The more one looks into the industrial bee industry the more one should realize that what is currently plaguing bees is a problem that was foreseeable. Bees from Minnesota (and other northern climates) are shipped to California in the winter to pollinate crops growing there, because the California bee industry has been in decline for years and is unable to support the production of its agricultural crops with its bee industry alone. These bees in northern climates would be hibernating in the winter if allowed to stay in climates.
Bees are fed high fructose corn syrup so all of the honey can be harvested and not necessarily only the surplus the hive produces. Plastic honey combs are used to create greater efficiency in hive building and bees live in these plastic surroundings year round over their entire lives. Queen bees are artificially inseminated (an amazing technological feat that is awe-inspiring) to grow more queen bees to sell as commodities. More and more chemicals are spread in hives to reduce exposure to fungus's, mites, and virus's. finally, superbees have been produced that are genetically similar for high yields of honey and lower their susceptibility to currently known bee illnesses. All of this is done to increase yields that demonstrate the success of industrial bee keeping techniques, while slowly reducing the bee colonies ability to withstand new diseases and the elements and create the possibility of periodic massive die-offs that effect the modern human food chain.
Bees are not the only industrial agricultural product that is susceptible to the problem of die-offs. Holstein cows are fed high protein feed, pumped full of hormones and antibiotics and bred to produce yields of milk that are 2-3 times greater than normal (yes, we can feed the world and the poor - yippee). Meanwhile instead of the normal lifespan of Holsteins of around twenty years with an average amount of calves birthed during a lifetime of around 9, the industrial Holstein average lifespan is between 3-4 years and averages 0.9 calves in its life. Antibiotics and hormones in our milk may be creating antibiotic resistant bacteria and causing increasing health problems in human populations. I should emphasize may for those who are only interested in proof from the sciences funded through grants by the chemical and agricultural giants.
Holstein cows and bees are just two of countless examples we can look at that demonstrate the amazing yields industrial agriculture can produce, yet can also produce large scale problems as a result - die-offs among them. We have all heard of the recent e-coli and spinach scare and also mad-cow disease, bird-flus, etc. These scares are becoming routine and result from the successes of industrial agriculture. Whether we can continue to find cures for new problems in the future remains to be seen.
What should be obvious to most of us is considered fear mongering by the skeptics. There is a right way to grow food that is not measured by yields. I will use a baseball analogy that I hope sheds some light. Analogies are not science, so I apologize to those who have little appreciation for storytelling, poetry, or the arts and are only impressed with what science can prove or discover as a cause.
There is a right way to play baseball that is not measured by statistics such as home runs, batting averages, slugging percentages, etc. Some baseball players have amazing statistics and abilities, but they never learned to play the right way. They don't run out ground balls to the infield. They don't emphasize their role in playing team defense. They run the bases poorly. They show up their teammates both on and off the field. Many of these wrong ways to play don't show up in the statistics, but to those who observe the game on a routine basis that is greater than the casual fan who follows box scores and stats, the players who don't play the right way stick out like sore thumbs.
I suggest that there is a right way to grow food that is not measured by yields or the price we pay in our grocery stores, but rather is obvious to those who visit farms that operate in sustainable ways and treat their soils, plants and animals in caring ways and with the respect they deserve. The right way of raising food may not produce greater yields for the markets, but they can sustain large and healthy local populations if allowed to operate on scales that do not harm local habitats. Food raised the right way also tastes better and is better for you.
I also, at risk of further alienating myself from the scientifically inclined, believe that food raised the right way leads to a less anxious and angry population of humans less inclined to confrontation and war. Its a karma deal that requires nothing more or less than faith as proof. I don't see how this faith could be in any way harmful, so I choose to believe it whole heartedly. Eating the mass produced chickens and beef that is produced in confinement lots where they don't ever see the light of day and are held in small cages and stalls produces anxious and stressed out animals. When we eat this food, that anger and stress is transfered to us. I have no proof other than what I observe around me. Take a field trip to an organic farm or Community Supported Agricultural (CSA) farm and look around at the animals. Also, take a look at the people working there and their stress and anxiety levels. These individuals have many problems to work out in a day and at times stress is there that is common among any community. The daily stress is different in quality, however and anxiety levels are not the same as one sees in a typical workplace. All of this is qualitative and not measurable, but obvious to those who pay attention to such things, just as one can see there is a right way to play baseball if one looks long and hard enough.
Life is a mystery and the biological process will always remain mysterious in the face of scientific advances. A respect for this mystery should be fostered in our society that is greater than our respect for those earning profits and for the prices we pay at the register or pump. Cheap food prices mean low wages for many farmers is just one example of the faulty reasoning from those who seem so impressed by with what little they pay at the grocery store while never stepping foot on a farm.
Every one can be rightly impressed with the population that our industrial agricultural system feeds and the prices we can obtain our food in this country for. However, if you don't monitor the food that you put in your body and how it is produced your individual health will suffer. There are negative effects that result from the techniques we employ to produce food on a mass scale. The vanishing bees are just the latest of these large-scale problems resulting from these techniques. You can choose to ignore these problems and only focus on prices and yields this system produces, but you (and we as a society) do it at your own peril.
