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Agriculture Notes: Bees, Vertical Farming, and Water

Last autumn I was fortunate to be able to visit California's first, and so far only, high school beekeeping programme. As expected, one needs a team (students, parents, teachers, and administrators) to make this happen.

Dr. Daiga Helmeste—Associate Adjunct Professor (R) at the University of California, Irvine and science news editor for the Institute of Brain Medicine
Dr. Daiga Helmeste—Associate Adjunct Professor (R) at the University of California, Irvine and science news editor for the Institute of Brain Medicine

Especially since not all local cities allow beekeeping in residential areas. But here we have a wonderful programme at Westminster High School (CA) whose students are not only now working with bee colonies but also winning top science awards for research on bees.

The Westminster grade 10 to 12 student team was the Exploravision 2nd place National Winner in 2022, for a project entitled "Genetically Engineering a Neonicotinoid-Degrading Microbiome Bacteria Using CRISPR technology to create a probeeotic that combats bee mortality." More information about this research, Future Farmers of America (FFA) school programmes and other academic enrichment activities can be found on the school website, and on the FFA website .

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