World's No. 1 pesticide brings honeybees to their knees, say scientists

[IDemo]

Source: Christian Science Monitor

A team of Harvard biologists has come closer to cracking the mystery of honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), eight years after its appearance.

CCD persists in transforming bee colonies around the world into ghost towns: by the end of each winter, some colonies wind up littered with dead bees and emptied of many more, with no signs of renewal.

"One of the defining symptomatic observations of CCD colonies is the emptiness of hives in which the amount of dead bees found inside the hives do not account for the total numbers of bees present prior to winter when they were alive," states the report, published May 9 in the Bulletin of Insectology.

The exact mechanism behind these collapses remains dauntingly unclear, but they have been linked with pathogen infestation, malnutrition, and pesticide exposure. This week's report strongly indicates that two neonicotinoid insecticides that are widely used on crops can decimate honeybee colonies' winter survival rates whether or not mites or parasites are present.

Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0509/World-s-No.-1-pesticide-brings-honeybees-to-their-knees-say-scientists

[Ash_F]

1. No surprise here. /nt

[valerief]

2. I'm sure world governments will ban the pesticides to save the bees and our food supply. NOT.

Rich people must get richer, after all.

[starroute]

4. The European Union has been trying to ban them but is meeting resistance

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-22335520

29 April 2013

Fifteen countries voted in favour of a ban - not enough to form a qualified majority. According to EU rules the Commission will now have the option to impose a two-year restriction on neonicotinoids - and the UK cannot opt out.

The Commission says it wants the moratorium to begin no later than 1 December this year.

The UK did not support a ban - it argues that the science behind the proposal is inconclusive. It was among eight countries that voted against, while four abstained. . . .

Some restrictions are already in place for neonicotinoids in France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia.


http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/09/honeybees-dying-insecticide-harvard-study

9 May 2014

In April, a landmark European study revealed the UK is suffering one of the worst rates of honeybee colony deaths in Europe. "The UK government [which opposed the EU's neonicotinoid ban] has accepted the need for a national action plan to reverse bee and pollinator decline," said de Zylva. "But its draft plan is dangerously complacent on pesticides, placing far too much trust in chemical firms and flawed procedures."

[valerief]

5. The ones voting against it must be owned by Monsanto. Like the US Congress. nt

[cstanleytech]

8. It takes time. Look at how long it took to ban DDT. nt

[Brainstormy]

32. And how long the legacy effects of DDT have lasted!

croplands, rivers, streams, are still contaminated.

[L0oniX]

25. “The fact is that of the 100 crop species that provide 90 per cent of the world’s food, over 70 are

pollinated by bees.”- UN report.

http://future.wikia.com/wiki/Life_without_bees

[athenasatanjesus]

30. Wouldn't rich people rather be rich in a world that still exists?

Without bees there might not be that much left for them to use their money on.

[valerief]

41. No, because they can never be rich enough. They're insane. Logic doesn't factor in. nt

[Roy Rolling]

3. Job losses

Sure, another plan to reduce jobs in the environment-killing industry of harmful herbicides and pesticides.

Benghazi! IRS! Clinton! Obamacare!

Are you scared yet?

[mike_c]

6. the science journalism on this story is all messed up....

First, the "team of Harvard biologists" is exactly one associate professor in the school of public health. The other two authors are bee keepers, not Harvard faculty or professional biologists. The study was published in an obscure, low impact Italian journal. I've been a working academic entomologist for twenty years and I had to look it up because I'd never heard of it. I'm surprised that a paper claiming to achieve the holy grail of linking honey bee population decline unambiguously to low dose neonic exposure did not apparently pass muster in a more mainstream journal, and I'd love to see the reviewers' comments if it was submitted and rejected elsewhere (the willingness of the Bulletin of Insectology (yup) to publish this line of research back in 2012 might have had something to do with the authors' choice of venue this time). The same three authors published a similar paper in 2012, in the same journal, that is not well regarded by most experts in honey bee health. In this present study, the sample size is small (only six hives in each of three treatments), and the experimental design is suspect (the data are pooled to increase the apparent sample size of the neonic treated hives and analyzed by simple one-way ANOVA, when the design is certainly a repeated measures experiment and likely needs to incorporate a blocked design as well). During the treatment season bees were fed sucrose and HFCS laced with neonics but then were allowed to forage normally, without monitoring total insecticide exposure (including inadvertent environmental exposures, which might have significantly increased their total exposure). And so on.

