Honeybee colony collapse has accelerated dramatically in the USA over the past six decades. Bee colony numbers declined by over 40%, from 5.9 million to 2.4 million, and at the current rate managed honey bees will disappear by 2035 [Source: Committee on the Status of Pollinators presentation to the U.S. House of Representatives, March 29, 2007, as cited by Amadeo, K. (2013). “Bee Colony Collapse Disorder”, U.S. Economy section on About.com, accessed 30 May 2013 at http://useconomy.about.com/od/glossary/g/Bee-Colony-Collapse-Syndrome.htm Since 2006, when colony collapse disorder (CCD) was recognized as a serious threat, the news buzz has become even grimmer. A USDA/USEPA report released in May 2013 explained that CCD is caused by a complex of stresses, including imported parasitic mite pests, viral and bacterial diseases, synthetic pesticides and fungicides, poor nutrition, genetics, and other factors (see http://www.usda.gov/documents/ReportHoneyBeeHealth.pdf
Neonicotinoid class insecticides derived from nicotine, which include clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, have been implicated in weakening honeybee immune systems during feeding/pollination (Amadeo, 2013). “The explosive growth of neonicotinoids since 2005 has roughly tracked rising bee deaths. Herbicide use has grown as farmers have adopted crop varieties, from corn to sunflowers, which are genetically modified to survive spraying with weedkillers. Experts say some fungicides have been laced with regulators that keep insects from maturing, a problem some beekeepers have reported. Eric Mussen, an apiculturist at the University of California, Davis, said analysts had documented about 150 chemical residues in pollen and wax gathered from beehives. ‘Where do you start?’ Dr. Mussen said. ‘When you have all these chemicals at a sublethal level, how do they react with each other? What are the consequences?’ ” [quoted from Wines, M. (2013). “Mystery Malady Kills More Bees, Heightening Worry on Farms”, New York Times Environment: Science section, published 28 March 2013, accessed 20 May 2013 at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/science/earth/soaring-bee-deaths-in-2012-sound-alarm-on-malady.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0].
So what? Well, for starters, honeybees are a huge economic driver of a healthy agricultural industry, not even counting honey sales. Again citing Amadeo (2013), “The western honey bee Apis mellifera is the world’s premier managed pollinator species. Demand for its services has soared from fruit, nut (especially almonds) and vegetable growers. This represents almost 100 crop species, making up one-third of the average diet. The economic benefit of honeybee pollination is estimated at more than $20 billion to American agricultural production annually.” According to Wines (2013), honeybee pollination is critical throughout the nation, especially in California: “Fewer bees means smaller harvests and higher food prices. Almonds are a bellwether. Eighty percent of the nation’s almonds grow here [California], and 80 percent of those are exported, a multibillion-dollar crop crucial to California agriculture. Pollinating up to 800,000 acres, with at least two hives per acre, takes as many as two-thirds of all commercial hives… Bee shortages pushed the cost to farmers of renting bees to $200 per hive at times, 20 percent above normal. That, too, may translate into higher prices for food.”
According to the most recent data (March 2013) from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), honey production in 2012 from U.S. producers with five or more colonies totaled 147 million pounds, which was produced from 2.62 million honeybee colonies. Yield per colony averaged 56.1 pounds and honey prices increasing to a record high during 2012 to 195.1 cents per pound. Annual value of honey production in the USA is approximately $300 million (accessed 30 May 2013 at http://www.abfnet.org/associations/10537/files/Hone-03-18-2013.pdf In addition, about 3.9 million pounds of beeswax worth about $7 million are produced annually as a byproduct of the honey harvest [Hansen, R. (2012). “Bees Profile.” Accessed on 30 May 2013 at http://www.agmrc.org/commodities__products/livestock/bees-profile/].
Honeybees are social insects that work together to maintain the hive while providing a vital ecological role to pollinate important food crops for humans. But ironically, these human helpers are experiencing a deleterious and uncertain future, as are many other species providing essential ecological services in the web of life on Earth, at the hands of humans. In particular, human technology in the form of synthetic petrochemicals, radioactive wastes, and extractive mechanical logging/mining/agriculture operations at massive scales in space and time represent an aggravated assault on the planet’s biodiversity. Along with human-induced global warming, we have further acerbated the threat.
Granted that our technology was designed with good and noble intentions to help humans live long and happy lives, its unintended consequences resulting in impacts dire far outweigh the benefits. Pumping highly toxic chemicals underground to recover natural gas through hydrofracking can pollute and compromise our groundwater supply. Injecting antibiotics into livestock at factory farms and spraying antibiotics on orchards can develop microbial pathogens (“superbugs”) resistant to antibiotics. Corporate patenting of seed that precludes farmers from collecting and planting their own crop seed is a grave threat to food security. Genetically engineering food that we ingest and incorporate into our bodies may have unknown pathological effects. Under the flag of “innovation, progress and profit” these and other technological assaults demand urgent action to embrace the ethics and practice of the Precautionary Principle—first, do no harm. Otherwise, disconnected from Nature and each other increasingly alienated in have and have-nots conflicts, humans have engineered their own colony collapse.
Jared Diamond, in his insightful 2004 book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, presented lessons from previous human societies in a struggle for survival. While none of the excellent examples given were on the global scale of peril that we face today, the insights to reconnecting to Nature is the dominant lesson to be learned. As a sentient, social species, we humans can choose to work together to avoid human colony collapse.
Abuzz together on Turtle Island,
Prof. Victor D. Phillips, GEM Director
GEM Education Center Blog 