Healthy Food threatened by bee population decline

Did you know apples, almonds and blueberry are still pollinated to over 90% by bees? As bee population decline all over the world, it is time to drastically change our idea of agriculture.

It’s the near future, and the world’s bees, butterflies, bats, birds, and other species of animals that help pollinate more than a third of food crops have disappeared altogether. The global population is struggling to cope with the loss of 22.9 percent of the world’s fruit, 16.3 percent of vegetables, and 22.1 percent of seeds and nuts. While Americans and most Europeans are getting by thanks to increased consumption of staple crops, the rest of the world has been hit harder by the public health effects of the mass extinction. Malnutrition-related deaths climb to 1.42 million annually, and many are in developing nations.

It’s a doomsday scenario, to be sure, but it’s not out of a new sci-fi flick—vitamin A and folate deficiencies are not the stuff of summer blockbusters—but rather the dire projections of a study on how nutrition would be altered by a catastrophic loss of pollinators. In the study, which was published this week in The Lancet, researchers from Harvard and Tufts universities estimate that 71 million people in low-income countries would develop vitamin A deficiencies—the nutrient is important for growth, development, and vision—with a further 2.2 billion people who already have insufficient levels of the nutrient in their diet seeing further reductions in intake.

Read the full article at takepart.com

Documentaries covering bee population decline

There are also a couple of documentaries that cover the bee population decline which I can highly recommend. The two most famous are probably:

Vanishing of the Bees

Vanishing of the Bees – Trailer from Bee The Change on Vimeo.

More than Honey

More than Honey – Markus Imhoof (Official Trailer) from CIBER Science on Vimeo.

Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?

Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?

Neonicotinoid-insecticides are responsible

In a recent study, European scientist found out that especially the usage Neonicotinoid-insecticides like the ones from Bayer and Syngenta have been proven to be directly related to the bee population decline. Furthermore, other pollinators like moths and butterflies are also negatively influenced by the insecticides as well as the birds that live of these insects (Easac Study via www.easac.eu). These findings are a great advancement as bee health is a very complex topic as you can see on the graphic below:

Interrelationship of bee health stressors adapted from Le Conte et al. 2010 (via www.phytofar.be “Bee Health in Europe Facts and Figures 2013, p.24”)

It’s simple no bees, no healthy food! It’s time to find new ways and raise more awareness. Having bees around us can definitely change our perspective, so helping to put honey bee observation hives in 1,000 Schools (The Bee Cause Project) or maybe getting a “Flow Hive” to support the bees in your backyard can be easy things to do something practical. Furthermore, watch out for petitions to ban these bee killing pesticides.

An introduction to Flow™ Hive from Flow Hive on Vimeo.

If we want to eat healthy food in the long-run, we have to care more about bees and less about the profits of chemical and pharmaceutical companies. Get educated on the topic. The above mentioned Documentaries are an easy way to get yourself familiarized with the topic. This DVD Bundle additionaly contains “Nova’s: Bees – Tales from the Hive”.

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So save the bees. Get active and share this information !