[HuckleB]

9. Indeed.

It misses the multi-layered research that has been done the past few years. It appears that many factors are in play, so to go to a one-dimensional factor, at this point in time, seems odd.

[MindMover]

14. You are a poison makers apologist and we all know it ... And so on

[psiman]

18. Laugh while you can

Facts are facts, no matter how many insults you like to sling.

In the long run, people who habitually sling mud in lieu of facing the facts are an impediment to the Leftist cause.

[Brainstormy]

33. Maybe you can find some facts in here

http://www.k12science.missouristate.edu/Junior_Academy/MJAS%20Docs/State%202009/Papers%202009/HS_ENV/Foulk_Kayla_HS.pdf

http://www.gmoevidence.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/BeesYet_Another_Suspect_in_CCD_2_.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23443944



Other Pesticide research:

1. Muir, P., III. ARE PEST LOSSES DECREASING? 2013.
2. Miller, G.T., Sustaining the Earth. 6th ed. 2004, Pacific Grove, California: Thomson Learning, Inc.
3. Weisskopf, M.G., et al., Persistent organochlorine pesticides in serum and risk of Parkinson disease. Neurology, 2010. 74(13): p. 1055-61.
4. Boyle, C.A., et al., Trends in the prevalence of developmental disabilities in US children, 1997-2008. Pediatrics, 2011. 127(6): p. 1034-42.
5. Shelton, J.F., I. Hertz-Picciotto, and I.N. Pessah, Tipping the balance of autism risk: potential mechanisms linking pesticides and autism. Environ Health Perspect, 2012. 120(7): p. 944-51.
6. Hertz-Picciotto, I. and L. Delwiche, The rise in autism and the role of age at diagnosis. Epidemiology, 2009. 20(1): p. 84-90.
7. Richard, S., et al., Differential Effects of Glyphosate and Roundup on Human Placental Cells and Aromatase. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2005. 113(6): p. 716-720.
8. Benachour, N. and G.E. Seralini, Glyphosate formulations induce apoptosis and necrosis in human umbilical, embryonic, and placental cells. Chem Res Toxicol, 2009. 22(1): p. 97-105.
9. Vogt, R., et al., Cancer and non-cancer health effects from food contaminant exposures for children and adults in California: a risk assessment. Environmental Health, 2012. 11(1): p. 83.
10. Thongprakaisang, S., et al., Glyphosate induces human breast cancer cells growth via estrogen receptors. Food and Chemical Toxicology, 2013. 59(0): p. 129-136.
11. Taetzsch, T. and M.L. Block, Pesticides, microglial NOX2, and Parkinson's disease. J Biochem Mol Toxicol, 2013. 27(2): p. 137-49.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

35. Um, "while you can" ?

What's going to happen that will make it so he can't?

You are the one who is challenging an expert on CCD while pretending to know the "facts", so you leave yourself open to this sort of tweaking. Oh, and by the way, this is the Democratic Underground. Not the "Leftist cause" underground.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[pbmus]

59. While I can is member speak for themselves ..

Basically it means I was banned for 5days for having the nerve to question this member ...

[JDPriestly]

15. Purely anecdotal, but I bought a neonicotinide insecticide. The day before I first used it I had

many, many busy bees humming in the wood sorrel beneath my avocado trees. Used it once on one plant. Next day, about 10 a.m. not even half the bees I had the previous days. I am in S. Cal. and i think that my bees may live in holes in the ground as well as in the usual hives. You will know more about that than I do. But I don't use neonicotinides based on that experience. Just anecdotal, but i think there may be something to the claim. Can't prove it. But the claim can't be dismissed. The problem is what the trade-off is of giving up the use of neonicotinides, Is the probability that the neonicotinides is ruining hives great enough.

I drew my own conclusion. But I could be wrong.

If not neonicotinides, what do you think could be hurting bees?

[mike_c]

27. first, we need to be clear about what we mean by "bees"....

