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To Bee Or Not To Be?
Bees – upon which the entire human food chain rests – are suffering a sharp decline.
As the Guardian pointed out Monday:
The abundance of four common species of bumblebee in the
US has dropped by 96% in just the past few decades, according to the
most comprehensive national census of the insects [a three-year study
published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences].
***
Sydney Cameron, an entomologist at the University of Illinois, led a
team on a three-year study of the changing distribution, genetic
diversity and pathogens in eight species of bumblebees in the US.
By comparing her results with those in museum records of bee
populations, she showed that the relative abundance of four of the
sampled species (Bombus occidentalis, B. pensylvanicus, B. affinis and B. terricola)
had declined by up to 96% and that their geographic ranges had
contracted by 23% to 87%, some within just the past two decades.
Cameron’s findings reflect similar studies across the world.
According to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in the UK, three of
the 25 British species of bumblebee are already extinct and half of
the remainder have shown serious declines, often up to 70%, since
around the 1970s. Last year, scientists inaugurated a £10m programme,
called the Insect Pollinators Initiative, to look at the reasons
behind the devastation in the insect population.
As the Guardian notes, bees are essential for human food production:
Bumblebees are important pollinators of
wild plants and agricultural crops around the world including tomatoes
and berries thanks to their large body size, long tongues, and
high-frequency buzzing, which helps release pollen from flowers.
Bees in general pollinate some 90% of the world’s commercial plants,
including most fruits, vegetables and nuts. Coffee, soya beans and
cotton are all dependent on pollination by bees to increase yields. It
is the start of a food chain that also sustains wild birds and
animals.
***
Insects such as bees, moths and hoverflies pollinate around a third
of the crops grown worldwide. If all of the UK’s insect pollinators
were wiped out, the drop in crop production would cost the UK economy
up to £440m a year, equivalent to around 13% of the UK’s income from
farming.
The collapse in the global bee population is a major threat to
crops. It is estimated that a third of everything we eat depends upon
pollination by bees, which means they contribute some £26bn to the
global economy.
***
“Pollinator decline has become a worldwide issue, raising increasing
concerns over impacts on global food production, stability of
pollination services, and disruption of plant-pollinator networks,”
wrote Cameron. “
The Guardian notes that bees are not the only pollinators which are declining:
But the insects, along with other crucial pollinators
such as moths and hoverflies, have been in serious decline around the
world since the last few decades of the 20th century. It is unclear
why, but scientists think it is from a combination of new diseases,
changing habitats around cities, and increasing use of pesticides.
The Guardian points to some of the potential causes of bee decline:
Parasites such as the bloodsucking varroa mite and
viral and bacterial infections, pesticides and poor nutrition stemming
from intensive farming methods.
As Fast Company pointed out last month:
A leaked EPA document reveals that the
agency allowed the widespread use of a bee-toxic pesticide, despite
warnings from EPA scientists.
The document, which was leaked to a Colorado beekeeper, shows that
the EPA has ignored warnings about the use of clothianidin, a
pesticide produced by Bayer that mainly is used to pre-treat corn
seeds. The pesticide scooped up $262 million in sales in 2009 by
farmers, who also use the substance on canola, soy, sugar beets,
sunflowers, and wheat, according to Grist.
The leaked document (PDF)
was put out in response to Bayer’s request to approve use of the
pesticide on cotton and mustard. The document invalidates a prior
Bayer study that justified the registration of clothianidin on the
basis of its safety to honeybees:Clothianidin’s major risk concern is to nontarget
insects (that is, honey bees). Clothianidin is a neonicotinoid
insecticide that is both persistent and systemic. Acute toxicity
studies to honey bees show that clothianidin is highly toxic on both a
contact and an oral basis. Although EFED does not conduct RQ based
risk assessments on non-target insects, information from standard
tests and field studies, as well as incident reports involving other
neonicotinoids insecticides (e.g., imidacloprid) suggest the potential
for long-term toxic risk to honey bees and other beneficial insects.
The EPA is still allowing the use of Clothianidin to this day. And see this.
And as I’ve previously pointed out:
- While being trucked around, bees are fed a diet of high-fructose corn syrup (and soy protein), not real pollen (see also this).
