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.
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