Interestingly, the study noted that crops that depend on insect pollinators, like fruits, vegetables, and oilseed crops, are higher in average value than crops that don't, like cereals and sugar cane. And the consequences of pollinator loss on consumer well-being (defined economically) could be even greater than the direct value of crops pollinated by insects.
But the finding that chilled me to the bone was the possible consequences for the crop category known as "stimulants." Because that includes coffee.
...the results indicate that for three crop categories - namely fruits, vegetables and stimulants [coffee, cocoa] - the situation would be considerably altered following the complete loss of insect pollinators because world production would no longer be enough to fulfil the needs at their current levels.
It's true...coffee needs bees too. And, like millions of others around the globe, I need coffee to survive.
(Incidentally, the shade-grown coffee that many of us favor because it's friendlier to birds is friendlier to bees as well, attracting close to 10 species of native sweet bees and far more bees than coffee grown in the sun.)
Bottom line: insect pollinators feed us and enhance the quality of our lives. But, in addition to colony collapse disorder, which is affecting U.S. honey bees, insect pollinators are in decline all over the world. It's worth paying attention to their plight.
]]>Something is up. In 2003, EPA approved a new pesticide called clothianidin for use in the U.S…on the condition that the manufacturer, Bayer CropScience, submit studies on the chemical’s potentially toxic effects on bees. Five years later, EPA isn’t telling whether the bee studies were ever conducted, let alone what the results were. And clothianidin is still in use.
Coincidentally, Germany suspended the use of clothianidin and its chemical relatives earlier this year after it was implicated in a mass bee die-off. France, meanwhile, banned similar pesticides years ago out of concern for honey bee health.
So what does EPA know? Stay tuned.
]]>Last year Congress recognized CCD as a threat and granted the Department of Agriculture emergency funds to study the problem. And the 2008 Farm Bill provides $20 million a year, for the next five years, to USDA for CCD related research. That includes building the agency’s internal capacity by hiring staff and so forth; making grants to other research institutions; and tracking honey bee pests and pathogens.
But Bee Culture editor Kim Flottum has been tracking federal funding for colony collapse disorder research over at The Daily Green, and the results are, in his words, “an embarrassment to the USDA.”
He’s right. The federal money flowing into CCD research sounds pretty good until you consider:
The funding authorized for CCD research compared to the economic value of healthy bee colonies. To put it into perspective, the total price tag for the 2008 Farm Bill is 307 billion dollars over five years. $20 million a year is equivalent to a little over 1% of the $15 billion worth of crops that honey bees pollinate in the U.S. each year.
Who’s steering the ship? USDA has been unable to give a clear accounting of how it spent the emergency CCD funds Congress granted it last year. At a House Agriculture subcommittee hearing on June 26, the head of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service was unable even to provide an estimate of how much additional funding might be needed to solve the problem.
Coincidentally, USDA announced it is awarding a long-awaited, $4.1 million grant for CCD research to the University of Georgia a few weeks later. Progress is being made—but we can and need to do better. As entomologist Maryann Frazier put it at that same hearing, “How would our government respond if one out of every three cows was dying?”
That’s why NRDC is also calling on USDA to get serious about tackling the CCD problem. USDA must follow through on its responsibilities under the 2008 Farm Bill. Moreover, the department should determine what funds are needed to fully address the problem, and inform Congress of its needs. You can help by asking the department to prioritize the issue and work with Congress to ensure adequate funding. Visit NRDC’s Bee Safe page to take action.
]]>The Apiary Inspectors of America's annual survey indicated 36.1 percent of commercial bees were lost this year, compared to 32 percent last year. According to the group, 29 percent of the losses were from CCD. In response, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture is contributing an additional $20,000 to Pennsylvania State University's CCD research efforts.
Apiary Inspectors president Dennis vanEngelsdorp says these bee losses are unsustainable.
"For two years in a row, we've sustained a substantial loss," he said. "That's an astonishing number. Imagine if one out of every three cows, or one out of every three chickens, were dying. That would raise a lot of alarm."
And if one of every three cows were simply disappearing off the face of the earth, as is often the case with bees affected by CCD, you can bet the federal government would be looking into it. The small but ever-so-important commercial honey bee could use some sustained, federal support for research into CCD.
]]>That’s right—the law of supply and demand has created conditions favoring rampant bee theft.
Beekeepers hire out their hives each year to growers who need to get their crops pollinated. A shortage of bees means the price of pollination goes up. For example, after heavy over-winter bee losses in the spring of 2005, fees for pollinating California’s almond crop nearly tripled. In California, Colony Collapse Disorder is contributing to a bee shortage that has driven the cost of renting a hive to $200 in some places—four times the cost four years ago. And that’s provided a strong incentive for stealing bees. The Associated Press reports,
As the price of pollination soars, each hive becomes a sitting gold mine, sheriff's deputies say. Skilled criminals simply dump the colony into a new container, and rent the bees to farmers as their own, pocketing the fee they're paid for pollination.
California beekeepers have lost $330,000 in the recent rash of thefts. Apparently some of them are even installing traceable microchips into their hives to foil bee thieves.
But bee-related crime will be the least of our worries if the honey bee decline continues, with managed bees contributing $14 billion to American agriculture each year, and some crops--like almonds and blueberries--almost completely dependent on honey bee pollination. It’s clearly imperative to get to the root of Colony Collapse Disorder and make the world safer for bees.
]]>It’s no joke. Eighty percent of the world's crop plants depend on pollination. Pollinators, almost all of which are insects, are indispensable partners in producing an estimated one out of every three mouthfuls of food we eat. Insect pollinators, like honey bees, pollinate products worth $20 billion annually in the U.S. alone. Honey bees have been in decline for the last ten years, but the recent disappearances of honey bees due to colony collapse disorder have really caught the attention of the media and the public.
The new Haagen-Dazs flavor, "vanilla honey bee,” will hopefully help turn ice cream lovers into honey bee lovers while getting some real results for colony collapse disorder research. (On that note, it’s worth mentioning that none of the three species of vanilla bean are pollinated by honey bees. But naturally I'll still show my support for the bees by trying the ice cream.)
By the way, there’s plenty more that you can do at home to help protect honey bees and keep the tasty treats coming. Check out NRDC’s Bee Safe page for more information.
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