Could half of our food supply actually be at risk now? by Larry Powell - No. 15 '09
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It seems that the news about disappearing bees isn't that bad after all.
It's worse!                                                                                        
(bee photo by l.p.)

While the sad state of honeybees worldwide has now been well-documented, much less attention has been paid to their ungainly cousins, the bumblebees!
They, too are declining at an alarming rate and have been for at least a decade, possibly longer! But only recently have details of their predicament begun to emerge.

A Bee's Plea:

I am a bumblebee. I'm an excellent pollinator of many different kinds of fruits and vegetables, important to you humans. In some cases (if I do say so), I'm even better at it than my more famous cousins, the honeybees. (You've probably heard more about them because they make lots of honey and I don't.)
I don't need as much light or warmth as they do to forage for nectar and pollen, the practice which fertilizes plants, allowing them to reproduce.
I also know how to dislodge pollen better by beating my wings and doing my own unique dance.
I have about 250 bumblebee relatives, (species) worldwide and some 50 here in North America. I am a native to this continent and, for the most part, live in the wild. Honeybees, on the other hand, are domesticated immigrants.
I am very docile and will sting you only in self defense. So I'm definitely not one of the insects you should worry about while on a picnic.
Honeybees have been getting most of the press because they have enemies on all sides and have been dying off in large numbers everywhere.
Terrible thing, that.
But we're in a similar pickle and need to tell our story, too!
So here it is.

The Evidence:

About two years ago, the prestigious and historic *National Academy of Sciences in the US, sounded the alarm about pollinators like the bumblebee. In a report which obviously received only limited attention, the National Research Council (a subsidiary of the Academy) stated, "Long-term population trends for several wild bee species (notably bumblebees), are demonstrably downward."
The agency added, both individual researchers and groups have provided evidence that both local and global populations of bumblebees are declining, with some species even being declared endangered.

More Evidence:

From '04 to '06, Sheila Colla was part of a team which went on a search for one species, B.affinnis. Ms. Colla is a Ph.D candidate in biology at Toronto's York University. She has done extensive field studies of bumble bees (genus Bombus) in both Canada and the US. The species she set out to find, used to be common in its range from southern Ontario into the 'States. Her team found one bee! No, not one species. Not one sub-species. A single bee! (It was foraging on a sunflower in an Ontario's provincial Park.)
In the 'States, they weren't even that lucky. There, they found not a one! Notta! Zilch!

And More:

Two British scientists who spend much of their lives reviewing data on world bumblebee populations, have made similarly gloomy findings.
Bumblebee vulnerability and conservation world-wide
Paul Williams, of the Department of Entomology at London's Natural History Museum and Juliet Osborn of the Department of Invertebrate Ecology at Rothamsted Research Station in Hertfordshire have found bumblebee species in decline in Europe, North America and Asia. In eastern Europe and Russia, the news is even worse. They describe those areas as having "the largest concentration of species categorized as endangered, or worse."

And More:

The news from yet another quarter is no better. (I warned you!) The non-profit, US-based Xerces Society has been working for more than 30 years to save bumblebees through habitat preservation. About a decade ago, it noticed three different bumblebee varieties (western, rusty-patched - we'll call her "Rusty" - and yellow-banded), began dwindling in western North America. Rusty was once commonly distributed throughout the east and upper US Midwest, but has steeply declined in recent years.

It's feared that another, Franklin's bumblebee, may now actually be extinct. Why? Because a Xerces entomologist at the University of California, Davis, Prof. Emeritus Robbin Thorp, like Ms. Colla, also found only one. No, not one species. Not one sub-species.... (Did I already say that?) It was a worker bee he found near the Pacific Crest Trail in Oregon. That was at least three years ago, in 2006. Thorp notes, when he first started tracking the pollinators during the 60s, their numbers were "robust."

Why all the Fuss?

Well, here's why.
And this is the important part.
Bees are critical pollinators for both Mother Nature and we humans. As I've stated in previous writings, the kind that make honey account for up to one third (33 1/3%) of human food crops! But bumblebees can't be overlooked for the critical role they play, either. Overall, they account for another 15%! So, do the math! Taken together, we can thank these wondrous creatures for practically one out of every two spoons-full of food we put in our mouths!

