Firedoglake puts it all together. Colony Collapse Disorder is worrying because there is very little research to really determine how bad the problem is.
Most plants native to America do not require honey bees for pollination, since the honeybee is an introduced species. However, many of our crop plants need the bee because it allows us to stage large numbers of pollinators at a single time for our agricultural crops. So loss in the number of bees for commercial use could be devastating.
Again, like climate change, the worst case scenario is horrible but in this case, the research is meager in comparison. But there are some interesting developments.
Here are some quotes from Firedoglake:
A reader recently sent me an article on the deepening problems with hive collapse and honeybees:
A record 36 percent of U.S. commercial bee colonies have been lost to mysterious causes so far this year and worse may be yet to come, experts told a congressional panel Thursday.
The year’s bee colony losses are about twice the usual seen following a typical winter, scientists warn. Despite ambitious new research efforts, the causes remain a mystery….
So, how much research is being done? Not enough. This is what shook me:
So far, Agricultural Research Service Administrator Edward Knipling told the House panel, scientists believe that “various stresses” — such as parasites, pathogens and pesticides — can build up in a bee colony and cause its demise. Some research has specifically identified a particular virus, called the Israeli acute paralysis virus, which is closely associated with colony collapse.
Meanwhile, there isn’t enough money to probe all the pollen and bee samples that researchers have collected, said Penn State University senior extension associate Maryann Frazier.
There are some 2,000 samples on shelves waiting to be analyzed by the federal government for $200 a pop, she said.
“The bee research community is quite small,” she said. “The research and money has been very minimal. What we need is more manpower to tackle this.”
Further illustrating how political pollination works, Pien and bee-friendly representatives hosted a Capitol Hill briefing Wednesday that lured participants with lots of free Vanilla Honey Bee ice cream cups. Dozens of congressional staffers fluttered by for a quick taste. Haagen-Dazs has retained a D.C.-based public relations firm to help make its case, while the American Honey Producers Association paid the lobbying firm Winston and Strawn $860,000 in the last two years, records show.
The article states that the farming bill that was just approved over President Bush’s veto authorizes $20 million for bee-related research but does not guarantee that it will actually be spent. The President decides that. So, Haagen-Dazs has said it will provide $250,000 for research. That should just about pay for the testing of the 2000 samples. A lot more will need to be done as well before we can determine just how bad this could get.
Technorati Tags: Environment, Science
