This is an important global story rumbling on in the background, barely getting the news coverage it deserves. With the wars is Iraq and Afghanistan, and then this global financial crisis, surely the problem of a few dead bees can not be of equal importance?
Well let me ask the question in another way; with the recent rises in food prices, you wouldn't want a global food shortage would you? That really would remind us all the fragility of life on this planet. Experts reckon that if the world's bee population disappears our ability to grown enough food would be seriously threatened.
Even in this high-tech era farmers throughout the world rely on bee pollination for about 80% of all food crops. Imagine a world without any fruit that grows on trees?
The Story So far
The first alarm was sounded in autumn 2006. Honeybees are disappearing across the United States, with half of the States affected and beekeeper losing 30 to 90 percent of colonies. The problem seemed to fizzle out in the first half of 2007 and then came back with a vengeance. The bees simply vanish relatively suddenly, with little or no dead adults in or near the colonies, leaving behind the queen and a few young. This growing problem has been named "colony collapse disorder" (CCD). Since then, CCD has been reported from Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and the UK, where one of the biggest beekeepers lost 23 of his 40 hives.
The Threats
Bee colonies are facing a mounting threat from mites that infest their hives, various bacteria and even climate change. Some scientist have suggested a link to between the rise is Genetically Modified crops (GM) and the decline in the world bee population.
Man's technology also seems to also have a deleterious effect on bees. German research has long shown that bees' behavior changes near power lines. Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. It's thought that the radiation emitted from mobile phones somehow interferes with a bee's natural ability to navigate.
The possibility that GM crops in North America is contributing to the decline in honeybees so far hasn't been given much serious consideration by scientists even though the timing of the honeybee decline appears to coincide with the widespread deployment of GM crops. GM crops are engineered to tolerate herbicides, so the farmers can more heavily spray their crops with pesticide. . The biopesticide toxins produced aren't thought to be toxic to bees, but are toxic to butterflies, moths and beetles. Nevertheless, in some instances, the toxins have been found to kill bees or modify their behaviour.
I have been reading about this subject for sometime before I decided to share my concerns, I'm not trying to be alarmist nor am I a scientist but clearly the implications are scary. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".
There are a growing number of reputable reports on bee population decline. Here are a couple of links, I do hope you'll read further.
Kevin Anthony Ashton is an internationally experienced Chef of 30 years who now wants to shares his recipes, culinary advice, opinions on food issues and humorous tales with you.
He writes a weekly column for Birmingham's Sunday Mercury (estimated readership 500,000) and is also a member of The Guild Of Food Writers & the British Culinary Federation. Kevin's food blog www.wannabetvchef.blog.co.uk
continues to grow in popularity. His food articles have appeared in newspapers and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic including Chicago Sun Times, Hotline Magazine, YesChef, Chef's Magazine, and Reuters.
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