Quick Shoutout To Bees

Where'd All The Bees Go?

Even if you don't know it, bees are an essential part of life. They pollinate flowers and make everything look pretty, yes, but they are also important for pollinating agricultural crops. "Indeed," says honeybeesandhelium.com, "estimates suggest up to two thirds of all the food we eat is dependent on bees for pollination, including apples, almonds, cotton and stock feed.” That’s a significant amount of food. A few years ago there was a panic involving honeybees; they just simply disappeared. Many people speculated but no one was sure on where all of the honey bees went.

Honeybee pollinating a flower

Different theories such as bee-killing mites and fungal infections have been popular to point the finger at bee deaths. However, the most obvious answer to this question is that humans are killing off millions of bees and causing billions of dollars in damage. “Scientists at the University of Maryland and the US Department of Agriculture have identified a witch’s brew of pesticides and fungicides contaminating pollen that bees collect to feed their hives” says qz.com. This is yet another grim reminder of the unintended impact that humans have on the surrounding environment.

               

          Of course, humans didn’t mean to kill off a lot of bees. But due to the competitive market in agriculture, farmers are finding themselves having to use more pesticides and fertilizer to grow plants and to keep bugs off of them. This mix of chemicals affects not only the annoying bugs, but the helpful ones as well. Not only were the pesticides poisonous to the bees, but it also attracted a certain type of parasite that killed off bees.

                

       “'There’s growing evidence that fungicides may be affecting the bees on their own and I think what it highlights is a need to reassess how we label these agricultural chemicals,’ Dennis vanEngelsdorp, the study’s lead author, told Quartz.” Although one specific product has not been banned, it would be unlikely to help as there are several different pesticides used that farmers now depend on that all seem to be affecting bees’ health. “’The pesticide issue in itself is much more complex than we have led to be believe,’ he says. ‘It’s a lot more complicated than just one product, which means of course the solution does not lie in just banning one class of product.’”

On the left is a picture of the variety of foods that bees play an important role in. On the left is a picture of the food we would have if we did not have bees to pollinate our food.

What Can We Do About It?

Apparently, not much. Farmers are stuck in an ultra-competitive market and need these harmful pesticides to keep up with demand. This technology has become extremely destructive to the environment and the only way it seems to fix the problem is to stop using the technology. One idea, presented by Raj Patel, is to follow the example set by Cuba. 

1. Food prodction is shaped by public rather than private demands

2. Chemicals such as pesticides have become an absolute last resort (rather than first resort)

3. Farmers are educated about the effects of chemicals

4."Genetic engineering has been severely restricted, allowed only if it can be safe and, radically, that there is no other way of achieving the same goals through other means."

5. Farmers even learn to live with insects and have develped intercropping, which is when a farmer plants one crop to attract a certain insect that won't eat the valuable crop and drives away harmful insects

6. "The Cuban government makes choices in the national interst about what suits the country, and the needs of the people"

And so on. Cuba bases their business on the precautionary principle: the idea that if we have a new technology and are not sure of its negative effects, then we should not use that technology until we are sure of its effects. America should take note, but probably won't. For one thing, these ideas are a call to action to the government as well as the farmers. The U.S. government promotes the idea of individualism and the growth of technology. To acknowledge that maybe some big companies don't have the best interest of the people at heart, and are just looking to make a quick dollar, might mean the collapse of the economic system. Indeed, it would be a slow process to change anything at all at first. However, for humans to decrease the heavy impact they have on the environment, maybe it's time to start thinking outside of the indivdual. 

R.I.P. Bees    

Sources:

http://honeybeesandhelium.com/where-did-all-the-bees-go/

http://qz.com/107970/scientists-discover-whats-killing-the-bees-and-its-worse-than-you-thought/

"Stuffed and Starved" by Raj Patel (158-161)