Posted on 12/30/2015 3:47:03 PM PST by presidio9
During these hectic weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, many of us think a lot not only about family, but about food. As we gather around tables to talk, so many of our holiday rituals centers around eating: cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, applesauce for Chanukah latkes, honey-glazed ham for Christmas and — especially in the South — black-eyed peas and greens for good luck on New Year’s Day. Kwanzaa literally translates to “first fruits.â€
Yet many of these holiday favorites are endangered, because the bees they depend upon are dying by the millions.
You may have heard about this crisis years ago and filed it away in your mind as probably another hysterical overreaction by environmentalists.
Not so. The threat is real and present. We all know bees make honey, and are therefore critical to the honey-baked ham and baklava that many of us have recently been enjoying. What everyone may not know is that in the process of making honey, bees pollinate more than 70% of the world’s most common crops, from fruits and nuts to the alfalfa eaten by dairy cows.
All told, bees are responsible for one in three forkfuls of the foods we love , from pumpkin pie and cheesecake to collards and Brussels sprouts; from chocolate and coffee to apples and strawberries. And here in New York, bees pollinate more than $300 million worth of crops such as apples, grapes and pumpkins.
But across the world, bees are dying at unprecedented rates, and beekeepers, farmers and scientists are sounding the alarm. U.S. bee populations have reached historic lows, and we’re losing nearly a third of our bee colonies each year — a rate that more than triples what was once considered normal.
Scientists point to a complex web of factors, including climate change and habitat destruction, to explain the massive collapse of colonies here and across the world.
But a certain class of insecticides, used on three-quarters of U.S. farms each year — and on about 140 different crops, including corn, canola and soy — has emerged as a clear culprit in the dieoff.
Sharing the same chemical properties as nicotine, neonicotinoids are neurotoxins that can kill bees off directly. These chemicals can also disorient bees and make it harder for them to pollinate and get back to their hives.
We need more bees
The insecticides may actually be addictive to bees, just like nicotine in tobacco is addictive to humans. Bees have been shown to actually prefer food sources treated with these pesticides to natural alternatives like sugar water.
Numerous lab studies have shown that these pesticides are a danger to bees, and last month the journal Nature published the first study to establish a direct causal link between neonic exposure and bees’ ability to do their job as pollinators.
By one estimate, these chemicals are 6,000 times more toxic to bees than DDT, which was banned in the United States in the 1970s over concerns that the common pesticide was poisoning wildlife and the environment, and endangering human health.
Based on this mounting science indicating the danger of neonics, the European Union has already banned the three most widely used neonicotinoids.
There’s been no equivalently bold action here, as pesticide manufacturers have managed to derail regulatory efforts.
The fact that our government is failing doesn’t mean the rest of us are powerless.
Major garden retailers like Lowe’s and Home Depot are already beginning to phase out the sales of neonics and plants treated with them. Some grocers like Whole Foods are beginning to label appropriate foods “bee friendly.†And some U.S. cities and states are limiting the use of neonicotinoids.
As consumers, we can plant gardens full of native, flowering herbs and vegetables, and decline to use bee-killing pesticides. As chefs, we can use produce grown on bee-friendly farms and use our menus to educate customers.
As citizens, we can and must pressure our leaders to get far, far tougher on a chemical that is imperiling the very future of an insect that is vital to the food we eat.
Does that pretty much sum up your understanding of the issue?
Not arguing with idiots on the Internet is advice I should follow more often.
Thanks for this.
My yard is awash in Milkweed. I forgot to mention that. It was seeded by blown-in seeds so I created several guarded patches for the caterpillars to feed on. We’ve had a few over the years and my granddaughter has had the opportunity to watch them grow from eggs to caterpillars (they flew away before we could see them).
Unfortunately, former milkweed wild patches along highway roads have been cut down by about 70% so traditional breeding grounds are being eliminated by ignorance.
Interesting about the component parts of aspartame being found in bananas. Do they act as a sweetener in bananas or is there some difference?
The honey bees stay home when it is cold and we have had some cold springs and summers.
That is why people are getting mason bees. They work during colder weather.
The mason bees working in cooler weather is definitely a factor in my making the move, but not the only factor. I've lived at my present location over twenty years and have watched the bees on the fruit trees and bushes each year. Until the past couple of years I'd see a lot of honeybees on my apple tree. I'd certainly see less honeybees on cool days but it blooms over such a long period that there would be some days warm enough for honeybees sometime in that period. Maybe just mid-afternoon many days, but I'd definitely see honeybees on the apple tree while it was blooming.
This past year I didn't see a single one. It wasn't just because it was a colder spring though. I have a couple of plum trees I planted a few years ago. They sometimes bloom a week apart so I miss out on cross-pollination and get practically no fruit. This last year, before the first one quit blooming we had some dandy warm weather and the second plum tree had a quick burst and caught up so they were both blooming at the same time. The weather was definitely warm enough for the honeybees to be out.
I didn't see a single honeybee. Not on the apple tree, not on the cherry trees, not on the plum trees.
Loads of honeybees in the late fall coming up to my hummingbird feeder from hives that a beekeeper set up in the summer a half-mile or so away, but none while my fruit trees were blooming. It didn't use to be that way.
I still got some pollination from bumblebees and various other insects, but fruit production was way down from what it used to be.
These same components can also be found in cherries, tomato juice, lima beans and more. To act as a sweetener, they must be bound together in the proper proportions. Aspartame was discovered by accident by a scientist working on a promising therapy for treating ulcers. He licked his finger after touching the Aspartame and found it to be sweet. Years later, the sweetener was finally approved by the FDA and made eating and drinking much easier, and more enjoyable, for diabetics everywhere.
During cold weather they are contently in motion to keep the hive warm and that burns up a great deal of energy. If you have any animals in the area (including humans) that may have raided the hive and taken too much of the stored honey you can kill off the hive.
Also a lack of early blooming high nectar flowers can kill off hives of wild bees where bees that are cultivated get fed when there is a lack of wild nectar.
I am planting black locust as both a living fence and to help the bees. Now I can add locust borer to the list of pests I have to fret about.
But masons are a great back up bee and while you don't get the bonus of the honey you also don't have to worry about getting stung.
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