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Sunday, June 17, 2007
Here's the buzz...
We have no definitive answers, yet, to "colony collapse disorder," otherwise known as the dead bee problem. But strong signs point to a type of pesticide known as neonicotinoids, banned in France because the stuff, er, well, kills bees.
I first heard about this about 8-10 weeks ago when the story first started making the rounds on science and tech web sites. I think the reaction all around has been a bit too knee jerk. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard Einstein’s quote of “If the bees disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left.” thrown in along with all these stories.
A couple things to keep in mind for the sake of keeping a little perspective. ALL the bees are not disappearing. This is happening specifically to “colony” bees. These are entire populations of bees that are moved all around the country and rented out to farmers for pollination purposes. These bees exist completely outside of any “natural” ecosystem. This is not something that is affecting local bee populations en-mass.
So while this may have significant repercussions for the current business model of farming many different fruits and vegetables, en such; it’s a bit early and knee jerk to start quoting Einstein and making predictions of the end of humanity. (not that YOU were, but that seems to be the tone of most of the articles I’ve read about it.)
Vividvew... maybe mankind wouldn't disappear in 4 years, but without bees who are responsible for the pollination of about 90% of the crops we eat, we would be in deep shit. Natural bee population are in decline in North America and without the colonies we move around in trucks, farming at large scale like we currently do would be impossible.
Savage bees won't establish themselves in the middle of a large corn field and without the "commercial" bees, the pollination rate (and the yield) of most crop would be really low.
2 comments:
I first heard about this about 8-10 weeks ago when the story first started making the rounds on science and tech web sites. I think the reaction all around has been a bit too knee jerk. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard Einstein’s quote of “If the bees disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left.” thrown in along with all these stories.
A couple things to keep in mind for the sake of keeping a little perspective. ALL the bees are not disappearing. This is happening specifically to “colony” bees. These are entire populations of bees that are moved all around the country and rented out to farmers for pollination purposes. These bees exist completely outside of any “natural” ecosystem. This is not something that is affecting local bee populations en-mass.
So while this may have significant repercussions for the current business model of farming many different fruits and vegetables, en such; it’s a bit early and knee jerk to start quoting Einstein and making predictions of the end of humanity. (not that YOU were, but that seems to be the tone of most of the articles I’ve read about it.)
Vividvew... maybe mankind wouldn't disappear in 4 years, but without bees who are responsible for the pollination of about 90% of the crops we eat, we would be in deep shit. Natural bee population are in decline in North America and without the colonies we move around in trucks, farming at large scale like we currently do would be impossible.
Savage bees won't establish themselves in the middle of a large corn field and without the "commercial" bees, the pollination rate (and the yield) of most crop would be really low.
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