Honey bees-- Apis melifera-- are only one species of bee out of hundreds of species that occur in North America. They're non-native, but were introduced to North America during colonial times for honey production, not pollination. They were not needed for pollination because native bees did a fine job of it by themselves. Honey was important as a luxury sweetener, however, because most of the sugar grown in the new world was used to make rum-- it was in high demand and therefore much too expensive for household use.

Honey bees became more important for pollination, especially large scale managed pollination, when modern farming practices began to create environments that are relatively hostile to native bees, such as large monodominant planting, removal of alternate foraging habitat (weeds, borders, hedgerows, etc), and the use of chemical pesticides during the non-flowering portions of crop life cycles. These practices create native bee deserts. Honey bees have so far managed to overcome those conditions, at least to some degree, by living in dense colonies that can be moved from location to location so they can pollinate crops when flowers are available, then move somewhere else with alternate forage-- often other crops-- before the pesticide deluge begins post-pollination. Honey bees therefore facilitate modern, big ag farming practices to a degree that native bees never could.

As for what's hurting "the bees," the same modern farming practices that concentrate pollination services on honey bees are largely whats affecting the many native bee species. For introduced honey bees, the best scientific consensus to date is that they suffer from a combination of factors-- possibly including exposure to low dose neonic insecticides, BTW-- but including stress from population management for agricultural use (transporting hives, overwintering on HFCS diets, exposure to a cocktail of hive management chemicals such as miticides and antibiotics, etc), genetic problems stemming from over-breeding, parasites (including several that are becoming more virulent rather than less), diseases including bacterial, fungal, and viral pathogens, and definitely exposure to some other pesticides like organophosphates in wide use for both agriculture and lawn care.

Here's a pointer to the most recent EPA/USDA report on honey bee population health in North America: http://www.usda.gov/documents/ReportHoneyBeeHealth.pdf

[Lionel Mandrake]

51. Thank you.

for sharing your expertise with those of us who know next to nothing about bees but nonetheless are quick to express our opinions. You have exposed what we took for reality as nothing but the shadows on Plato's cave.

[psiman]

17. Thank God, someone knows how to read

You have hit the main points more clearly and succinctly that I ever could have managed.

I will just add that the fundamental hypothesis of the entire project, as explained in the 2012 paper, is that CCD did not appear until many years after the introduction of neonicotinoids because the vector for exposure is trace neonic in the HFCS fed to bees in commercial hives - a change in beekeeping practice that was introduced around 2006; color me skeptical. I am prepared to grant that there may be some connection between long term sublethal exposure and difficulty in surviving the cold of New England winters, but that is a long way from establishing a connection between neoticotinoids and global CCD.

[MNBrewer]

45. The current hysteria over this cause is probably unwarranted

First it was the varroa mite, then something else, then something else, then something else....

[Brainstormy]

46. the varroa mite, with all due respect,

is not responsible for the pollination of most of earth's life-sustaining crops. This is not a pop "cause" and the "hysteria" is definitely warranted. Minimizing this threat will come at great cost.

[MNBrewer]

48. Well, google???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varroa_destructor

[Brainstormy]

52. I stand corrected, or at least

contingently better informed. Thank you for the info.

[mike_c]

56. neither is the honey bee, which pollinates less than a third of crops...

...and really none of the staple crops, like cereals, which are wind pollinated. Nearly all of the insect pollinated crops were once pollinated quite well by the host of native bee species that have largely been supplanted by agricultural practices-- modern, big ag-- that are better suited for honeybee pollination services. But seriously, loss of honey bees need not be associated with long term disruptions to food supply IF farming is adapted for native pollinators. The greatest impact will be upon the bee keeping industry itself, which will lose industrial scale managed pollination like the California almond pollination and honey production (native bees don't produce such a huge surplus).

And varroa mites are one of the primary threats to honeybee health, so I wouldn't diminish their importance, either.

[blkmusclmachine]

7. ,

,

[AtheistCrusader]

10. Yeah, this is not exactly over yet.

Especially with that 'mechanism remains dauntingly unclear' elephant in the room.

I'm not sure that 'journal' is much of a peer review either.


My money is still on malnutrition. Wall-to-wall fields of a single crop type. A condition achieved USING the pesticides, and wholly unnatural to a bee's normal diet.

