Mysterious losses in honey bee population seriously threatens U.S's food supply

[Snowguy716]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6438373.stm

Many bee keepers have lost 95% of their bee crop and scientists don't know why they've disappeared. This is a very recent phenomena and it could spell disaster for the nation's food supply, as the bees are needed to pollinate many crops.

This worries me greatly, and top politicians are getting into the action now.

One particularly scary thought: It used to be that natural honey bee populations would pollinate our crops, but since we have developed so much land with suburbia, many honey bee populations have been wiped out, and artificial bee populations from bee keepers now do the work.

[monsoon]

Actually the bee that is being referred to is the European Honeybee and is not native to North America. The bees were brought here by the colonists in the 1600s and they did end up escaping and forming colonies that would appear to be natural but they are not. The bumblebee also pollinates crops but it does not make honey.

[dgreco]

Actually the bee that is being referred to is the European Honeybee and is not native to North America. The bees were brought here by the colonists in the 1600s and they did end up escaping and forming colonies that would appear to be natural but they are not. The bumblebee also pollinates crops but it does not make honey.

[suburban george3]

They've talked about this for going on about 3 years now. There are other pollinaters besides bees, even though they do the best job. I haven't heard a lot of "doomsday" speak about this, so my concern is on the low side right now with just a smidge of caution. It does bear watching for further developments....

[Captain Worley]

^ Agreed, and since most crops are genetically engineered, how much pollination from the bees is really required? I would say there is more of a problem for the garden centers and growers of that nature.

[monsoon]

^ Agreed, and since most crops are genetically engineered, how much pollination from the bees is really required? I would say there is more of a problem for the garden centers and growers of that nature.

[suburban george3]

Just to show that the alarm has been raised before about losses of honey bee populatilon,here is a link to an article published in March of 2005. At that time, a mite was the cause and was causing great concern....

Palm Beach Post article about Bees

[Snowguy716]

Since honeybees have been here for 400 years, and they did have "natural" populations rather than "farmed" populations that did pollinate crops, I referred to them as natural.

The concern is that there may not be enough bees to pollinate our crops because there aren't any natural bee populations around many farms as development has encroached upon them or in places like California where they rely on bee keepers to pollinate their fruit trees.