Posted on 02/06/2011 2:45:11 PM PST by DeaconBenjamin
Almost a third of global farm output depends on animal pollination, largely by honey bees.
These foods provide 35pc of our calories, most of our minerals, vitamins, and anti-oxidants, and the foundations of gastronomy. Yet the bees are dying – or being killed – at a disturbing pace.
The bee crisis has been treated as a niche concern until now, but as the UN's index of food prices hits an all time-high in real terms (not just nominal) and grain shortages trigger revolutions in the Middle East, it is becoming urgent to know whether the plight of the honey bee risks further exhausting our already thin margin of food global security.
The agri-business lender Rabobank said the numbers of US bee colonies failing to survive each winter has risen to 30pc to 35pc from an historical norm of 10pc. The rate is 20pc or higher in much of Europe, and the same pattern is emerging in Latin America and Asia.
Albert Einstein, who liked to make bold claims (often wrong), famously said that "if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, man would have only four years to live".
Such "apocalyptic scenarios" are overblown, said Rabobank. The staples of corn, wheat, and rice are all pollinated by wind.
However, animal pollination is essential for nuts, melons and berries, and plays varying roles in citrus fruits, apples, onions, broccoli, cabbage, sprouts, courgettes, peppers, aubergines, avocados, cucumbers, coconuts, tomatoes and broad beans, as well as coffee and cocoa.
The reservoir of bees is dwindling to the point where ratios are dangerously out of kilter, with the US reaching the "most extreme" imbalance. Pollinated crop output has quadrupled since 1961, yet bee colonies have halved. The bee-per-hectare count has fallen nearly 90pc.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
It’s BACK!
the rage in the early 70’s was the disappearance of the honey bee.
I thought they were all gone already.
cold weather = bees go inactive
Apparently they have identified the cause of the honey-bee colony collapse, “a one-two, pathogenic punch from a virus and two species of fungus,” and are working on a remedy.
http://planetsave.com/2010/10/09/mystery-of-honey-bee-colony-collapse-solved/
“Rabobank said US bee colonies were shrinking even before CCD struck because cheap imports of Asian honey had undercut US hives. Note the parallel with the demise of the US rare earth metals industry, put out of business when China flooded the world with cheaper supplies in the 1990s. This is what happens when free trade is managed carelessly”
This is Colony Collapse Disorder, not cold weather.
Has the homosexual lifestyle now spread to bees?
All I see anymore is those damn carpenter bees that bore holes in my woodwork.
I haven’t seen any since at least late October.
They were doing ok until the FDA ok’d a pesticide which is killing all the bees.
A pesticide which is persistent and has a long half life. Meaning it will survive in the soil for years (estimated to exceed 19 yrs) after its used. Its also cumulative so each spraying simply increases the impact.
This is aggravated by the bee-keeper practice of moving hives from field to field, which not only stresses the bees, it exposes them to more potential sources of infection and ensures that infected colonies spread the infecting pathogens to other fields.
Wasps are highly underrated.....as are moths, bumble bees and butterflies.
Honey bees don’t have a monopoly; their territory is limited to a few miles from the hive(s) while many other insects are going about their business.
So poor, stupid, non-rational, non-analytical, uncreative, un-self-willed, un-learned, unaccomplished, unmotivated MAN will not find, produce, implement any INVENTIONS to account for honey bee loses, should it become necessary. /sarc
MAN will just shake his fist in anger at G-d and walk dejectedly into extinction. /sarc
Somehow, without knowing exactly how, I think not.
There are all kinds of other insects that polonate our crops! Honey Bees are just the most visable and noticed. I prefer to see bunch of Honey Bees around my garden but have enjoyed the visits by the Bumble Bees!
LOL!
True enough, honey bees aren’t native to the western hemisphere but pollination was going on here.
Except he never said that. Like the article the quote is hogwash.
Yellowjackets/hornets are killing them off.
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