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<p class=section><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Thanks to Doug Holy for the below article:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=section><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>http://www.newsdemocratleader.com/articles/2007/07/03/news/farm_news/fnews02.txt<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span class=blueheadline><b><font
size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:
bold'>Protecting one of our most valuable food sources: Bees</span></font></b></span><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><br>
<br>
<span class=body><i><span style='font-style:italic'>By Tracy Taylor
Grondine-American Farm Bureau</span></i></span><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=body1><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>There's been a lot of buzz lately about bees. Yes, bees.
Those pesky little critters that wreak havoc on your picnic and bring out
folks' worst childhood fears of getting stung. Yet, this bane of your leisurely
existence can actually take credit for your, well, real-life existence.<br>
<br>
That's right, without bees and other pollinators, there would be 80 percent
fewer crop plants in the world. In layman's terms, that's a lot less food.<br>
<br>
June 24-30, was National Pollinator Week. It's a time to celebrate the
marvelous bee and its pollinating friends, as well as raise public awareness
about protecting pollinators and their habitat.<br>
<br>
Aside from being exceptionally smart, bees play a critical role in pollination
and are the major type of pollinators in ecosystems that contain flowering
plants. Importantly, they are extremely critical to agriculture.<br>
<br>
According to the Pollinator Partnership (<a href="http://www.pollinator.org/"
target="_blank">http://www.pollinator.org/</a>), pollinators are indispensable
for an estimated one-out-of-three mouthfuls of foods, spices and condiments we
eat, as well as beverages we drink. Further, they play a significant role in
making fibers, medicine and more than half of the world's diet of fats and
oils. And not only are they vital to our survival and the existence of nearly
all ecosystems on earth, they have a big price tag attached to their work.
Pollinated products account for $20 billion annually in the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> alone.<br>
<br>
If you think about it, some of our most beloved foods have been pollinated.
Apples, avocados, blueberries, canola, cucumbers and tomatoes, just to name a
few. Without bees and other pollinators, not only would our favorite foods not
survive, but humans and entire ecosystems would be in danger of extinction.<br>
<br>
For this reason, legislators are pushing to insert pollination habitat
protection legislation in the next farm bill. The Farm Bureau-supported
Pollinator Protection Act encourages planting of pollinator-favorable habitat
on conservation land, while still allowing producers to receive compensation.
Because let's face it, bees are disappearing at alarming rates.<br>
<br>
There is much speculation as to why entire honey bee colonies are completely
disappearing without a trace. Some of the theories include:chemical residue or
contamination in the wax; pathogens or parasites in the bees; stress to the
bees; lack of genetic and lineage diversity in bees; even alien abduction.
Enter the Twilight Zone.<br>
<br>
But on a more serious note, according to entomologist May Berenbaum in a recent
Smithsonian magazine article, the disappearance of bees is more than a crisis.
“It's a crisis on top of a crisis,” says Berenbaum, head of the
Department of Entomology at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType>
of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Illinois</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>. “[It
had previously been projected] that commercial bee-keeping [might] cease to
exist in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>
by 2035- and that was before the colony collapse disorder. And we can't count
on wild pollinators because we've so altered the landscape that many are no
longer viable.”<br>
<br>
As for theories to explain the bee disappearance, Berenbaum adds, “I like
the theory that visitors from another planet have decided they were going to
abduct the smartest organisms on [earth], and they've picked the honeybees.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#004000'>Jennifer Tsang<br>
<a href="http://coevolution.org">Coevolution Institute</a><br>
<st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">423 Washington St.</st1:address></st1:Street>
5th Fl.<br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:City>, <st1:State
w:st="on">CA</st1:State> <st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94111-2339</st1:PostalCode></st1:place><br>
T: 415.362.1137</span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#004000'>F: 415.362.3070</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#004000'><a
href="http://www.nappc.org">www.nappc.org</a></span></font><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#004000" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#004000'><a
href="http://www.pollinator.org">www.pollinator.org</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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