Then there's their monetary value. French and German scientists place the economic value of insect pollination, worldwide at U.S. $217 Billion. The Canadian Pollinator Initiative estimates insects pollinate around $1 billion worth of agricultural crops each year in this country. Based at the University of Guelph, CANPOLIN looks at "all aspects" of pollination, including the health and conservation of pollinators themselves. It notes, "This decline poses a serious threat to natural ecosystems and crop production."

Ms. Colla describes bumble bees as key to the production of tomatoes, cucumbers, and sweet peppers.
Meanwhile, Xerces notes that Rusty, in particular, is (was?) also an excellent pollinator of wildflowers, cranberries, plums, apples, alfalfa and onions. It should also be noted that countless wildflowers (important food, both for the bees and other wildlife), not to mention possible sources of fibre and medicines for us, will vanish if they do!

So surely the bar is now rising from the serious to the potentially catastrophic! Need any more convincing?

What About Intrinsic Values?

But isn't more than just food, (as critical as that is), at stake if the bees disappear from this earth?
Surely many, if not most of us have marveled from time to time as these fascinating creatures forage intently in our gardens.
The air is filled with their soothingly monotonous drone.
With their over-sized bodies and tiny wings, the bumblebees especially have surely put smiles on the soberest face, as they take on an ever-larger cargo of pollen, defying all the known laws of aerodynamics as they go!

The Hand of Man Again?

So, just what is behind this disturbing decline, you may ask? Well, us, pretty much. You and me.

Remember those British bug experts, Williams and Osborne? High on their list of things causing this trend; "Land use changes." That, of course means human development; logging (as above), urban sprawl, livestock overgrazing, intensive farming practices and pollution. All of these destroys plants which are the bees' food source.

But that's not all.

Pathogens are hitting some species especially hard. Interestingly, according to Xerces, "The dramatic decline in wild populations of these species coincided in the 90's with a disease outbreak in populations of commercially-raised bumble bees distributed for greenhouse pollination in western North America." Given this timing, the Society believes that an exotic disease organism escaping from these greenhouses may have been the cause of this widespread loss in wild bumblebee populations.

In a 2007 report on "The Status of Pollinators in North America," the National Research Council, concurs.

And, as in numerous other studies on declining bee populations, agricultural pesticides are once again implicated. In their review, Williams and Osborne state, "Pesticides could affect bumblebee populations either directly, as insecticides that kill bumblebees, or indirectly, as herbicides that kill their food plants. It is likely that incidents of honeybee poisoning from insecticides will also have affected wild bees. Studies suggest pesticide toxicity is similar for bumblebees and honeybees. The use of herbicides to kill flowering plants in intensively managed grassland and crops may be an important driver of bumblebee declines on a global scale."

CANPOLIN lists other causes, too, including "malnutrition and climate change."

Has Our Food Supply Been Hit Yet?

Xerces refers to evidence that some insect-pollinated plants in England and the Netherlands are declining. There, multiple bumblebee (and other bee) species have gone extinct.

NAS says plant species, especially rare ones, could also become increasingly vulnerable to extinction.

In Manitoba, Canada, there are anecdotal reports of a decline in some vegetable crops such as pumpkins, although there has been no analysis of the cause.

But so far, there's not a lot of hard scientific evidence which would point to any widespread decline in food crops, to this point.

So What Can be Done?

One group which believes it can answer that question is the Soil Association of Scotland. The Association, which promotes organic farming, says "The lack of pesticides in organic production, provides a haven for the bee. Wild spaces at field margins and in hedgerows, provide a diversity of flowers and habitats for bees to nest and shelter. Organic farming supports both bio-diversity and the bee."

What About the Future?

There's no evidence that our relentless assault on the planet will let up any time soon. Nor is there a lot of hope that the fate of other pollinators will prove any different. According to CANPOLIN, 28 species of butterflies and moths are also known to be at risk in Canada.

And, in the US, NAS notes that some pollinating bat populations have been devastated by mysterious ailments.

So, sadly, the final chapter in this tragedy has yet to be writen.
l.p.

Paths Less Travelled - stories rarely told by mainstream media

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* "Of the multitude of ways humans could be harming the planet, one that has largely been ignored is the "pollinator crisis," the perceived global decline in the number and viability of animal species that facilitate reproduction of flowering plants.
"Despite its lack of 'marquee appeal,' pollinator decline is one form of global change that actually does have credible potential to alter the shape and structure of the terrestrial world." National Academy of Sciences - US