Loss of bees will be a disaster
People have relied on bees over thousands of years for successful farming. . Bees simply are the best pollinators in the world and without them the world would be a very different place. Many of us who have driven past an orchard have seen the dozens of white wooden boxes containing the farmer’s most valuable ally. In the past, we have generally only considered the power of bees in agriculture but now we are becoming more aware of just how critical bees are in residential gardens.
In 2006, there was a mass destruction of honeybee nests. Approximately one third of hives in the United States disappeared. The rate of decline continues and reached 36 percent in the winter of 2007...
The issue has been taken up at the House subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture. Testifying at the hearing Maryann Frazier, a bee expert at the University of Pennsylvania asked "How would our federal government respond if 1 out of every 3 cows was dying?".
California has a $34 billion agricultural industry, the nation's largest. Our most important crops,fruits, nuts, seeds and many vegetables are the mainstay of our economy and provide the basics of a healthy human diet. Looking at it from another perspective: about a third of human food requires pollination and plants simply cannot grow without it.
"Our business is simple: No bees, no blueberries," said Edward Flanagan, chief executive of Jasper Wyman & Son, a wild-blueberry grower in Maine. "Wild blueberries can't be planted. Not here, not in Chile, not in China. ...We are very scared at the prospect of no pollinating bees for our fields. There is no alternative."
