Collapsing Bee Populations

Collapsing ecosystems be they on land or on water are a huge threat to our planet. In particular the rapid collapse in bee populations has the potential to impact the amount of fruits and vegetables produced. The reality is that about a third of the food humans take for granted and require for a healthy diet depends on pollinators.

In the last ten years, beekeepers have been noticing that honeybee populations have been dying off at increasingly rapid rates. Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) as this loss of bees is called is now an urgent crisis. A recent report by Kelsey Kopec & Lori Ann Burd from the Center for Biological Diversity found that among native bee species with sufficient data to assess (1,437), more than half (749) are declining and that nearly 1 in 4 species is imperiled and at increasing risk of extinction.

In California alone honey production fell by fifty percent in less than six years. Some of this has been attributed to insecticides, shrinking habitats, multiple viruses, poor nutrition and genetics, and even cell phone towers. In addition, the recent severe drought has also affected the honey yield and bee numbers as less rain means less flowers available to pollinate.

Worldwide insecticides in particular pose the most direct risk to pollinators. As their name implies, these are chemicals designed to kill insects. Another clear culprit is the varroa mite, a lethal parasite that spreads easily between colonies. In a vicious cycle, since 1987 when the Varroa mite was first discovered in the US, Monsanto, Dow, Bayer and other large chemical manufacturers began selling genetically modified insecticides and herbicides as a quick fix. However the fix may turn out to have been even more damaging as it has essentially weakened the bees’ natural genetic defenses to fight off the parasite. Monsanto’s contribution has been well documented including In an article in the Guardian in 2014, Monsanto produces an insecticide called Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt) that binds to receptors within the bee’s stomach lining that keeps the bee from eating.

Europe and Australia where the health of insects and humans is deemed more important than corporate profit, have passed laws banning bee killing insecticides which in large part has largely saved the bee populations from being decimated to the same extent as in the US.. We need to do the same thing in the US namely banning bee-killing pesticides and unsustainable industrial agriculture and instead promoting ecological farming.