or not to , that is the question.
Posted on 06/29/2008 5:43:52 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
WASHINGTON -- Food prices could rise even more unless the mysterious decline in honey bees is solved, farmers and businessmen told lawmakers Thursday.
"No bees, no crops," North Carolina grower Robert D. Edwards told a House Agriculture subcommittee. Edwards said he had to cut his cucumber acreage in half because of the lack of bees available to rent.
About three-quarters of flowering plants rely on birds, bees and other pollinators to help them reproduce. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion annually in crop value.
In 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives. This phenomenon has become known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Scientists do not know how many bees have died; beekeepers have lost 36 percent of their managed colonies this year. It was 31 percent for 2007, said Edward B. Knipling, administrator of the Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service.
"If there are no bees, there is no way for our nation's farmers to continue to grow the high quality, nutritious foods our country relies on," said Democratic Rep. Dennis Cardoza of California, chairman of the horticulture and organic agriculture panel. "This is a crisis we cannot afford to ignore."
Food prices have gone up 83 percent in three years, according to the World Bank.
Edward R. Flanagan, who raises blueberries in Milbridge, Maine, said he could be forced to increase prices tenfold or go out of business without the beekeeping industry. "Every one of those berries owes its existence to the crazy, neurotic dancing of a honey bee from flower to flower," he said.
The cause behind the disorder remains unknown. Possible explanations include pesticides; a new parasite or pathogen; and the combination of immune-suppressing stresses such as poor nutrition, limited or contaminated water supplies and the need to move bees long distances for pollination.
Ice cream maker Haagen-Dazs and natural personal care products company Burt's Bees have pledged money for research and begun efforts to help save the bees.
The problem affects about 40 percent of Haagen-Dazs' 73 flavors, including banana split and chocolate peanut butter, because ingredients such as almonds, cherries and strawberries rely on honey bees for pollination.
Katty Pien, brand director for Haagen-Dazs, said those ingredients could become too scarce or expensive if bees keep dying. It could force the company to discontinue some of its most popular flavors, Pien said.
Haagen-Dazs has developed a new limited-time flavor, vanilla honey bee, and will use some of the proceeds for research on the disorder. Burt's Bees has introduced Colony Collapse Disorder Lip Balm to "soften your lips while saving honeybees."
The House Appropriations Committee approved $780,000 on Thursday for research on the disorder and $10 million for bee research. The money awaits approval by the full House and Senate.
And yet, they can IGNORE what Bio-fuel production is doing to our food prices? Clueless.
Foodie/Gardening Ping!
Honey bees, an introduced species, are not the only pollinators.
I am not an entomologist, but I hope someone who has much more knowledge than I will comment on this. Is it truly as bad as they claim, or are the Rats just trying to get everyone stirred up, as they did with the recent tomato/Salmonella thing?
I don’t remember bees in my my cuke garden??
I’m paging an entomologist
They drowned?
If the sun doesn’t wake up, we will have a crisis we cannot ignore.
Gee, another harbinger of the end of civilization, just like the ominous frog die off stories a few years back.
I’ve been wondering the same thing as this has developed. The bees seem to be leaving the beekeepers, not dropping dead on site. Maybe they drop dead somewhere else, maybe not. Eventually could we find out beekeepers began doing something that seemed correct for the times-such as these times are-and drove the bees away, or killed them? Wouldn’t be the first thing that got messed up that way recently.
This is a serious problem, as it has a huge impact on agricultural production. The root of the problem is most likely that the commercial transport of bees has reached extreme levels, resulting in the bees simply being psychologically stressed beyond the breaking point and/or the wide spread of an as-yet-unidentified virus or fungus that’s damaging the bees. Bees were not meant to be trucked hundreds of miles every few days, let loose in a an unfamiliar field, and then trucked off again. Hopefully, the main problem is psychological stress, since that could be solved by farmers beginning to keep their own bees or local beekeepers springing up to fill the void. If the cause is a disease that has already been spread all over the country, this is really a crisis and a big investment in identifying the disease agent is urgently needed.
“...this is really a crisis and a big investment in identifying the disease agent is urgently needed.”
