This is what your supermarket would look like if all the bees died off

[marmar]

http://grist.org/list/this-is-what-your-supermarket-would-look-like-if-all-the-bees-died-off/


from Grist:


This is what your supermarket would look like if all the bees died off
By Holly Richmond


From bee-killing companies pretending to love bees to researchers frantically trying to create a disease-resistant superbee, it’s been kind of a rough week for bees, who have already been having a rough couple of years due to dying off left and right. But why should you care? It’s not like bees are delivering your mail or making you dinner or sewing your clothes, Cinderella-style.

But bees DO pollinate a bunch of shit that you probably like to eat. Need a visual? Check out these before and after pics from Whole Foods that illustrate the amount of produce that would vanish if all the bees died off:



According to Whole Foods:

One of every three bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honeybees and other pollinators. Yet, major declines in bee populations threaten the availability of many fresh ingredients consumers rely on for their dinner tables.

To raise awareness of just how crucial pollinators are to our food system, the University Heights Whole Foods Market store temporarily removed all produce that comes from plants dependent on pollinators. They pulled from shelves 237 of 453 products – 52 percent of the department’s normal product mix.

Freaky, right? At least we’ll still have chili-cheese Fritos.

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[Buzz Clik]

2. Freaky, right, but not entirely correct.

Here are the crops that are missing in the bottom picture that are pollinated by insects other than bees:

apples
mangos
celery

With just a couple of exceptions, most of the produce missing in the bottom picture are pollinated by a broad spectrum of bees.

And at least in the case of oranges (not pollinated by bees), some of the oranges were left in the bottom pic, and some were missing.

[Brother Buzz]

3. not entirely correct

With just a couple of exceptions, most of the produce missing in the bottom picture are pollinated by a broad spectrum of bees insects.

[Buzz Clik]

7. You are correct.

There were a couple of exceptions, and I was trying to avoid splitting hairs.

[alfredo]

12. What did native Americans eat before the Europeans introduced the honey bee?

The honeybee has made large scale farms possible because they travel great distances seeking food.


Thomas Jefferson:

c1781. (Notes on the State of Virginia). "Of our fish and insects there has been nothing like a full description or collection. More of them are described in Catesby than in any other work. Many also are to be found in Sir Hans Sloane's Jamaica, as being comming to that and this country. The honey-bee is not a native of our continent. Marcgrave indeed mentions a species of honey-bee in Brasil. But this has no sting, and is therefore different from the one we have, which resembles perfectly that of Europe. The Indians concur with us in the tradition that it was brought from Europe; but when, and by whom, we know not. The bees have generally extended themselves into the country, a little in advance of the white settlers. The Indians therefore call them the white man's fly...How far northwardly have these insects been found? That they are unkown in Lapland I infer from Schefer's information...Kalm tells us the honey bee cannot live through the winter in Canada."

[Robb]

13. Big ag monoculture is the disease.

Commercial bees dying is but a symptom.

[alfredo]

14. Without the honey bee they would have to make alterations to how they farmed.

The fields may have to be parceled to allow habitat for other pollinators. They will also have to farm cleaner so they don't kill off the pollinators.

[Brother Buzz]

15. There was a large number of bee species in the Americas before the honey bee was introduced

[bahrbearian]

5. Lame Post

[Buzz Clik]

8. Nope. It was dead on accurate. Care to dispute it?

[AllyCat]

10. Except we're killing off those insects too because they are icky

and we really, really, really like neonicotinamides and other delicious chemicals that kill them. So, we are killing our pollinators including the BEES that also happen to make honey which many people and animals use as a food source.

But hey, keep spraying that nasty crap on your lawn because weeds are icky too and we have other insects besides bees.

[davidn3600]

4. Even Einstein saw it coming...

“If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.”
-Albert Einstein

[Spitfire of ATJ]

6. Enjoy honey while you can....

[Buzz Clik]

9. Nice post. As a bit of a tangent, however, ...

... this honey bear contains no honey at all:



http://nopanicpreppers.blogspot.com/2013/02/are-we-eating-fake-honey.html

[NBachers]

11. I've been enjoying Mission District neighborhood honey from our Rainbow Co-Op in San Francisco

Local beekeepers are really doing their part to keep our Bay Area bees buzzin'

I've been doing my part by finding ways to honey-ize my food intake.

The local stuff is a bit more expensive, but so what? Everybody wins!

[msongs]

16. oranges are pollinated by bees, every seen an orange tree in blossom? nt

[Viva_La_Revolution]

17. Dandelions are one of the first spring foods for bees, and everyone mows them down as 'weeds'.

Except me. I'll smugly continue to ignore the disapproving looks my front yard gets from the neighbors. I'm feeding the bees.