[DeSwiss]

11. K&R

[freshwest]

12. It looks bad for honeybees. And those who depend on pollinators:

The beautiful honeybee of my memory:



Pretty sad stuff here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-turner-seydel/support-the-save-americas_b_4426904.html

And from Wikipedia:

On July 12, 2013, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon, introduced The Save American Pollinators Act in Congress. If it becomes law, the Act will suspend the use of four neonicotinoids, including the three recently suspended by the European Union, until their EPA registration review is complete. The legislation will also require a joint Interior Department and EPA study of bee populations and the possible reasons for their decline.[22]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonicotinoid#US_EPA_reregistration_and_Congressional_action

There is a petition, but it appears dead:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Support_the_Save_the_Americas_Pollinators_Act_of_2013/

This says it has 0% chance of passing. Some say the bill was written badly, but remember, this is a GOP Congress:

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr2692

Differing views here:

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?286699-Avaaz-petition-taking-off-Save-America-s-Pollinators-Act

[SunSeeker]

16. Whenever I find dead or dying bees, they never have those sacks of pollen on their rear legs.

It is like they are lost and starving. It really upsets me. Poor bees. Poor us.

[L0oniX]

22. "those who depend on pollinators" Our lives depend on them.

The whole world will starve to death without them. This IS a national (and world) security issue. Monsanto is killing us!

[mike_c]

28. insects pollinate less than a third of crops consumed by humans....

Most of the staple crops are wind pollinated or are efficiently pollinated by native bees when farming practices are not hostile towards them. Honey bees facilitate modern big ag, monodominant cropping in pollinator desert habitats. The notion that loss of their pollination services would cause "the whole world (to) starve to death" is ridiculous. Seriously.

[L0oniX]

36. Well I'm a fan of hyperbole and sensationalism.

[pbmus]

42. We would all be better off without bees ...

[mike_c]

55. ok....

eom

[pbmus]

57. Anybody that questions your credentials is banned on DU

so I guess you are the authority on bees and poison ...

So bees should be gone , OK

[zentrum]

13. The neonicotinoid link

...was known years ago. A response to this emergency is moving at glacial speed.

Be sure to see the movie "Queen of the Sun". A wonderful and moving documentary about the plight of bees. It's on-line, or on youtube or Netflix--I'm pretty sure.

[DCBob]

19. technically the term should be insecticide not pesticide.

Pesticide refers to all classes of pest control products...herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, etc. The worlds most widely used pesticide is Roundup, which is a herbicide.

[Brainstormy]

47. A distinction without a difference

Roundup is definitely a pesticide also Classified by the FDA as a general use pesticide. Patricia Muir, of Oregon State’s Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, and an expert on the subject says:

The term pesticide is a general one referring to a chemical, physical, or biological agent used to kill insects, rodents or fungi. Sometimes called "biocides," the term encompasses fungicides, insecticides, and agents effective against other disease organisms, such as bacteria. Most uses include herbicides (agents that kill plants) as a kind of pesticide.

Semantics. Here's the ticket: They ALL are designed to kill organic life.

[DCBob]

54. its more than semantics.. the title of the article is incorrect.

[Sienna86]

20. If RoundUp is a pesticide

Then thinks of the millions of gallons used by people in their yards.

I went organic a couple of years ago because I worried about the chemicals getting into the water table.

[L0oniX]

21. Let me take a wild guess who's responsible ...MONSANTO!

[heaven05]

23. "collapses remain dauntingly unclear"?????

poison is poison. what's unclear about that? As the bees go, so shall we.

[Exultant Democracy]

24. Stupid f-ing mystery. How many of us have been posting this right here on DU for years and years.

But as a species we lack the collective will to stop the corporations that are literally killing us for profit. We have known about the dangers of global warming and climate change my entire life and nothing was done to even mitigate our headlong drive right off that cliff.

Honestly the bees are going to be gone for the most part before anyone does anything about this. I'm sure Monsanto is busy engineering a round up ready bee to sell us when this all reaches its logical conclusion.

[ladjf]

26. The human race is too greedy to be able to survive much longer. nt

[NutmegYankee]

29. I make a strong effort to organically garden, and have lots of bees.

An important factor here is to plant large garden plots of perennials that bloom at different times to ensure a steady food supply.

[theHandpuppet]

31. Same here

We also made a point of planting some semi-dwarf fruit trees, which we can accommodate even though our house sits on a small lot. I've never understood why people landscape with so many "ornamental" trees when they can plant fruit trees!

