Posts Tagged ‘colony collapse disorder’

The honey bee continues to disappear at a dramatic rate worldwide. Many beekeepers estimate that, at the current rate of bee loss, there now may be only a ten year window to find a cause and a cure for this malady. In fact, the British Beekeepers Association has warned that honeybees could disappear entirely from Great Britain by 2018.

This mystery of the disappearing honey bee is called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). CCD is unique since it leaves bee hives with a queen bee, a few newly-hatched adults, and plenty of food, while all of the worker bees responsible for pollination just disappear. The truth is that the number of disappearing bees worldwide is quite staggering.

In the United States, beekeepers lost 35 percent of their hives last winter, after losing 30 percent the previous year. Internationally, similar widespread bee losses have been reported throughout Canada, Brazil, India and China, as well as throughout Europe

In general, international government agencies and organizations like the United Nations have done little to solve this escalating problem. In the United States, the House of Representatives held an emergency hearing last June on the status of bee pollinators in North America. The result of that hearing was an allocation of $5 million to honeybee research attached to the farm bill. However, that funding was subsequently cut in half during the last year. So far, in 2008, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has made just $4 million available to a consortium of universities for research into the problem of disappearing honey bees.

Unfortunately, international politicians are more focused on the potential warming effect of CO2 emissions on the planet during the next century. This apparent proactive approach to global climate change obscures the more immediate environmental threat that CCD poses to our health, diet, and food supply. Indeed, a world without the pollination of the honey bee would be truly devastating to national and international agriculture and it may occur within the next decade.

In fact, honey bee pollination is responsible for the growth of all fruits and many vegetables as well as livestock feed. It is estimated that bees pollinate one third of American food and three quarters of plants, including crops, fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, even cotton that is used in fabrics.

With the current lack of government response, the complexity of the research into the problem, and the rate of annual bee loss, it may be time for us to look at the world of agriculture without the pollination of the honey bee.

For an immediate glimpse of this dubious future, we can look to Maoxian County of Sichuan, China. It is an area that has lost it pollinators through the indiscriminate use of pesticides and the over-harvesting of its honey. The result is that hand pollination of pear and apple trees has become a common practice. In this part of China, the honey bee has been replaced by the human bee.

Consider that every spring for the last two decades, thousands of villagers have climbed through fruit trees hand-pollinating blossoms by dipping “pollination sticks”(brushes made of chicken feathers and cigarette filters) into plastic bottles of pollen and then touching them against each of the tree’s billions of blossoms. Could this method of pollination be a glimpse of our future? Humans replacing bees by hand pollinating trees and plants in an attempt to produce one third of our food staples.

Of course, it will be expensive to hire human bee pollinators. Remember that nature used to provide this service in the past for free. Consider that the cost of the loss of the pollination of the honey bee has been estimated at anywhere between fourteen billion and ninety two billion dollars in the United States alone.

In fact, many farms may not be able to profitably pass on such a large cost to consumers, resulting in many food staples that will no longer be grown. Of the food supply that will remain, price inflation will leave it out of the economic reach of many worldwide. Global famine will increase and diets will change. The result will be dramatic devastation for international human health.

In the future, other types of bees could potentially be trained as pollinators. However, to date, that experiment has not shown a great deal of efficiency. The result of CCD may well mean the honey bee will be replaced by the human bee. Unfortunately, the human pollinator is an expensive agricultural answer and does not provide a feasible solution to the environmental problem of disappearing honey bees.

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It is amazing how fast a huge government bureaucracy can respond when it wants to. Indeed, in a space of two short weeks, the United State government just recently proposed, composed, and passed a financial services bailout bill. The bill provides 750 billion dollars to bail out Wall Street.

Of course, the government had to react quickly because a lack of regulation and government oversight allowed a problem to escalate for many years into a financial crisis. I thought of the bailout bill and I wondered about the government’s response to the current mystery of the disappearing honey bee, called Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD.

CCD is unique since it leaves bee hives with a queen bee, a few newly-hatched adults, and plenty of food, while all of the worker bees responsible for crop pollination simply disappear. In response to this agricultural crisis, this year’s Farm Bill authorized several programs focused on pollinator-related issues. The Farm Bill included the development and protection of pollinator habitats in conservation programs.

In addition, the Bill identified pollinator protection as high priority research and covered bees and honey production in agriculture disaster assistance programs. It also required the USDA to report annually on the progress made in addressing colony losses.

Indeed, the problem of CCD continues to escalate. A few months ago, a panel of experts told a House Agriculture subcommittee that the U.S commercial honey bee industry lost a record 36 percent of its colonies in 2008. In 2007, the industry lost 31% of its colonies due to the mysterious illness that threatens the future of beekeeping and the health of a variety of important crops.

Almonds bloom in California in February each calendar year. Several months before the first bloom, beekeepers move their bees to California to feed and prepare for almond pollination. In the last two years, as early as December, the problem of Colony Collapse Disorder in California has begun to appear. Soon, we will see if Colony Collapse Disorder continues to be a problem for American agriculture next year.

The American honey bee industry is valued at more than $15 billion, with over 90 different crops dependent on honey bee pollination to grow. So, much of this country’s diet, the affordability of basic food staples, and our national health is at risk.

Unfortunately, it is a risk that lacked a sense of government urgency in June in the Hearing To Investigate Progress On CCD, held by the Subcommittee on Horticulture And Organic Agriculture in Washington, D.C..