This? From Government SHRINKER? Dude. They just allocated $10 Million to research this...and they’ve been “researching” this for ten years now, already.
Again, I’m not saying that bees aren’t important; I manage a Garden Center; all living things need pollination to produce, but Jeeze! The LAST people I want “managing” this “crisis” is Government. I want them out of the way!
As soon as bee populations are up again and beekeepers are making unseemly PROFITS, will Congress drag them up to Capitol Hill again and slap a “windfall profits tax” on them?
Just kidding. Sort of.
Well, I’m not an Entomologist either, but a fly, a beetle, a bird, a dragonfly, a butterfly, the wind, a person with a Q-tip and a basic understanding of biology...all can pollinate crops, trees, flowers, fruit, etc.
One can also switch to growing heirloom varieties of vegetables, no matter WHAT Monsanto tells us. ;) Most are self-pollinating, hence the reason they’ve been around for hundreds of years. They don’t need anyone but their own little selves to survive and produce. Hey! They’re Libertarian Vegetables, LOL!
Shameless plug: http://www.seedsavers.org
I worked for this awesome company for seven years. Seven of the happiest working years of my life, even though I had to put up with a lot of Hippies. :)
After not seeing many honey bees for a couple years, I’m am spotting them on clover in fields around here this yesr. There seem to be more bumble bees too.
I don’t see where I said that GOVERNMENT needs to invest in finding a solution. I would think commercial farming companies with a focus on bee-dependent crops would be the most appropriate source of funding, as well as commercial apiaries. Though state universities in highly affected states such as California would do well to divert some of the funding they’re currently spending on idiotic things, to research on this problem. Given that taxpayer-funded state universities aren’t going away any time soon, they’d do better to spend their taxpayer money on researching colony collapse disorder, than on the touchy-feely politically correct garbage that they currently pour so much money into.
True. How did American plants get pollinated before 1492?
Gardening List PING!!!!!
Understatement.
I have seen honey bees visiting the clover in my yard but the only bees visiting my garden area are Bumble Bees. Wonder if the honey bees have specialized?
;^)
The media has been buzzing about this.
That is not going to take the sting out of this problem...
The bees seem to be leaving the beekeepers,....
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Perhaps they are leaving for better benefits and wages elsewhere.
Hive got to agree with you.
you dont think the trees and grass are going to turn against us and make us kill ourselves do you?
Bees were not meant to be trucked hundreds of miles every few days....
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Excellent point. Since all reports say that the keepers have not been finding the bees dead somewhere, you just may be on to something.
This is in Chat!
This is in Chat!
How did American plants get pollinated before 1492?
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I suppose that in those days there were plenty of bumblebees, flies, hummingbirds, mosquitoes, moths, etc. to do the job for the many naturally occurring plants and the few crops planted by the Indians.
LOL! I love puns.
This is in Chat!
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Okay, does that mean I did something wrong?
Don’t get fresh with me! and don’t call me your Honey...
Honeypuns?
However, I would have posted it into news, as it is a serious matter.
Also, sorry for the double post
Hymenoptera doing that today.
However, I would have posted it into news, as it is a serious matter.
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But I’m not the poster....
my personal favorite:
Are Mobile Phones Wiping Out Critical Bee Industry?
none | wild bill
Posted on 04/15/2007 6:31:50 AM PDT by wildbill
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1817681/posts
I am showing how much I don't know about bees but when we lived in the country I noticed bees in my yard but not that many. Then a huge pecan tree in our yard fell down in a storm and I discovered a GIANT hive of bees had been there for years, honey comb was everywhere. They moved someplace close I imagine, maybe the lost bees are doing that too.
Maybe it's a “Take This Job and Shove It” kinda thing. LOL!
It’s not an original thought. It’s one of the explanations that’s been proposed by researchers. It makes some sense because it would explain why the “disorder” didn’t first hit regionally and then spread from an identifiable point of origin. On the other hand, I’ve read that 2/3rds of the commercial pollinating bees in the continental US spend time in California each year, so an infectious agent that originated there could pretty well have started taking hold nationwide all at once.