To recap: bees are fed junk food totally different from what bees
naturally eat with very little nutritional content, taken out of their
normal natural environment and shoved into trucks, and then driven all
over the nation.
The poor nutrition, exposure to numerous pesticides (and
genetically modified foods), and stressful condition of being
constantly trucked all over the country are hurting the bees. Why do
beekeepers do it? Because high-fructose corn syrup and soy protein are
cheap junk, and because the
widespread use of pesticides coupled with trucking bees around the
country is the low-cost industrial farming business model.
The bottom line is that raising and using bees to pollinate crops in a way that won’t kill so many bees will be more expensive … thus driving up food prices.
There is also evidence that genetically modified crops might be killing
bees ... or at least weakening them so that they are more susceptible to
disease. See this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this.
And as Agence France-Presse notes, inbreeding may be weakening the bees.
(On a side note, no one has yet asked whether silver iodide or other compounds used in weather modification
affect bees. They may not, but someone should test the bees for such
compounds and their metabolites so that we can rule out them out as a
cause of colony collapse.)
Albert Einstein reportedly said:
If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man
would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more
pollination … no more men!
That might have been a slight exaggeration, but Einstein was right: If we kill off the bees, we will be in big trouble.
There are also reports
of birds and fish mysteriously dying world-wide. While these may or
may not be connected with the collapse of bee populations, it is a sign
that all is not right with the world.
As I wrote two years ago:
First the frogs started disappearing.
Then the bees started disappearing.
Now, its birds. According to CBC, tens of millions of birds are disappearing across North America.
According to the Seattle Times:
Pelicans suffering from a mysterious malady are
crashing into cars and boats, wandering along roadways and turning up
dead by the hundreds across the West Coast, from southern Oregon to
Baja California, Mexico, bird-rescue workers say.Frogs and bees are so different from people that they are
easier to ignore. But birds are larger, more complicated,
warm-blooded animals, and thus closer to us biologically.
People will be in real trouble unless we figure out why the amphibians, bees and birds are dying.
- advertisements -
"How do we stop this revolving door?"
Get rid of the regulators and regulation and subsidies and protections (yes, that includes dimantling protections of patents and licensing of lifeforms and fertilizers and chemicales) of ADM, Monsanto, Bayer etc. The governments only function is to create cartels, monopolies and barriers to trade. These problems exist because of government.
"ADM's CEO, Andreas, doesn't seem to view our capitalist society through the same lens as most others. In one interview, he said, "There isn't one grain of anything in the world that is sold in a free market. Not one! The only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians. People who are not in the Midwest do not understand that this is a socialist country."
From the looks of things, "socialism" has done well for Dwayne Andreas. A report by James Bovard of the Cato Institute notes, "At least 43% of ADM's annual profits are from products heavily subsidized or protected by the American government. Moreover, every $1 of profits earned by ADM's corn sweetener operation costs consumers $10."
http://mises.org/daily/3934
as an example.
bt corn, gmo corn is among the main killers imo, along with monstanto's terminator seeds and pesticides and pollution. bees alone provide some 8 + billion in agricultural services in just the us. i love bees and wasps, they are cute, very intelligent, almost cognizant and completely harmless. amazing animals, thanks for putting this stuff out there. in china, in some province, they killed all the bees, and tried to pollinate by hand...impossible, basically a failure...if their number completely collapse worldwide, say like the collapse of the north atlantic fisheries or california wild chinook/steelhead/coho/king salmon runs, if bees go, we deserve to go extinct. we will anyway if that happens, we will have signed our own death warrant by then, but it'll be just desserts for fucking shit up so badly.
Maybe Monsanto is making a GMO pollinating insect to replace the bees. They better get it into production soon.
First they killed the frogs. I said nothing because I wasn't a frog.
Then they killed the bees, and I said nothing because I wasn't a bee.
Then they killed the birds. I said nothing because I don't really like birds.
Then they killed the people. I said nothing because I was watching "Money Drop" in HD.
+1
Priceless!
When non-GM bees are outlawed by Monsanto, only outlaws will own non-GM bees.
