Bees and Our Food Supply: A Sad Story Looking for a Happy Ending

I just received an email about a bee cause.  Why?  Because. as you've probably heard, bees have been disappearing and dying off worldwide at an alarming rate.  Why should that interest a food site?  Because, the advocacy group CREDO Action explains, bees pollinate one-third of our food crops and provide billions of dollars in economic benefit. But, since 2006, bees have been dying off worldwide.  According to CNN, "Over the last five years roughly 30% of captive honeybees, which pollinate much of the food we eat, wind up dead at the end of each winter." Some fly off and don't return to the hive; many are found dead or dying by their (dare I say?) beemused beekeepers. 

CREDO Action wants recipients to sign its petition that urges the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to immediately suspend the use of clothianidin, a pesticide that--according to a study just released in late January by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)-- is an "unacceptable" danger to bees.  Furthermore, the EFSA claims that the industry's studies of clothianidin  (provided by pesticide manufacturer Bayer) are too flawed to be good evidence of the product's safety. Wikipedia adds the studies are "possibly deliberately deceptive."  Clothianidin is one of a class of pesticides called "neonicotinoids," which, the CREDO Action email says, "are relatively new and their use coincides with the rise of colony collapse." 

Is clothianidin the only reason for the massive bee die-offs? Will their deaths be a precursor to the drastic reduction of our food supply? I clicked further to see what the news media and the scientists they consulted had to say on this matter.  

The first thing I learned is that clothianidin is not the only enemy of bees.  There are (or could be) multiple causes of  bee decline including many other pesticides, diseases, parasites, stresses related to environmental change, malnutrition., and cell phone radiation.  Migratory beekeeping may also be partly to blame.  According to CNN, "The die-off is being mainly observed in captive honeybee hives--the kind commercial beekeepers tote around the country on flatbed trucks, stopping for a few weeks at a time to pollinate various crops including almonds, cantaloupe, apples and blueberries." However, wild bees are also dying off, and that causes scientists to worry even more. These bees have been compared to the canary in the coal mine, a possible indication of the declining quality of the environment.  

Scientific evidence seems to confirm that pesticides are an important cause of the problem, although probably not the only one.  The observed behavior of the dying bees resembles acute pesticide poisoning.  Bees pick up the pesticides when they pollinate plants.  Neonics are absorbed by the vascular system of plants and then contaminate pollen and nectar. Foraging bees bring pesticides back to the colony and contaminate the entire population. An article published online by Reuters explains why these pesticides are so damaging: "They are a nerve poison that disorient their insect victims and appear to damage the homing ability of bees, which may help to account for their mysterious failure to make it back to the hive." 

But this story may not end in tragedy. The CNN article makes these points:

• Honeybees aren't native to North America.  European colonists brought them here.  Their loss, the article says, is not a direct threat to our economy.

• Bee populations always decline a lot in winter. In the past few years, that decline has been even steeper than ever. However, beekeepers have been able to rejuvenate their hives and, by summer, bring populations back to past levels.

• Agricultural yields are rising, so the honeybee shortage has not led to a food shortage or even produce price increases. 

Furthermore, the Santa Barbara [California] Beekeepers Association (SBBA) believes that steps can be taken to reduce the threats to bees.  Here are some of the recommendations made by the organization's officers:

• Commercial pesticides should be applied only by companies licensed to do so.

• Applicators should avoid applying them to blooming plants and at times of the year when pollinators are active. 

• Those applying pesticides should use as little as possible and only when needed.  Customers should speak to the companies they hire about using their product in ways that do as little harm as possible to crops, gardens, and wild plants. 

So is the mystery of the disappearing bees solved?  Will better handling of pesticides make bee depletion disappear? If so, can we get pesticide suppliers to alter their habits?  Only time will tell.  But the banning of one pesticide doesn't sound like a total solution.

Source(s):

money.enn.com  "Honeybee die-off shouldn't sting"

http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/07/news/economy/honey_bees/index.htm

blogs.reuters.com  "Mystery of the disappearing bees: Solved!"

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2012/04/09/mystery-of-the-disappearing-bees-solved/

en.wikipedia.org  "Colony collapse disorder"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder

CREDO action  "Tell the EPA: Immediately suspend the pesticide that is killing bees!

https://act.credoaction.com/campaign/efsa_bees/?p=efsa_bees&r=6995402&id=54110-4873871-Svt%3DbPx

beforeitsnews.com  "Mass Die-Off Bees / California"

http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/01/mass-die-off-bees-california-2551778.html