[arikara]

34. I garden organically

And I believe most in our neighborhood do too. There are lots of native flowering plants around, and I let garden plants to go seed specifically for the bees. Sometimes I'd see 10 different types of pollinators buzzing around one plant. The thing is, for the past couple of years I'm not seeing as many as I did before.

I think it has to do with several things. Pesticides and stress, yes but as I said there isn't any in use around here. Another biggie which I believe is overlooked is the proliferation of wireless, which screws up the bees navigation systems. These things were never properly tested for harm to people or other living creatures. I won't be able to believe there is no effect until I see the "science" proving that its harmless. All we have to go on now is the word of the corporations and governments and they want us to ignore the issue so we buy more.

Who is willing to give up the convenience of their cell phones, wireless computer and now smart meters emitting constantly on nearly every house? What if it turns out that they are killing off the pollinators and the bats who are also in a steep decline. We refused a smart meter, keep the cell phones off and unplug the wireless when not in use, but we're only one family. Everybody else is loaded to the gills with wireless. Everywhere.

[NutmegYankee]

40. Wireless is just radio communications.

Which has been around for nearly a century now. We've been broadcasting in SW/AM/FM and TV frequencies for decades. The higher end UHF and SHF have been used for various purposes for decades as well. I have WIFI broadcasting with 5 bars over a garden that is often alive with 20 or more bees.

And CCD has been found in many rural regions without cell phone signals, making me believe that pesticides are the more likely cause.

[proverbialwisdom]

53. Familiar w. Devra Davis' work? I'm not except to the extent that I pay attention to her take-aways.

Devra Lee Davis PhD MPH
Founder and President of Environmental Health Trust - Explore the 'About EHT' section carefully. SOLID.

A search for 'bees' on the site she founded brings up this written by a contributor:

http://ehtrust.org/2648-2/

RF effects our Environment and Wildlife! The Birds and Bees!

For example, a recent Scientific literature review screened for articles on ecological effects of RF-EMF and found RF-EMF had a significant effect on birds, insects, other vertebrates, other organisms and plants in 70% of the studies. Development and reproduction of birds and insects are the most strongly affected endpoints.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412012002334

Should you choose to read the literature on plants and animals and insects you will be shocked at the accumulating evidence. For example –bees:

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13592-011-0016-x
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3052591/

” Studies conducted at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles show clearly that GSM waves affect the memory and response to pheromones in ant colonies, and that they worsen the motility of cell membranes of protozoa”

http://mieuxprevenir.blogspot.ch/2012/07/harmful-effects-of-gsm-waves.html

Here is a 2009 Briefing Paper on the Cumulative Impacts of Communication Towers on Migratory Birds and Other Wildlife in the United States Division of Migratory Bird Management (DMBM), U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service,

http://electromagnetichealth.org/pdf/CommTowerResearchNeedsPublicBriefing-2-409.pdf

Here is an article (one of many) from India about scientists studying plants exposed to RF that “noticed that morphological changes like decrease in growth rate in terms of height, number of branches and leaves is seen…Their leaf size gets decreased, leaves become more brittle and they fell off early.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-10-07/vadodara/34306067_1_medicinal-plant-power-plants-electromagnetic

<>

As you read more …. you may see the word “inconclusive”. Do not stop there. Go ahead and read the research… Do we wait … like the US did for cigarettes, global warming or asbestos… ?

Educate yourself. Read the research and decide for yourself.

http://us6.campaign-archive2.com/?u=612477b8f06f01a976e6fc667&id=4564846e21

Press Release - Scientists Speak Out
April 14, 2014
For Immediate Release

Two Scientists Break Silence on “Major Flaws” in Royal Society’s Recent Report on Safety Code 6

Ottawa - Two peer reviewers involved in this month’s Royal Society report on wireless safety
say the results cannot be trusted, because the Panel ignored evidence that wireless radiation is
harmful to humans.

The scientific reviewers also said key panelists were in conflict of interest as they regularly
accept funding from wireless and energy companies.