My guess is that the full answer is going to be pretty complex. Something along the lines of an infectious agent to which many bees had genetic resistance, but that stress resistance was dependent on genes that were predominantly found in individual bees which were NOT resistant to the infectious agent. Bees are such utterly communal creatures that it’s entirely possible that as long as a good portion of bees in any given hive are genetically stress resistant, the rest of the bees will do fine just be taking cues from the stress resistant ones. Then a disease comes along and knocks out the stress resistant ones, and the remaining ones, though disease free, suddenly decide “Oh crap! I just can’t take all this travelling stress anymore. I’ll just settle down in this field and hope I hook up with a new hive somewhere, ‘cause I can’t face going home to that perpetually moving hive anymore!”
This is, after all, a species in which the presence of one female with functioning ovaries will prevent any other female in the hive from developing functioning ovaries. And the death of the egg-laying queen will cause all the young sterile female bees to suddenly think “Oh crap, we gotta hurry up and pick out one female larva less than 3 days old and feed it nothing but royal jelly so it will turn into a queen!” And somehow they agree on which one of the many female larvae in the hive will get this honor, and proceed to feed it differently from how they feed all the other male and female larvae. The mind of a bee is hard to fathom . . .
“...they’d do better to spend their taxpayer money on researching colony collapse disorder, than on the touchy-feely politically correct garbage that they currently pour so much money into.”
Well, I can’t disagree with that, LOL!
LOL! OK. That recipe has to be shared again!
Queen of Sheba Chocolate Cake
4 oz (4 squares, semi-sweet chocolate
2 Tbs rum or coffee
1/4 lb butter at room temperature
2/3 cup plus 1 Tbs sugar
3 egg, separated
1/3 cup finely ground almonds
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup cake flour, measured then sifted
*I also add a 1/2 cup of dried currants that have been soaked in rum or brandy to plump them up again; personal preference. You could also use dried cranberries if you don’t have currants available.
For the icing:
2 oz (2 squares) semi-sweet chocolate
2 Tbs rum or coffee
6 Tbs butter at room temperature
Melt the chocolate and rum or coffee in a pot set over simmering water, stirring to combine. Cream the butter and 2/3 cup (160 ml) sugar together until pale yellow and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks.
In a separate bowl beat the egg whites and 1 tablespoon (15 ml) sugar until stiff. Combine the chocolate mixture, butter mixture, ground almonds, almond extract, and blend thoroughly. Fold 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, followed by 1/4 of the sifted flour. Repeat until all the egg whites and flour have been incorporated.
Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch (20 cm) round cake pan, pushing the batter to the edges of the pan with a spatula.
Bake in the center of a preheated 350F (180C) oven for about 25 minutes. When done, the cake will have puffed up, the outer edges of the cake should be firm, and the center should move slightly when the pan is shaken. A toothpick inserted in the outer portion should come out clean, and slightly oily when inserted in the center. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Run the blade of a knife around the inside of the pan and invert the cake onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before icing.
To prepare the icing, melt the chocolate and rum or coffee in a pot set over simmering water, stirring to combine. Remove from the heat and beat in the butter 1 tablespoon (15 ml) at a time. Place the pot in a large bowl filled with ice water and continue beating until the mixture has cooled to spreading consistency. Spread the icing over the cake with a knife or spatula and decorate with whole almonds.
Makes 1 cake to serve 6 to 8, or ONE if you’re baking it for my Husband as a Birthday Cake, LOL!
Check this out! This is the type of little shop I’m going to have one day! I’ve been working on pulling together a “Chocolate Garden” display at work. One day it will come to fruition! :)
http://www.chocolateflowerfarm.com/
My cukes are always alive with bees early in the morning and again late in the day. This year I have noticed many a wasp in my broccoli, brussel sprouts and butter beans.
Good luck w/your master plan, and thks for that recipe again!
visiting my garden area are Bumble Bees.
The Bumble Bee is a better worker then the Honey Bee. He covers twice as much territory because he is faster.
bookmark
Honeypuns?
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Bee-have. Don’t wax poetic and give me the hives.
or not to , that is the question.
[’Civ straightens his tie]
Three words: Ed “Kookie” Byrnes.
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