Isn’t it simply marvelous to bite into a succulent peach or chomp down on perfectly crisp leaves of lettuce whenever the whim strikes? No matter the season, all any of us have to do is trot on over to our local grocery store, amble down the produce aisle and select from among hundreds of different fruits, vegetables and fresh herbs. We’ve become quite comfortable with the convenient and diverse offerings that we’re privy to and for that very reason, throwing together recipes has become such a breeze. Come to think of it, humanity is far more nourished than ever before, and don’t think for a moment that our fruit-and-vegetable-rich diet has nothing to do with it. Beyond all of that, have you ever stopped to consider how your rainbow-colored fruits and veggies end up on your plate?
A Considerable Amount of Crops Depend on Bee Pollination
Putting aside the crucial seed germination stage, the proper balance of sun, water and nutrients, pest management, harvesting, transportation and then finally the artful arrangement in store displays, what other factor could possibly be integral to the very existence of our produce? How about pollinators? Oh, right…those buzzy little guys. Sure, they’re helpful, but exactly how much do they really do? Well, let’s put it this way. Without them, we’d be living on twigs and gravel with a side of paper pulp thrown in for good measure. Seven out of nine major vitamin C-yielding crops around the globe (oranges, cabbages, green peppers, tomatoes, melons, tangerines and watermelon) partially or entirely depend on bee pollination for the production of their fruits and/or seeds. Essentially, we owe them our lives.
Before Going Further, Let’s Learn About Colony Collapse Disorder
Colony collapse disorder (or CCD) is a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or European honey bee colony abruptly disappear. While such disappearances have occurred throughout the history of apiculture, the term colony collapse disorder was first applied to a drastic rise in the number of disappearances of Western honey bee colonies in North America in late 2006. Aside from fundamental concerns about the survival of bee species, colony collapse is economically significant because many agricultural crops worldwide are pollinated by bees.
Trick Mother Nature into Giving Us What We Need
There is an entire body of agricultural science devoted to pollination management, ensuring that the ever-increasing global demand for food is met. We have become forced to find creative solutions, however, to the issues brought on by mankind – especially since altered environmental conditions have compromised the survival of naturally occurring pollinators. Such factors as deforestation and natural habitat reduction, heavy application of industrial-grade pesticides (which decimate beneficial insect populations), the development of unforeseen diseases (such as Colony Collapse Disorder) and the increased prevalence of higher-yielding monoculture cropping has wrecked havoc on the natural order of things. Science has responded with a clever solution designed to trick Mother Nature into giving us what we need – more eats.
Colony Collapse Disorder ?
What we do, in essence, is release the hounds…errr, bees, that is. Farmers “rent out” vast quantities of bees from commercial beekeepers and strategically distribute them among flowering crops such as almonds, blueberries, apples, avocados, alfalfa, apricots, plums, cherries and sunflowers at the height of pollination season. They are transported long distances (either from holding yards or various different farms) in tractor trailers to their new focus area – and in some extreme cases thanks to the outbreak of Colony Collapse Disorder they’re even flown all the way in from Australia to take care of business. Once they accomplish the pollination goals of the farmer, they are moved once again to a new location, and so on and so on. Honeybee colonies moving into crops during bloom send out scout bees that locate flowers and then they return to their hives in order to recruit more foragers, particularly if a crop is yielding nectar and pollen. The more frequently they visit flowers, the more successful the pollination effort since there is increased movement and transfer of pollen between flowering plant species.
In the United Kingdom, 70 major crops are dependent on them
Make no mistake, commercial pollination is BIG business — the economic value of worldwide insect pollination in 2006 was estimated to be $217 Billion U.S. dollars. That figure makes better sense when you recognize that 9.5% of all global crops require bee visitation in order to produce fruit. In America alone, pimped-out bees are responsible for bringing an estimated 130 crops (equivalent to 90% of total agricultural offerings) to fruition. In the United Kingdom, 70 major crops are dependent on them.
Other Eye Opening Bee Pollination Statistics:
- Honey bee pollination is worth about $15 billion to the United States food supply and is credited with helping to produce a third of the nation’s diet.
- In just the state of California alone, the almond industry requires 1.2 million bee colonies (which amounts to half of the entire supply of U.S. honey bee colonies).
- In 2006, over 500,000 honey bee hives were needed to pollinate U.S. apple orchards.
- The estimated value of Canadian honey bee crop pollination is between $1.3-$1.7 billion dollars, contributing $1.7 billion in increased agricultural production to their economy each year.
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Nobody knows what stresses pollination puts on bee colonies, or how far it affects them. The research hasn’t been done. What is certain is that by putting vast numbers of hives together in one place, they’re creating perfect conditions for the spread of disease. It’s been suggested, for instance (again, nobody knows for sure) that Isle of Wight disease in the UK a century ago had something to do with the practice of putting large numbers of colonies together in one spot.
Pollination isn’t big business over here, though obviously hives are rented out, or moved from one honey crop to the next. We simply don’t have the industrial-scale beekeeping you see in the States, and there are very few people making a full-time living out of bees. We don’t have CCD either.
Another suspect has to be the chemicals beekeepers put into hives. We’ve had to do it as well, since the arrival of the varroa mite, but we’ve never licensed coumaphos, which has been widely used in US hives. We know that chemicals used as standard until recently are persistent in beeswax. With all the other chemicals bees will inevitably pick up, nobody knows how they’re likely to interact. I find it very hard to believe that CCD is anything but a man-made phenomenon, but at the same time I’m not sure whether it’s altogether new. The US has seen big bee die-offs before.