Do you Think that Bees are Important?

Do you think if all bees, whether it's bumble or honey, were to die, that we as humans could live on without them? If so, I am going to tell you why you're wrong. Ofter I hear people talking about "save the bees", "we need the bees" but not many people actually take that into consideration. As you know, bees feed on pollen and nectar produced by plants. Female bees collect pollen to feed their larvae, storing it in pollen baskets in their legs or on branched hairs on their body. As they go from flower to flower they inevitably lose some of the pollen they have collected. Studies show that common pesticides could be wiping out bee colonies by causing pollen-gathering insects to lose their way home, research suggests. Two studies provide strong evidence that pesticides sprayed on farmers' fields, and used on private gardening threaten bumblebees and honeybees. A group of French researchers say that pesticides tripled their chances of dying away from the hive. The chemical was thought to disrupt the bees' homing systems. Insecticides called neonicotinoids may fuel Colony Collapse Disorder. Just as much as bees have a role in ensuring the survival of humanity, we also have roles in ensuring their survival. This way, we can ensure that the symbiotic relationship we have with bees will endure for many more generations. The honey bee is a major pollinator of many of our food crops, almonds, apples, avocados, blueberries, cantaloupe, cherries, cranberries, cucumbers, sunflowers, watermelon, and many other crops all rely on honey bees for pollination. So if honey bees disappear and we do not find replacements that can do the work they do; then foods that we take for granted will decrease in supply and increase in price. The main reason that the honeybees are important for our world is a simple as this; if the honey bee does not pollinate the crops, the crops do not grow and produce the food that gets harvested and brought to the store where we buy it and bring it home to feed ourselves and our families. So the question is, are bees important? The authors of the FAO analysis concluded that the proportion of global food production attributable to animal pollination ranges from 5% in industrialized nations to 8% in the developing world. About 75% of the world's crops benefit to some degree from animal pollination; only 10% of that 75% depend fully on animal pollination. A second explanation is that pollinator-dependent crops tend to have lower average production levels that non-pollinated crops. But there is another mega-trend at work, and that is that global demand for animal pollinated crops is increasing faster than the demand for non-pollinated staples. The fraction of total production made up of animal-pollinated crops grew from 3.6% in 1961 to 6.!% in 2006, and these statistics mask a huge jump in the years since 1990. In other words, more people around Planet Earth want ice cream, blueberry tarts, watermelon, almond chocolate bars, coffee, and yes McDonald's hamburgers - and the trend shows no sign of slowing. So, to what extent does the quality of human life depend on bee pollination? I would say a lot. We are losing the bees that live naturally in the wild. We depend on these insects for our food, but in an ecosystem where pollution and urbanization are altering nature dramatically, bees are in major trouble, bees are losing their food sources. Rural and forested land is consistently being developed for housing and shopping malls, reducing the flower sources bees feed on. In addition, bees can't find nectar and pollen as easily as they used to because of weed sprays and "better" pasture care. The weeds, from which they gather much wildflower honey, simply aren't there. Bees are adversely affected by conventional agriculture practices. This kind of farming utilizes pesticides, which kill harmful pests, but also beneficial insects like bees. Now we know that Bees are essential to the production of "one third of human food" directly through their role in fertilizing crops. They are also essential to the feed production of "animals that make up another on their of our diet". This most vital process to human survival is threatened by the careless modification of foods carried out by scientists thinking in only one box at a time. The genetically modified plants clearly are highly toxic to bees and moths as well as caterpillars. Something needs to be done urgently, if bees are to survive this toxic intervention in nature. All in all we need bees more than we we may know, think cautiously about what you're putting in your garden/crops and about the other lives around you that aren't just human life. We have food chain and if one species goes then the more another dies off.

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