Honey Bees: The Foundation of Nature
by Cornelius Rosario
Honey bees are responsible for 1/3 of the food made available to us in all of our local supermarkets and seen at our dinner tables. Honey bees are nature’s little workers that essentially put food on our tables. They make this possible because they are responsible for pollinating the plants we utilize in a vast amount of places globally. We should be thanking bees for products such as apples, almonds, and the pumpkin used in our pumpkin pies. These three are merely a fraction of what they are truly responsible for. The National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) gives a strong list of all the plants that bees pollinate, these range from nuts and fruits, to vegetables, to field crops.
Beekeepers from nine states and three countries went to West Virginia to get the latest word on this mysterious plague known as Colony Collapse Disorder. The main question was is there a pathogen, pesticide, or environmental stress, such as poor nutrition or genetics involved in the cause of this plague.
This leads to the major economic issues that will arise if CCD is not dealt with very soon. According to the NRDC, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has allotted $20 million over the next five years for research. Although it seems like a lot, that amount pales in comparison with the potential loss of $15 billion annually to the economy in the United States alone, and that number soars past $100 billion globally. Studies show that if the bee populations continue to decline at the current rate they are, this could become a national, potentially international, disaster for the food supply. This is why the federal government needs to put the necessary amount of money and effort into researching CCD and finding solutions as soon as possible. The amount of money that would be needed to be invest is only a fraction of the amount of what would be saved if the bee population was saved.
A new study from Harvard University has concluded that systemic neonicotinoid pesticides contribute to honeybee CCD, which has claimed billions of bees since it was first identified in 2006. The new insecticide was initially praised because of its claimed low toxicity to beneficial insects, such as bees. Although these low level exposures do not normally kill bees directly, they may impact some bees’ ability to forage for nectar, learn and remember where flowers are located, and possibly impair their ability to find their way home to the nest or hive. Today’s most recent research reveals that bees may still have a fighting chance in survival, but only if humans start doing things differently in the natural world. The three major enemies to bees are diseases, chemicals (pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, etc.) and habitat loss. CCD was a jump-start to the essential movement for the health of bees. Eventually legislation would have to take place to make laws and restrictions to stop farmers from using harmful growing methods. But it isn’t just government policy that needs to change. To make the natural world after CCD a better place, we all need to start doing things differently.
Honey bees, along with all bees, are truly the foundation to life as we know it, whether we believe it or not. There has been enough research that proves the large impact bees have on the natural world and our world as we know it, so this is an issue we cannot simply turn our backs to. There has also been enough research that proves that bees are in grave danger due to human action and it is up to everyone to take the action to show they care about the bees and everything they provide for us. Ultimately, if we don’t act now to save the honey bee, it might be too late. And no honey bees will mean no more of our favorite fruits and vegetables.
[Photo, 20140225-OC-DK-0001, by David Kosling licensed by CC BY 2.0]
by Cornelius Rosario
Honey bees are responsible for 1/3 of the food made available to us in all of our local supermarkets and seen at our dinner tables. Honey bees are nature’s little workers that essentially put food on our tables. They make this possible because they are responsible for pollinating the plants we utilize in a vast amount of places globally. We should be thanking bees for products such as apples, almonds, and the pumpkin used in our pumpkin pies. These three are merely a fraction of what they are truly responsible for. The National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) gives a strong list of all the plants that bees pollinate, these range from nuts and fruits, to vegetables, to field crops.
Beekeepers from nine states and three countries went to West Virginia to get the latest word on this mysterious plague known as Colony Collapse Disorder. The main question was is there a pathogen, pesticide, or environmental stress, such as poor nutrition or genetics involved in the cause of this plague.
This leads to the major economic issues that will arise if CCD is not dealt with very soon. According to the NRDC, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has allotted $20 million over the next five years for research. Although it seems like a lot, that amount pales in comparison with the potential loss of $15 billion annually to the economy in the United States alone, and that number soars past $100 billion globally. Studies show that if the bee populations continue to decline at the current rate they are, this could become a national, potentially international, disaster for the food supply. This is why the federal government needs to put the necessary amount of money and effort into researching CCD and finding solutions as soon as possible. The amount of money that would be needed to be invest is only a fraction of the amount of what would be saved if the bee population was saved.
A new study from Harvard University has concluded that systemic neonicotinoid pesticides contribute to honeybee CCD, which has claimed billions of bees since it was first identified in 2006. The new insecticide was initially praised because of its claimed low toxicity to beneficial insects, such as bees. Although these low level exposures do not normally kill bees directly, they may impact some bees’ ability to forage for nectar, learn and remember where flowers are located, and possibly impair their ability to find their way home to the nest or hive. Today’s most recent research reveals that bees may still have a fighting chance in survival, but only if humans start doing things differently in the natural world. The three major enemies to bees are diseases, chemicals (pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, etc.) and habitat loss. CCD was a jump-start to the essential movement for the health of bees. Eventually legislation would have to take place to make laws and restrictions to stop farmers from using harmful growing methods. But it isn’t just government policy that needs to change. To make the natural world after CCD a better place, we all need to start doing things differently.
Honey bees, along with all bees, are truly the foundation to life as we know it, whether we believe it or not. There has been enough research that proves the large impact bees have on the natural world and our world as we know it, so this is an issue we cannot simply turn our backs to. There has also been enough research that proves that bees are in grave danger due to human action and it is up to everyone to take the action to show they care about the bees and everything they provide for us. Ultimately, if we don’t act now to save the honey bee, it might be too late. And no honey bees will mean no more of our favorite fruits and vegetables.
[Photo, 20140225-OC-DK-0001, by David Kosling licensed by CC BY 2.0]