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Honey bee role in agriculture
Honey bee role in agriculture
Honey bee role in agriculture
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Thanks to the Apis Mellifera or the western honeybee you have the food you eat. Almond Orchards in California every spring honeybees arrive to pollinate, they earn multibillion dollars without getting paid, producing more than $15 billion. In June, whole food store in Rhode Island, as a campaign stop selling anything that depend on pollination to demonstrate how important honeybees are. Honeybees “hold agriculture together”. Honeybees are disappearing. Beekeepers opened their hives finding honeycombs, wax and honey, but no bees. Beekeepers reported it to scientists worried, they responded to that as a colony collapse disorder. After seven years, honeybees have kept on dying on a scale never seen before, it is a mystery. 1/3 US honeybee colonies have disappeared or died and 42% increases from the past years during winter. Colony losses are affecting industries and agriculture. They were hardly enough bees in the US to produce springs vital almond pollination, putting $4billion in risk. Risking that almonds are the golden state’s most valuable agricultural export that are worth twice the price of ionic wine grapes and are the ones who depend most on honeybees. Fruits and vegetables that also depend on bees can affect farmers chance to increase yield. As Jeff Pettis, leader of research at Us Department of Agriculture’s Bee Research says “the take-home message is that we are very close to the edge.” Scientists are working to figure out what’s causing bees to disappear. Pesticides are one of the causes specially neonicotinoids, which as well disturb insects. There’s a parasitic mite that has been disturbing honeybees colonies since they were introduced in the US. Other factors can be bacterial and viral diseases. Albert Einstei... ... middle of paper ... ...eveloping a bee genome repository to crossbreed honeybees. Beekeepers have spent money to provide feeding to their colonies. Replacing honey with sugar or corny syrup can weaken bees. Few beekeepers might be working on large operations to produce profits to pay for equipment needed to help the environment. Bees might end up being fed like other animals. No beekeeper would like to see that but it’s the only solution. As long as there are fruits and veggies that need pollination and farmers are willing to help they can survive. If honeybees survive then it won’t be what we have been thinking of. During June, a company sprayed insecticides on trees, and 50,000 bumblebees were killed. The bumblebee is not taken care of by humans. Millions of animal species die per year without anyone noticing. This is what happens when a species becomes so widespread and governing.
In the article, “The Plight of the Honeybee” published on August 19, 2013 by Bryan Walsh, a senior writer of TIME magazine. Walsh wrote how bees are becoming extinct. About a third of the honeybees
In CCD, honey bee colonies lose their workers under unclear circumstances (Cox-Foster et al., 2007, p. 283). 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).
Honey bees not only make honey, but they also help pollinate crops worth more than $15 billion a year in the U.S. (NRDC). These small animals are extremely important for providing ecosystem services essential for sustaining biodiversity (Sandrock et al., 2014). However, since the mid-1980s, the honey bee populations have been suddenly declining. This decline is referred to as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) (Wu et al., 2011). There are numerous factors that result in CCD. One of the major suspected reasons is due to the exposure to residue of Neonicotinoids, found in nectar and pollen of the flowers. Neonicotinoids are insecticides that lead
The studies will continue to prove that the use of pesticides are dangerous for people, places and pollinators all over the world. The Colony Collapse disorder should be a high priority for everyone. Hold the big corporations accountable such as Bayer for the damage their products create all for profit. They will find ways to keep pushing the use of pesticides that continue wrecking a bee’s immune system. “Neonicotinoids affect insect’s central nervous system in ways that are cumulative and irreversible” (Mercola par.4) Bayer’s good intentions to enhance the amount of crops needed to be produced, but the end result has detrimental consequences on the honey bee’s
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.
To most, the honeybee can be an annoying insect that has a powerful sting. Yet, the honeybee is so much more than just another insect. The honeybee is arguably the most vital component in the development of our food crops. With roughly 90 percent of our food crops dependent on the pollination of our honeybees, our food system, agricultural development, and diet rest on the work and well being of these buzzing insects. Unfortunately, since 2006 there has been a major decline in the population of honeybees, and has gotten progressively worse because of colony collapse disorder. The first reported increase of CCD was documented in November 2006 in Florida. By February 2007, several states began reporting major losses associated with CCD, ranging from 30% to 90%. A little over a half decade later in 2012 the attention paid towards CCD has grown substantially with more research being done as CCD continues to get worse. The main culprit for CCD, as research has suggested, is the use of pesticides on our food crops. With major corporations such as Bayer making millions and millions of dollars in profit each year in the distribution of pesticides, it is no wonder that nothing is being done to stop this practice despite evidence linking the use of pesticides and the drastic deterioration of the health of honeybees. With the continuation of the use of deadly pesticides and the vital role bees play in the pollination and development of our food crops, both the environment and our economy will be effected directly and face the potential for catastrophic results.
This is because of the multiple problems it solves with having minimal drawbacks. This solution allows the specie of the honey bee to become more robust and overcome the problem of dying from parasites in varroa mite and pesticides with only having the deficiencies of them becoming more aggressive and more difficult to manage in colonies. These imperfections are insignificant because the bees will still be kept in rural areas handled by professionals who know how to manage colonies without getting harmed. If we start to interbreed with African killer bees, then our crop production will continue to go up, we will not have to worry about running out of essential fruits and vegetables, and it will boost our economy not just by the revenue of crop production, but by harvesting more honey because of the increasing population due to a stronger specie being
“If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live.” This statement questionably from the brilliant scientist Albert Einstein may evidently be right. In my class we were asked to pick an issue to research about, so I chose colony collapse disorder because I believe this an overlooked epidemic. UDSA reported “Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a serious problem threatening the health of honey bees and the economic stability of commercial beekeeping and pollination operations in the United States. Despite a number of claims in the general and scientific media, a cause or causes of CCD have not been identified by researchers.”
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.
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 livestock depend on bee-pollinated plants like grain. Poorly pollinated plants produce fewer fruits and seeds, leading to higher prices (New Agriculturist, n.d.). Some crops are entirely dependent on pollinators such as almonds and others are 90 percent dependent on blueberries and cherries (ABF, 2015). Bees give us honey and we use this honey in food, shampoo, and moisturizers (Mercola, 2015). Bees pollinate 70 out of our 100 major crops; that includes apples, cucumbers, pumpkins, and many more.
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 on whole ecosystems. Therefore, the declining numbers of pollinators, particularly bees, are a cause of concern because of the environmental knock-on effects.
Around 87% of foods humans consume are grown, and bees are one of the main insects to pollinate our food in order to have a greater yield. This includes the majority of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and plants such as rapeseed and sunflowers that are used to make oil, cocoa beans, tea and coffee. A world without coffee would be madness! But putting coffee aside, bees are so much more than their monetary value for maintaining our food supply; bees also make an invaluable contribution to ecosystems around the world.
Pollen is another product of bees that is referred to as nature’s most perfect food for it’s high level of vitamin, protein, sugar, etc. It is particularly good for vegetarians. Likewise, bees are important in the economy of a broad segment of world population. For example, beekeepers who sell honey, royal jelly and pollen benefit economically since these products are quite popular and consequently expensive. Moreover, cosmetic industries use honey as important ingredients of many product that are used in cream for skin, hair, etc.
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.