different kinds of plants, the money being saved from not buying pesticides could be used towards planting these “distraction plants”. Using pests to fight pests is also a very cheap way to fight off pests. Integrating predatory bugs, like ladybugs, can help kill off pests. Jules Pretty, an author who focuses his research on agricultural sustainability, is Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Essex. Pretty found that farmers who use pests to kill pests “have averaged 79% increase in crop yields” over other systems that were supposed to fight pests, but didn’t. These alternatives are not only great for the environment, but as well as the bee populations because they will keep crop production as profitable as possible and it will also protect the …show more content…
Axel Decourtye, a science director in French Institute of beekeeping, fragmentations of habitats, like monoculture, contribute to the loss of bees. It is obvious that a deficiency in quality and quantity of pollen can lead to a decrease in bee populations. With monoculture farming, there is only going to be one bloom period, which leaves a narrow window for bees to collect pollen. Healthy bee populations and profitable beekeeping practices depend on landscapes with ample and nutritious sources of pollen and nectar yielding flowers. The deficiency in quantity and the quality of pollen and nectar can lead to a decrease in population of the colony. This means that there are less bee colonies to pollinate our crops, leading to an economic downfall. Monoculture has become such a popular way of farming across the country that beekeepers now make most of their money from ‘pollination services’ rather than sales from honey (Christensen). There are now services where colonies are being shuttled around the country and even the world in order to pollinate different crops. Bees are stuck on a homogeneous diet because of how much they are needed around the world. For Instance, if a human were to eat only apples for
Organic fertilisers and natural pest control methods minimise the impact of viticulture on the environment. In recent years there has been a considerable movement by some growers towards an organic approach. This is as a result of consumer driven trends and pressure to minimise the environmental impact of viticulture.
It is not unusual for bees to die or colonies to be lost, but the nature and extent reported in the year 2006 was alarming. Statistics gathered in the United States alone show that 50-90% of the bees have been lost so far, due to this scientific phenomenon (Cox-Foster et al., 2007, p. 284). Honeybees play a very major role in the pollination of plants and therefore these huge losses have become a serious concern. There are many reasons that have been floated and acclaimed to be behind CCD and they include pesticides, parasites, electromagnetic radiation, malnutrition, climatic changes, and urban sprawl, among many others.... ...
Think for a moment of a world without bees; a world without our buzzing friend. They might look like they barely do much to help our ecosystem. However, bees are a vital part of our agriculture and this makes it vital that we keep them around. The bee population decline in recent years is troubling for both us and our little friends. As their friends, we must do all we can in order to ensure their survival which in turn will ensure our own.
All around the world honeybees are vanishing at an alarming rate, according to the documentary Vanishing of the Honeybees. This film features two commercial bee keepers and their fight to preserve their bee numbers. David Hackenburg was the first commercial bee keeper to go public the bee population was decreasing. Approximately two billions bees have vanished and nobody knows the reason why. Honeybees are used all across America to help pollinate monoculture crops like broccoli, watermelon, cherries, and other produce. Without the honeybees the price for fresh and local produce would be too much money. According, to this film commercial bee keeper’s help fifteen billion dollars of food get pollinated by commercial
Our bees are dying at the highest rates ever recorded: 42 percent of the United States bee colonies collapsed in 2015 (NRDC, 2015). 50 to 80 percent of the world's food supply is directly affected by honeybee pollination (Pennsylvania Apiculture Inc., 2011). Reduced crop pollination will make food more expensive and can even make some crops harder to grow successfully (Worland, 2015).
However, we are not the only ones that depend on them but in fact most animals depend on them too. Bees cross-pollinate flowers and plants that are eaten by farm and wild animals. Furthermore, these animals are essential to us since we use them to make products such as clothing and dairy products. As stated in the article by the blog, Science ABC, “Why Bee Extinction Would Mean the End of Humanity,” by Ishan Daftardar, “Herbivores, who depend on certain plant species, will be affected first. They would go extinct if plants ceased to exist. For example, many cattle used for milk and meat depend on alfalfa and lupins, both of which depend on insect pollination.” This information shows that these bees are essential to these animals and most herbivores live off of the flowers that are bred by bees. Therefore, the decrease of herbivores will also affect the population of carnivores because this would disturb the food chain. Also, the article states, “If the cow’s food supply declines, then meat and milk production will decrease. This will seriously affect the human diet.” (Daftardar). The author is stating the effects of bee extinction and how they will affect animals and humans.The work that bees do directly corresponds to our health and this decline in the population will mean and effect on us too. We already depend on bees and we need to sustain their colonies for us and the animals we depend
“Crop pollination is, by far, the most important and profitable of bee services.(The Economic Importance)” As bees go about collecting pollen and nectar for their hives to make honey, some of the pollen sticks to the bees’ fine fur. The bees will travel from plant to plant spreading the pollen where it needs to go so the plants will produce offspring. Foods such as the ones listed earlier, along with other national favorites such as avocados, cashews, and watermelon, will no longer be able to grow once all of the honey bees die, according to Christina Sarich in her article "List of Foods We Will Lose If We Don 't Save the Bees,” written for the website HoneyLove. This fact poses as a huge threat, not only on our economy, but also on our well being as a species. Fruits and vegetables should be half of what we eat everyday as found on ChooseMyPlate.gov, the nation’s recommended dietary allowance as approved by the United States Department of Agriculture, also known as the USDA. In a world that already has the extremes of some countries being obese and others completely undernourished, the globe can not risk having an extinction of honey bees, which is where we are
The lives of humans and honeybees have been intertwined for millennia. For at least 8,000 years, humans have sought honey for applications in disciplines ranging from medicine to the culinary arts. But while humans love honey, honeybees provide a much more valuable service: pollination. As the world’s most prolific pollinator, honeybees are essential to the reproduction of many plant species, which in turn benefits other animals and plants. In fact, humans heavily rely on honeybees to pollinate our own food source, a service that is worth billions of dollars a year. Unfortunately, the honeybee population is in a severe and prolonged decline, often in the form of colony collapse disorder, in which entire colonies are seemingly abandoned by adult bees overnight. Honeybees are an indispensable component of modern agriculture, and a failure to discern and address the many causes of honeybee population decline – both manmade and natural – could have disastrous consequences for the environment and human society.
