Make a Call, Kill a Bee, Redux

By Restless [Originally on goofyblog 10.30.07]

Earlier this year, I wrote about the mysterious death of bees this past year. Given the name colony collapse disorder to reflect the potentially catastrophic decimation of honeybee colonies in the US and Europe, a German study pointed to waves from cell phone transmittal stations as probable cause.

Not true. The real reasons for colony collapse disorder turn out to be much more complex, going to the heart of modern factory farming:

o European honeybee (apis melliferahas long history of human management; stores honey in bulk; lives always in large colonies (30 – 100K).

o During past 10 years, China honey underpriced US, leaving only pollination services to stay in business.

o California almond crop (800,000 acres in Central Cali alone) entirely depends on honeybees; can’t get crop insurance without 2 – 5 colonies/acre. Apples & blueberries run close second (90% bee pollination); peaches (50%); oranges (30%); squash & melons all rely.

o Factory farming means monoculture in the fields — no weeds, any other plant, no other insects; heavy use of pesticides.

o Bees must be trucked into the farms to replace insects killed by the pesticides. 100% of US commercial bee colonies are used just for the California almond crop, trucked in starting in November.

o Enroute, bees are fed high fructose corn syrup and soy protein. But these aren’t whole foods for bees, so cause malnutrition. After pollinating crop, bees have nothing to eat due to monoculture.

o Bees weakened by the above become susceptible to:
· tracheal mites — jumped from other species in the 80s;
· varroa mites — which carry 25 viruses, in the 90s.
· nosema, a fungus that invades bees weakened by mites.
· foreign predators – African beetles in Florida overrun docile honeybee colonies.
· pesticides used on the crop they pollinate.
· lower protein content of pollen — due to global warming.

o This year’s pollination process required emergency changes in the law to allow Australian imports of honeybees. But Indian bees have been discovered on an Australian ship recently and the Indian bees are host to a 3^rd kind of mite which would truly decimate the European honeybee should it make it to the US.

o The only beekeepers not affected are those that don’t artificially feed, use non-chemical mite control and do very little or no trucking of their colonies – equates to lower income, which very few pros can do and survive.

o Even before last year, world honeybee population had declined by 50% in 30 years.

Factory farming driven by petrochemicals doesn’t work, is headed for massive failure led by honeybee’s decline. Biodiversity is the only real answer. It’s all about pollination.
Do we want to continue to eat?

For more detail, see Gina Covina’s piece on AlterNet, from which this post liberally borrows.