Bees

If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.

While I have not been able to corroborate it as of yet, some try to attribute the above block quote to Albert Einstein. Having been a physics major in college, I'd like to think that's true but it is actually immaterial, as would be quibbling over whether it would be four years or slightly more or less. Let's just hope we're not in a position to find out. To say that bees are of the utmost importance to sustainable agriculture (and even unsustainable agriculture for that matter) would be a gigantic understatement. That is why I find myself writing this post above all the other things I've been meaning to post (sorry) and during such a busy period at my day job. I wanted to be sure everyone was aware that something weird is going on. Bees are disappearing, and there is no conclusive ideas as of yet what's going on. So it's something I've been following and you should be too. Bees are pivotal to Brines Farm, and while we haven't done so yet, we will be starting beekeeping at the farm in the near future. And hopefully they will stick around.

What can you do?

Well if you haven't heard about it or seen it in the news you could catch yourself up reading up about "disappearing" and "collony collapse disorder" etc. at the following links. And pay attention. Because if something like an insectiside or GM crop product is scientifically linked to the problem we will need action. That may sound like conspiracy theory stuff (and it is interesting to think about who would benefit from the disappearance of bees) but seriously, the French banned the insectiside product Guacho in the 1990s after it it was blamed for a huge fall in the bee population there. For the record, there are a lot of hypotheses out there including wonderings regarding the Earth's magnetic field polarity flipping and cell phone and radio frequencies wreaking havoc. I haven't seen anything solid come forth yet to which the recent increase in disappearances can be attributed.

http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/ColonyCollapseDisorder.html
http://www.cyberbee.net/ccd.shtml and click on CCD Crisis
http://www.michiganbees.org/news.htm


What else can you do?

Love bees. Seriously. You should start beekeeping. It's fun and not too difficult. The free 102 page PDF document Beekeeping Basics pretty much lays it out for you. Check out the other resources below as well. The Michigan Beekeepers Association and affiliates offer classes, as do most associations and clubs across the country. (Some dear friends of mine in Vermont are lucky to have access to free classes/workshops put on by their state's association.)

http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/pdfs/agrs93.pdf
http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/BegBeekeeping.html
http://www.michiganbees.org/classes.htm
http://www.cyberbee.net/

If you already keep bees, thanks! And consider filling out the National Bee Loss Survey.