[Pollinator] Decline in Bee Population Threatens Food Supply

[Jen Marks]

Link to "The Vanishing Bee" article: http://www.nrdc.org/OnEarth/06sum/default.asp 





FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



Contact:          Lindsay Cleveland

 615-327-7999

 lcleveland at seig-pr.com



Date:               June 27, 2006



Honey and Wild Bee Populations' Demise Threatens

Much of America's Food Supply

OnEarth Magazine Reports That Domesticated and Native Bees,

Essential to Pollination, Are Vanishing From Fields and Gardens



Domesticated honeybees and their native counterparts, which the nation depends on to pollinate billions of dollars worth of fruits, vegetable and other crops, are disappearing thanks to pesticide use on crops and gardens and the destruction of their habitats. The looming agricultural catastrophe that their demise portends, as well as potential solutions, are explored in the summer 2006 edition of OnEarth, the award-winning environmental magazine published quarterly by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).



Experts interviewed by author Sharon Levy for her OnEarth article "The Vanishing Bee" blame the widespread use of pesticides by farmers who unintentionally poison domesticated honeybee colonies. Non-native species of parasitic mites are also deadly to honeybees. For these reasons, native wild bees will become even more important as pollinators, but they too are threatened because their habitats-natural woodlands, shrubs and flowers-have been decimated by relentless sprawl and development and by modern agriculture's poor land-management practices.



One-third of the food Americans eat comes from crops that are pollinated by bees or other creatures, including butterflies, birds and bats, according to the article. As they travel from plant to plant, bees transfer pollen that fertilizes blossoms and allows fruits and vegetables to develop. Without bees, many of the foods we enjoy -- tomatoes, squash, peppers, apples and pears, for example - could disappear from our tables. Domesticated honeybees, in particular, are in steep decline. In the 1940s, American beekeepers had about 5 million colonies. Today, their colonies number about 2.3 million - and falling - while the demand for their services is increasing. 



Without the support of migratory beekeepers, crops would fail across the country; therefore, the demise of many of the colonies is having a serious effect on America's farmers, Levy reports. When one-third of all commercial honeybee colonies died out in 2005, for example, the $1.2 billion California almond crop was threatened. 



Beekeepers traveling from as far away as Florida helped save the crop, but at a steep price for growers. Fees for renting beehives shot up from $48 per colony to $140, the article states. Even then there were not enough honeybees to pollinate the crop. Almond growers also depended on honeybees imported from New Zealand and Australia.



Experts interviewed by Levy believe we can still rescue honeybees and native wild bees by limiting our use of pesticides and by setting aside space for plants that nurture bees. 



"Bees are the 'canary in the coal mine' for American agriculture. Their demise is a warning. But there are solutions that make environmental - and economic - good sense," said Doug Barasch, OnEarth's editor-in-chief. "Putting those solutions into practice depends on farmers, homeowners -- all of us -- realizing that protecting bees is in our own self interest."





About the Natural Resources Defense Council

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has 1.2 million members and online activists nationwide, served from offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

About OnEarth

OnEarth, the award-winning environmental magazine, explores politics, nature, wildlife, culture, science, technology, health, the challenges that confront our planet, and the solutions that promise to heal and protect it. The magazine's contributors include America's finest writers, poets, and photographers. A lively, irreverent blend of profiles, investigative stories, interviews, poetry, and narrative nonfiction, OnEarth earned the 2005 Independent Press Award for General Excellence.  

OnEarth: Environment . Politics . People





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