The Importance Of Honeybees

I decided to write my blog about the importance of honeybees  and the increased rate in which they are dying that could completely devastate our human food meals.  Honeybees are so important in our food process because they “don’t just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops we have.” 

“In fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, according to the U.S  Department of Agriculture.” Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees.  This is something that is completely astonishing to me because it’s something that I didn’t know.  Who ever knew that a tiny little thing like honeybees could be so important in a larger effect of so many foods?

Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for USDA’s bee and pollination program said that the honeybee problem is ” the biggest general threat to our food supply.”

Scientists are struggling to figure out what is killing the honeybees, and early results of a key study this week point to some kind of disease or parasite.  Scientists stated that, “Even before this disorder struck, America’s honeybees were in trouble. Their numbers were steadily shrinking, because their genes do not equip them to fight poisons and disease very well, and because their gregarious nature exposes them to ailments that afflict thousands of their close cousins.”

In a study of honeybees and beekeeping, “University of Montana bee expert Jerry Bromenshenk has surveyed more than 500 beekeepers and found that 38 percent of them had losses of 75 percent or more.”  This is a very significant loss and one that the general public should be worried about because it eventually will have a major impact on our daily food intake.  Scientists believe that this will not be a simple answer to find for the honeybee probelm however they are continuously working on it to develop a solution.