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Sunday, May 15th, 2016

The Produce Aisle’s in Trouble if the Bee Crisis Keeps Going Like This

Author:     Robby Berman
Source:     big think
Publication Date:     May 13, 2016
Link: The Produce Aisle’s in Trouble if the Bee Crisis Keeps Going Like This
Stephan:   It is not just bees, and we are running out of time, As this report says, "The United Nations raised the alarm in February 2016. It reported that two out of five invertebrate pollinator species—among which are bees, butterflies, wasps, and beetles—are heading for extinction. Vertebrate pollinators—hummingbirds, bats, and the like—are doing only a little better, with one in six species disappearing. The UN report says that the 20,000 or so pollinating species are responsible for hundreds of billions of dollars in crops each year." (emphasis added) Here's is the latest assessment of pollinators. You can't say we haven't been warned.

Dead-BeeOn May 10, Bee Informed and Apiary Inspectors of America released their report on the health of the US honeybee population. The annual study was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and surveyed both small-and large-scale beekeepers to learn about the health and survival rates for their bees in the period from April 2015 to March 2016. The news is not good.

Terrifying, really, when you consider how important honeybees and the other 4,000 bee species are to the earth’s 250,000 types of flowering plants. Bees pollinate 75% of the fruits, nuts, and vegetables we eat.

Produce aisle

Mike Liu

They’re the secret stars of the produce aisle, and an absolutely critical link in the food chain. As Dennis vanEngelsdorp, a University of Maryland bee expert recently told the Associated Press, “Everything falls apart if you take pollinators out of the game. If we want to say we can feed the world in 2050, pollinators are going to be part of that.”

But out of the […]

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2 Comments

  1. I.v.d.B on Sunday, May 15, 2016 at 6:55 am

    Hi Stephan,
    Are you familiar with the present situation in France?
    After banning suspected pesticides the health of the bee popupaltions went immediately up. Not back to normal, however.
    Then …….years ago I saw a YT doc. where in parts of China the people pollenated by hand ( climbing in apple trees with feathers on long sticks) after the bees had totally disappeared in that (large) area.
    So, although DIRE it’s not (yet) the end of the world.

    • Stephan Schwartz on Sunday, May 15, 2016 at 4:47 pm

      Yes, I have done several stories on what has happened in both France and China, thank you.