Vanishing bees threaten US crops
Pastor Dale Morgan
Vanishing bees threaten US crops*
By Matt Wells
BBC News, Florida, USA
It is officially called Colony Collapse Disorder, but a more pithy way
of describing it would be Vanishing Bee Syndrome.
Bees are driven around Florida to help pollinate early crops
All over America, beekeepers are opening up their hives in preparation
for the spring pollination season, only to find that their bees are dead
or have disappeared.
Nobody, so far, knows why.
The sad mystery surrounding the humble honeybee - which is a vital
component in $14bn-worth of US agriculture - is beginning to worry even
the highest strata of the political class in Washington.
"Hillary Clinton's got interested in this in the last week or so," said
David Hackenberg, the beekeeper leading the drive to publicise their plight.
"And she's not alone," he said. "There's a lot of Congressmen have
called...wanting to know what's going on. It's serious.
Bees in a hive
Before: a healthy beehive....
"It's not just affecting the beekeepers, it's affecting the farmers that
produce the food, and in the end it's going to affect the consumer," he
added, sighing deeply.
What makes our interview slightly surreal is that we are standing next
to an orange grove, in rural Florida, while about 70 hives of bees buzz
angrily behind us, as if to emphasise their predicament.
Dead and dying bees in affected hive
...and after: a hive with CCD
Mr Hackenberg is suffering along with his bees. Like many in his rather
neglected profession, he and his son spend the summer and autumn in the
north of the country, driving their bees down south during the winter,
to kick-start the early fruit and vegetable crops.
In a matter of weeks, he lost just over 2,000 of his 3,000 hives. The
yard of his small honey farm near Tampa Bay, is littered with empty
boxes, which normally would be full of worker bees, doing what they do best.
As we speak, his mobile phone chirps constantly, with yet more
beekeepers across the US, reporting losses of up to 95%.
Pesticides?
Federal scientists, the National Beekeepers Association and state
researchers have come together to form an emergency working group to try
and halt the disastrous trend.
There are as many theories as there are members of the panel, but Mr
Hackenberg strongly suspects that new breeds of nicotine-based
pesticides are to blame.
"It may be that the honeybee has become the victim of these insecticides
that are meant for other pests," he said. "If we don't figure this out
real quick, it's going to wipe out our food supply."
Just a few miles down the sunlit road, it is easy to find farmers
prepared to agree with his gloomy assessment.
Carl Grooms in strawberry field
Carl Grooms contemplates his future
In the old days, crops would be pollinated by bees living in the woods
around the fertile fields, but housing developers have gobbled up much
of the natural habitat, according to Carl Grooms, who runs Fancy Farms Inc.
"The squash crops that we grow have a male and female bloom, and the bee
has to visit...to make it pollinate and produce," he said.
"We're going to have a hard time finding rental bees to aid in this
pollination and if it's as critical as it looks like it will be, I
probably won't even plant anything this spring."
Back at the Buffy Bee honey farm - the Hackenberg's Florida base - two
members from the working group checked in to pay their respects, and
take some bee samples on their way back to Washington.
Crazy theories
Dennis van Engelsdorp, a Pennsylvania-based beekeeper and leading
researcher, walks over to an isolated group of hives, and pulls out two
different wooden frames that would normally be covered in bees, busy
making honey.
The difference is obvious. While one is teeming with insects, the other
is virtually uninhabited. "The adult population totally disappears," he
said. He shakes his head in frustration.
Nathan Rice and Dennis van Engelsdorp take samples from a hive
The US Department of Agriculture is working on finding the cause
He runs through the long list of possible causes, ranging from new mite
infestation to new chemicals, but he is adamant that it is too early to
pin the blame on insecticides.
"We have no evidence to think that that theory is more right than any
other...There's stronger evidence for some other things really," he said.
He points to the fact that the Colony Collapse Disorder is inconsistent
even within localised regions. Some beekeepers have managed to retain
completely healthy hives.
His caution is backed up by Nathan Rice, from the Department of
Agriculture's bee research laboratory.
"While there is a lot of this crazy guessing going on, people get kind
of concerned," he said. "We're here to try to figure out why it's
happening."
Future fears
The sensitivity of the beekeepers themselves is easy to understand. For
the Hackenbergs, their livelihood is at stake, not to mention the
millions of bees that have died.
David Hackenberg's son, Davey, 35, is angry and frustrated that there
are no answers yet. "We're working hard at it every day, and we're going
to keep working hard until the bank comes and says, 'hey, we're taking
the place,'" he says with a defiant edge.
As a father of four, he thinks that the time may have come to get out of
the bee business.
Tales abound around the Hackenberg breakfast table of beekeepers who
have already given up after a calamitous few months trying to pollinate
the huge almond crop in California.
Some bankrupt beekeepers do not have the money to get themselves home,
let alone their equipment.
A bumper-sticker on one of the family trucks shows support for the
Bush-Cheney ticket in the 2004 election, but Davey is now wondering
whether anywhere near enough has been done by governments - and
everybody else - to keep his fragile industry and environment going.