME FUCKING FLOWERS

[–] TheKaul@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

In a couple years we'll be saying honey "doesn't taste like it used to"

[–] logi@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

Where I live, honey is labeled with the types of flowers that the bees were feeding on. I doubt that "yeast honey" is going to replace the "chestnut honey" any time soon.

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