Colony Collapse Disorder… the death or disappearance of bees on a global scale. Not by the thousand but by the million!

37 million bees have been reported dead in Canada within the last year and this is not the only afflicted country. Massive bee-mortality rates are being reported across in Europe, Asia, Central and South America. Apiarists around the world are pointing their fingers at one culprit: Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) and - more specifically - the chemical neonicotinoids.

 

The chemical is a seed treatment pesticide that is targeted at invertebrates (no points for guessing which class bees fall into).The pesticide is used on corn, soy and canola seeds in an attempt to control ground-dwelling insects that mite (pun intended) damage these crops before they grow. The chemical has been used on virtually all seeds since 2004.

 

The pesticide is assumed to spread during corn-planting season when dust from the toxic compound spreads to areas where bees collect pollen, resulting in the bees dying of seizures. Beekeeper Gary Kenny declared eight out of ten hives dead just after corn was planted. Other researchers and scientists argue that this could be the doing of various bee diseases or pests and that we should not be quick to jump to conclusions (smells like bulls#*t).

 

But what do bees do for us? Glad you asked! Bees are arguably the most important insect to humans in that they are responsible for the pollination of most of the plants that we acquire fruit and vegetables from. Let’s say you like watermelon. If bees don’t do what bees do, the watermelon will be shapeless and have no taste because it is the fruit’s seeds that cause it to be sweet… and each seed needs to be pollinated hundreds of times.

 

The same applies to many other fruits: cantaloupes, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, apples, cherries, oranges, peaches and kiwifruit. We’d still have bananas, pineapples and vegetables, right? Not exactly. The only vegetable that could probably do well without bees would be corn, since it only needs wind to be pollinated (thank you, Hurricane Katrina). Other vegetables would suffer the same fate as watermelon and could cause flatulence and indigestion.

 

So bananas, pineapples and corn will wither and die (no butter for your bread either… go diets!) Animals would also suffer so relying on protein will not save us either. Fish stocks will plummet due to the lack of protein-based foods and cotton production will suffer.

 

Simply put, we need bees more than they need us.