<>

https://twitter.com/DevraLeeDavis

On children -

http://ehtrust.org/open-letter-to-obama-about-wireless-radiation/
http://www.scribd.com/doc/124618623/Dr-Herbert-Letter-to-LAUSD

[proverbialwisdom]

37. Check it out.

http://honeylove.org

[center][/center]

http://buy.morethanhoneyfilm.com

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FW929KI

Oscar-nominated director Markus Imhoof (THE BOAT IS FULL) tackles the vexing issue of why bees, worldwide, are facing extinction. From California to Switzerland, China and Australia, Imhoof investigates this global phenomenon. Exquisite macro-photography of the bees in flight and in their hives reveals a fascinating, complex world in crisis. Narrated by John Hurt.

[center]More Than Honey - Official Trailer

[/center]

I haven't seen the film yet myself.

[proverbialwisdom]

38. Don't forget about the threat to Monarch butterflies and the NRDC petition to the EPA.

PETITION: https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy;jsessionid=DCC8282F9A506C67C7753A2051D85550.app338a?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3369&s_src=WBOMONPETNON0314BGAC

MORE: http://www.democraticunderground.com/101690427

[bvar22]

39. Our reasearch supports the findings of the Harvard Biologists.

In 2006, my wife and I moved far away from sources of these toxins, (AgriBusiness, Suburbs,Industry etc)
and started two colonies of European HoneyBees.
All pesticides (as well as GMO Crops) have been banned from our little Hill Top,
and there are none within the foraging range of our Bees.

Our colony locations are permanent (we do not transport our bees to other locations),
and are careful to not overcrowd our colony location so that there is plenty of natural forage for our Bees.

We have had no incidents of Colony Collapse Disorder.

[pbmus]

44. Lord, a real person with real life experience , WOW

Somebody actually made a connection .... THANKYOU and THANKYOU for your honesty.

[Ap1977]

43. A theory was that cell phones were causing this

It appears to have been debunked.

[StoneCarver]

49. as a beekeeper...

I don't know what is causing this. But I lost all my bees last winter. This winter they all survived. (I'm so happy!) How ever we figure this out the better. I don't use neo-cics (at all), but we all need to plant more flowers -for the bees and the monarchs. I use to think that flowers were a waste of space. But they aren't. I try to keep up on the latest news -with Marla Spivack. I try different treatments for the varorro mites - like hops (Hop guard). But's it a struggle. Anything you can do will help. Please plant flowers. For you and the bees...
Stonecarver.

[sweetapogee]

50. we lost all of our bees

last fall to a bear. Came up out of the woods and in 2 minutes everything was gone. Today, we restarted with five frames/queen with brood from an established colony from another keeper nearby. Back in business. Within an hour the bees were out and returning with pollen. Yes!

[NickB79]

58. Here's a crazy thought: stop relying on honeybees for pollination

Honeybees are not native to most of the world; they were exported from Europe as Europeans settled around the planet over the past millennia.

The only reason we need honeybees at all is because we practice highly destructive land practices that encourage farmers to grow monocropped thousand-acre fields, plow them fencerow to fencerow, clearcut every forest they find, plow under grasslands, and spray every nook and cranny of their property with more and more chemicals. We've given the many native bee species in North America, who are perfectly capable of pollinating crops, no place to survive, no habitat left to call their own.

Banning a certain chemical to save the honeybees is at best a short-term fix that will not last. Even without the neonics in circulation, the loss of bee habitat will continue to harm them, requiring the remaining colonies to be more and more dependent on their human owners to feed them and move them more frequently to areas in flower. It's a house of cards that cannot hold. We've already seen this with the monarch butterfly, with their overwintering populations on the verge of all-out collapse as their summer and winter habitats are destroyed and poisoned.

The only way we will get ourselves out of this hole is to ultimately abandon the forms of factory-modeled megafarming we currently employ and return to a system where farms were smaller, run by families, and cropped a diverse array of food. Multiple fields of different crops, using crop rotation, livestock grazing and permaculture techniques to maintain soil fertility and wildlife diversity. Such a system is far more resilient to climate change and the eventual depletion of fossil fuels, and would provide ample habitat for native bees to flourish and pollinate.

It might sound crazy and naive to some, a longing for a "Little House on the Prairie" lifestyle, but ultimately it's either this, or we continue to rely on farms run more like chemically-powered food factories to make sure we get our daily ration of "food-like product" every night for dinner.