The Apis Mellifera, or honey bee, have survived on this planet for fifty million years. This species of bee is responsible for pollinating flowers, grass, trees and crops around the world. Much of the food we eat is dependent on honey bees for pollination. Our ecosystem depends on the survival of the honey bee. Colonies of honeybees have been disappearing at an alarming rate around the world due to parasites, viral and bacterial diseases, and the introduction of pesticides and herbicides. Over the past six years, on average, 30 percent of all the honey bee colonies in the U.S. died off over the winter of 2012(NPR/TED). If this trend continues to spiral downward, honey bees will disappear from the world. We must understand the importance of the Honey bee and change our environmental practices in order to sustain this vital insect.
Pollinators are very important to the environment because many plant species rely on reproduction to be carried out by pollination1. Bees are dependent on plants for pollen and nectar and in return, are the most common pollinator of plant species and around 90 percent of plants require pollination by an animal7. Bees are used in farming, both for pollinating crops and for producing honey, and the estimated value of bees to the United Kingdom is £400 million per year9. Plants are the primary producers in many food webs and, as so many are dependent on pollination in order to reproduce, a decline in pollinators would have a detrimental effect to whole ecosystems. Therefore, the declining numbers of pollinators, particularly bees, are a cause of concern because of the environmental knock-on effects. High declines in adult bee numbers in some colonies have been reported and this decline is known as colony collapse disorder6. These declines are higher than normal and can go unnoticed by bee keepers because the bees do not generally die in the nest so the decrease is not immediately obvious. The problem addressed in this paper will be the decline of bees and the effects this decline has on the environment. The solutions proposed for this problem are increasing research, managing farming and spreading awareness. It is important to conserve the bee populations before the problem of decreasing pollinator numbers becomes too great to fix.
Conventional farming practices are responsible for many negative health and environmental issues. One of the main issues is the creation of monocultures in the farming environment. Specifically growing the same species of plants or animals in mass quantities without variation every season is not natural. Monocultures do not exist in nature (Pollan 67). Nature practices diversity and for good reason. In nature and organic farming, if there is a threat to one species, there are others to balance the decrease in the threatened species. Conventional farmers and the modern food industry argue that planting the same crop year after year is convenient and profitable because it cuts down on the different types of farm equipment necessary in production, and initially, in the types of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers needed. However, in this unnatural environment, tremendous amounts of pest...
Bees are also the main reason why many flowers have a food source as well. Meaning that bees are a big role in the ecosystem because it makes them diverse. Throughout the years many bees have been disappearing. This scientific term has been known as colony collapse disorder. Colony collapse disorder is the disappearance of bee workers
Instead of using pesticides in farming a better alternative would be biological control. This is when a natural predator is released into the crop growing area as a result the number of pests can be reduced.
Over the past decade bee populations have been dropping drastically. A 40% loss of honeybees happened in the U.S. and U.K. lose 45% of its commercial honeybee since 2010. This is a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in which worker bees from a beehive abruptly disappear in a short time. These data are definitely not meaningless since bees are a crucial part of the reproductive cycle of many foods. The impact bees have on the agriculture and the environment is far more crucial than we may think. Crops rely on bees to assist their reproduction and bring them life. Bees are renowned in facilitating pollination for most plant life, including over 100 different vegetable and fruit crops. Without bees, there would be a huge decrease in pollination, which later result in reduce in plant growth and food supplies. On the other hand, without the pollination progressed with the assistance from bees, the types of flowers According to Dr. Albert Einstein, “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live. No more bees, no more pollination…no more men”. That’s why bees’ extinction affects people more than we ever think, and could even forebode the doom day of human race.
Farming practices that do not use pesticides/herbicides are slowly becoming introduced bit biologically created pesticides are not nearly as productive as found in preliminary testing. Biotechnology has shown to have successfully resisted pests in plants that were destroyed by pesticides but still hasn’t proven itself as a better alternative. William Liebhardt Ph.D. is an Agricultural Specialist at the University of California, Davis and he says, “When you start spraying with pesticides, you disrupt the natural balance that exists in nature. As a result, you end up killing beneficial insects, then insects that were not a problem become problems and this happens repeatedly” requiring more and more spraying.