THAT's why they bought Blackwater: to kill all the "free range" bees once the GMO insect is ready.
ask Gary Shilling; with his positions in fixed income I am sure he can relate well to the plight of the bumble bees
survivor
planet earth...
last species standing
Dozens of dead pelicans confound N.C. beach town
North Topsail Beach | Shot, bludgeoned and even decapitated, dozens of dead pelicans have been washing ashore at this coastal town for six weeks, and officials are at a loss to explain why.
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20101215/ARTICLES/101219781
Sounds like a severe case of bored teenagers. Growing up in a rural area, we used to kill rabbits, gophers, etc, on a daily basis.
There is something wrong with the birds if they can be caught. I don't think you caught and killed rabbits and gophers with your bare hands. The only place I ever see pelicans is in the water or in flight. I don't think that bored teenagers are going after healthy birds, it would be too ambitious of an undertaking.
The question is always - who benefits. In this case I would suggest that the prime beneficiaries of global bee death are companies like Monsanto who are selling crops that don't need pollenation. Is it too much to ask whether these companies are engineering the global bee die-off?
Monsanto has patented genetically engineered strains of crops that are disease resistant and in some cases self pollinating.
When farmers buy these (more expensive) seeds to plant crops they are "licensed" to grow that generation. They are not allowed to harvest the seed and regrow for the next season. That violates both the "license" agreement and they can be sued for patent infringement.
The farmer could chose a different brand however they're costs in approved pesticides and EPA visits run just a little higher then the Monsanto option. Sure they ran the #'s
Its a lock..
Find a loophole, and in step the assholes (READ: CONgress) with Food Safety Modernization. Last time we modernized something (the financial system), look how well that turned out.
Boy, I hope you are wrong.Otherwise apples might get real rare indeed.Not only grains need Bees, after all!
They are dying of broken hearts.
Would that you were a bee.
George,
Good stuff, thank you.
The varoa mite has had a very large impact, had caused a great deal of problems 14 years ago when I did a research paper on them.
However, the other factors listed are valid. The breeding and use of commercial bees is very similar to our crops. Both are about higher production and lower price. The long term unforseen consequences can only be guessed at. The decline in the bee population is one of them, as well as the dangerous monocultures taking hold in crops such as corn and soybean in just the past decade. Can you say "Irish Potato Famine".
Now, the scientific community will argue that we can "stay ahead" of the pests and diseases, however, that depends upon the continuation of our scientific and industrial capacity. If we ever had an interruption to the research and it's implementation we would be S.O.L. on many fronts.
We are building a house of cards when it comes to our population and land usage based upon higher efficiencies of production per acre made possible by petrochemicals (fertilizers/pesticides) and machinery all dependent upon oil.
I know you write often about our involvement in the Middle East. It does seem a tragedy that we spend so much money and more importantly lives of our soldiers in a distant land. I have no doubt that the reason we are there long term is oil, meaning survival.
The modern societies of the world cannot be sustained by local organic farming; we have driven down a one-way road and it will not be pretty when the food and oil run short and the multitudes of the world go hungry.
Nautural crops (heritage seeds) and bee populations would be a step in the right direction; people just need to be able to afford to do so. It becomes a philanthropic and humanitarian exercise as well as beneficial to the bees.
Yes, thnks goes to both of you for your contributions on this subject. (looks like some right-wing idiot is running around flagging everyone who posts anything sympathetic to nature)
Excellent post. Thank you.
And thank you, GW.
This is halloween end of world scary. It is too bad we as humans are such bad care takers of such a beautiful planet. No doubt the powers that be will be able to explain it away. Let's see what is on HBO tonight.
Who cares about bees except that it's the first letter of business and bonuses.
Do corporations care about anything? Fuck no they don't.
don't junk this...
ALL of Amerika's problems can be laid at the feet of Korporations
Yeah none of it can be laid at the feet of politicians, and voters who allowed their votes to be bought by the premise that something could come from nothing.
Or at the feet of citizens who have become so lazy and undiligent that we gladly gobble up and slurp down the franken-foods, franken-news, franken-drugs, and franken-policies our politicians and corporations force feed us. We've truly become an Idiocracy.