Did you know one third of our food supply requires pollination?
You better Bee-live it!
Hello everyone, Crystal here for DNews buzzing with news about bees.
That’s right, the honeybee is finally getting noticed for its decreasing workforce and essential
role in our economy.
The honeybee has been an unsung hero of industry pollinating our food, producing commercially
used wax, and of course honey.
Government estimates suggest that around $15 billion dollars a year of the US economy currently
rests on the backs of bees and other pollinators.
But there is a big problem, scientists have known for years that these busy bees are dying
off and disappearing in a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder.
Originally a term applied to the noticeable reduction in viability of commercial honey
bee colonies, there is a growing concern that Colony Collapse Disorder is also affecting
wild bee populations.
It may not seem like much but the US honeybee population is currently less than half of
what it was sixty years ago.
And In some cases, farmers have reported a loss of bee population of 50% within a single
year.
You may be asking yourself, how many bees do we really need to keep our nation fed?
Well, in 2007 the EPA reported that the ever vulnerable California almond crop requires
1.3 million colonies of bees.
The average number of bees per colony is at 50 - 60 thousand so thats 78 billion bees
for California almonds alone!
or “a LOT” of bees.
Now, the problem is getting some high profile attention from the president himself who signed
a memorandum directing our governmental agencies to “broadly advance honey bee and other
pollinator health and habitat”.
So what factors will most likely be investigated?
Well right now, concerns for honey bee health center around a few major factors: poor bee
nutrition, loss of forage lands, parasites, pathogens, lack of genetic diversity, and
exposure to pesticides.
Much attention has been paid to the effects of neonicotinoid pesticides on pollinator
populations, but the White House memo goes broader calling for more research on pollinator
health, and the restoration and enhancement of acres of land for pollinators through combined
public and private action.
Monarch butterflies also got a shout out for efforts to protect their annual migration
and prevent decline of their population.
The drastic and inexplicable loss of pollinators has been an intense topic of research for
many years given its interest to farmers and scientists alike.
Now with the spotlight of government interest upon it hopefully it will be possible to design
new and effective means to address this critical issue.
What can you do to help short of raising bees yourself?
Plant flowers in your yard, don’t use pesticides to keep them pretty and spend some of that
disposable income on local honey.
Supporting your friendly neighborhood beekeeper will keep food in your mouth in more ways
then one
What you do think?
Should the government be concerned about bees?Subscribe to DNews and let us know in the comments down
below.
And for more on bees and Colony Collapse Disorder head on over to this video