Consider the oral testimony of David Mendes, Vice President of the American Beekeeping Federation, from his appearance at that June meeting (as reported in the American Beekeeping Federation Newsletter). “I spoke to the need for more sampling inside our hives of pollen, bees, and honey to identify what pathogens our bees are exposed to.”

Mendes continued: “ I shared my experience of collecting samples from my hives as part of a project organized by Penn State and the CCD Working Group. I specifically voiced my frustration that the efforts put into collecting samples (18 hives sampled 7 times from March 2007 to January 2008) have produced very little useful information because the majority of the samples still have not been analyzed in the lab. They sit in storage due to a lack of funding.”

The reason for CCD may be systemic pesticides or simply a bee virus, but a cause still remains unclear. The key to solving the mystery of the disappearing honey bee is money. Government funding is necessary to provide the research to determine the cause of CCD before beekeepers are ruined and flowering crops in need of pollination just disappear.

Certainly, Colony Collapse Disorder is a crisis that, if left unresolved, will eventually require a huge agricultural and beekeeper industry bailout by the United States Congress. However, unlike the recent Wall Street bailout that used taxpayer dollars, a compromise of our diet and health will add human suffering to the high monetary cost.

The 2008 calendar indicates that another spring has arrived in North America and the signs of the new season are everywhere. Buds have appeared on trees, heralding the arrival of new leaves. The increased daylight and the warming sun act as harbingers for the appearance of flowering plants that will soon begin their summer cycle of growth. Nurseries and home improvement stores; such as, Home Depot and Loews, are selling plants, rakes, shovels, mulch, and fertilizer.

Indeed, the familiar signs of spring are everywhere. However, once again this year, there is a real problem in nature which is tempering agricultural enthusiasm for the upcoming growing season. It is a problem that was first identified in 2006. The problem continues to be the disappearance of the honey bee. Once again there is little progress to report from research into this mystery surrounding the honey bee called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

CCD occurs when all adult bees disappear from the hive, leaving the honey and pollen behind. Few, if any, dead bees are found around the hive. Between 50 and 90% of the commercial honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies in the United States have been afflicted with CCD and the problem is making it difficult for U.S. commercial beekeepers to pollinate crops. About a quarter of beekeeping operations were affected by CCD during the 2006-2007 winter alone. It is estimated that up to 70% of honey bees in the United States have just disappeared due to Colony Collapse Disorder. The problem has continued during the winter of 2007-2008.

In addition to the ongoing problem of CCD, consider that news reports indicate significant regional problems with dying honey bees this spring in the United States. In Hawaii, a microscopic mite is devastating Oahu’s honey bee population and the long term affects could wipe out much of the island’s agriculture. Western Washington State has a developing agricultural crisis as bees are dying from a new pathogen called Nosema Ceranae. This fungus attacks the bee’s gut, making it impossible to process food and the bee eventually starves to death.

In general, the various problems with disappearing and dying honey bees are rapidly taking a toll on the entire United States beekeeping industry. It has been reported that the number of keepers who produce more than 6,000 pounds of honey annually has declined from 2,054 in 2005, (the year before keepers started experiencing colony collapse) to about 1,100 this year.

Internationally, a lack of a sufficient number of honey bees is responsible this spring for problems in blueberry pollination in Canada. The Fraser Valley produces about one-fifth of the world’s blueberries, but no longer has a sufficient number of honey bees to support its blueberry pollination, and honey bees are now being imported for pollination.

In England and Wales, proposals to protect honey bees have recently been announced by the government. However, bee keepers complain about a lack of research funding and the slow pace of governmental response since the number of honey bees continues in decline.

It is now estimated that nearly half of Italy’s 50 billion bee population died last year. That bee mortality rate will have a drastic effect on the country’s 25-million-euro honey industry (which could plummet by at least 50% in 2008) and wreak havoc on fruit crops. The worldwide bee epidemic has also hit France, Germany, Britain, Brazil, and Australia.

The increased cost of energy in food production and transportation has already led to a world food price inflation of 45 percent in the last nine months alone. There are serious worldwide shortages of rice, wheat, and corn. The rising cost of food has recently been responsible for deadly clashes in Egypt, Haiti, and several African states.

However, if the population of the honey bee continues to decline, worldwide events from higher prices and shortages of food will have only just begun. The pollination of the honey bee is crucial to agriculture and the world’s food supply. Without the honey bee, prices of vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs, and dairy prices will all spiral much higher.

The disappearance of the honey bee poses a threat to eating premium ice cream as well. Haagen-Dazs, (owned by General Mills) said bees are responsible for 40% of its 60 flavors, such as strawberry, toasted pecan, and banana split. The company is launching a new flavor this spring called Vanilla Honey Bee to raise consumer awareness about the problem. Proceeds from the sale of the ice cream will be used to fund CCD research.

The ramifications to our diet and lifestyle are enormous, but government’s response to the developing food crisis has been limited and slow. The disappearing honey bee issue has not been discussed in any Presidential debate or in any campaign forum. In fact, both of our major political parties have been silent on the problem.

Hopefully, American politicians on the campaign trail in the 2008 United States presidential election like Haagen- Daz products. The truth is that Vanilla Honey Bee ice cream may be the only way to bring the candidates attention to a serious, developing, agricultural crisis. A world without sufficient honey bee pollination will create a food crisis of economic, national, and international ramifications. Indeed, it is another year without a solution to the problem of disappearing honey bees.