Monday, October 29, 2007
Bee colony collapse threatening future food supplies
ScienceDaily (2007) — Scientists are working hard to understand the sources of a staggering decline in honeybees in as many as 27 U.S. states and countries in Europe and Asia this winter, said Cornell associate professor of entomology Nicholas Calderone.
For the past year, experts have observed a marked decline in the honey bee population, with entire colonies collapsing without warning. Approximately 50 percent of hives have disappeared and researchers around the country are scrambling to find out why. Scientists have termed this phenomenon "Colony Collapse Disorder" and fear that without honey bees to pollinate crops like fruits, vegetables, and almonds the loss of honey bees could have an enormous horticultural and economic impact around the world.
Says the PBS program Nature, "In the winter of 2006/2007, more than a quarter of the country's 2.4 million bee colonies -- accounting for tens of billions of bees -- were lost to CCD, Colony Collapse Disorder. This loss is projected have an $8 billion to $12 billion effect on America's agricultural economy, but the consequences of CCD could be far more disastrous.
The role honeybees play in our diet goes beyond honey production. These seemingly tireless creatures pollinate about one-third of crop species in the U.S.
Honeybees pollinate about 100 flowering food crops including apples, nuts, broccoli, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, celery, squash and cucumbers, citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe, melons, as well as animal-feed crops, such as the clover that's fed to dairy cows. Essentially all flowering plants need bees to survive.
A daunting question is: If honeybee colonies were so severely affected by CCD that pollination stopped, could we lose these crops from our markets and our diets forever?"