American agriculture on precipice of collapse

[civ_king]

Nearly a third of managed honeybee colonies in America died out or disappeared over the winter, an annual survey found on Wednesday. The decline – which was far worse than the winter before – threatens the survival of some bee colonies.

The heavy losses of pollinators also threatens the country's food supply, researchers said. The US Department of Agriculture has estimated that honeybees contribute some $20bn to the economy every year.

Bee keepers lost 31% of their colonies in late 2012 and through the early months of this year – about double what they might expect through natural causes, survey found. The survey offered the latest evidence of a mysterious disorder that has been destroying bee colonies for seven years. The strange phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder came to light in 2006, when the first reports came in of bees abandoning their hives and disappearing.

In a report last week, the federal government blamed a combination of factors for the rapid decline of honeybees, including a parasitic mite, viruses, bacteria, poor nutrition and genetics, as well as the effects of pesticides. But scientists and campaign groups have singled out the use of a widely used class of pesticides, which scramble the honeybees' sense of navigation.

The European Union has imposed a two-year ban on such pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, to study their effects on bee populations. However, the US authorities say there is no clear evidence pointing to pesticides as the main culprit for honeybees' decline.

The annual honeybee survey, which is a joint effort by beekeepers, academic researchers and scientists at the US Department of Agriculture, noted that bee keepers reported devastating losses over the winter months. More than two-thirds of bee keepers reported bigger losses than would allow them to remain in operation. The bee keepers who were affected by the disorder typically lost about 45% of their colonies, the survey found.

The honeybee shortage is already threatening agricultural production. Earlier this year, farmers in California reported that they nearly missed pollinating their almond crop, because of an absence of bees.

Nearly 6,300 commercial bee keepers, managing close to a quarter of colonies in the country, participated in the survey.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/may/08/honey-bees-threatened-colonies-extinct-2012

Thoughts?

 

[FriendlyFire]

Disband the EPA, that way the Free market and Jesus can take care of it.
Besides wouldn't the drought be the most likely cause ?

EDIT: Just read the wiki, looks like a combination of the drought, and parasites.

A survey of beekeepers early in 2007 indicated that most hobbyist beekeepers believed that starvation was the leading cause of death in their colonies while commercial beekeepers overwhelmingly believed that invertebrate pests (Varroa mites, honey bee tracheal mites, and/or small hive beetles) were the leading cause of colony mortality

 

[Bootstoots]

Colony collapse disorder is probably due to a combination of factors, no one of which is solely responsible. Because neonicotinoids are likely a top contributor and a factor we can control, I think we should follow the EU's lead and ban them immediately (over the howls of chemical companies) and see if the incidence of CCD drops. It won't prevent it from happening, but it will probably lower its incidence.

This is a serious situation and we need to act now. We should also be looking at taking other measures that have been shown to reduce stress to bee colonies.

 

[Antilogic]

Greatest single problem with American agriculture is the lessening of genetic diversity amongst our core crops.

But I'm glad they finally figured out what the hell was wrong with the honeybees. I've been tracking this story on and off for years.

 

[Silurian]

The diversity amongst the bees is being reduced as well due to mass production of bees.

 

[Tarquelne]

But I'm glad they finally figured out what the hell was wrong with the honeybees. I've been tracking this story on and off for years.

There's some interesting possible systemic problems with how the bees themselves are generally raised. For example, and IIRC: Keepers using combs divided into smaller cells (the size bees make in natural hives) had far less trouble with CCD.

 

[Borachio]

Bees are more crucial to food crops than most people realize. They pollinate nearly all of them.

And do so more effectively than any other method.

 

[Arctic Daishi]

According to Wikipedia this is happening all over the (Western) world, not just the United States.

Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or European honey bee colony abruptly disappear. While such disappearances have occurred throughout the history of apiculture, and were known by various names (disappearing disease, spring dwindle, May disease, autumn collapse, and fall dwindle disease), the syndrome was renamed colony collapse disorder in late 2006 in conjunction with a drastic rise in the number of disappearances of Western honeybee colonies in North America. European beekeepers observed similar phenomena in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, and initial reports have also come in from Switzerland and Germany, albeit to a lesser degree while the Northern Ireland Assembly received reports of a decline greater than 50%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_collapse_disorder

 

[Earthling]

Greatest single problem with American agriculture is the lessening of genetic diversity amongst our core crops.

It's going to start looking weird with at least three separate statements made in the same thread, but it has to be said: Nope, petrochemicals.

The bee thing remains an interesting and unfortunate story but not really that big of a deal despite media chicken littling over it.

 

[Antilogic]

It's going to start looking weird with at least three separate statements made in the same thread, but it has to be said: Nope, petrochemicals.

The bee thing remains an interesting and unfortunate story but not really that big of a deal despite media chicken littling over it.

Are you talking about petrochemical spills or something else?

 

[Silurian]

Maybe oil based fertilisers, pesticides etc.

 

[warpus]

I guess one day we're basically going to have to create little flying robots that will polinate flowers for us. I've done the math and migrant workers just aren't going to be able to do it.

The only problem is going to be that we're not going to have any natural honey around.. but at least you'll never get stung by a bee again and hopefully the little robot bees won't try to take over the world.

 

[Farm Boy]

They don't know why colony collapse is happening. There are theories, insecticide coated seed crops planted with vacuum planters being one of them but that pesky thing, ya know the research, hasn't been able to substantiate that. It's only a theory and it's far from fleshed out. Banning them outright is premature and not a win/win/win like some people think. Seed corn and other crops wind up coated with insecticide not "just because" but because it's efficient. It allows smaller inputs of chemicals than older methods and competing contemporary methods. If you take that off the market, which btw, I almost guarantee you won't cause "howls" from the agricultural sector if research can substantiate them actually being the cause of bee colony collapse(yes farmers understand the benefits of healthy bees, they might even just figure out how to redesign how the same chemicals can be applied in a way that wouldn't be toxic to bees(if indeed the present method actually is)), then different and likely more poisonous or horsepower/resource intensive insect controls will rise or re-rise in place of the insecticide coating on seeds. Thus, imo, premature calling for a blanket ban of them is actually pretty dumb.

More research needed into actually finding out what is going on - it could be one or a combinations of a whole slew of things. More research needed relatively fast. We should actually be dumping large quantities of money into this, but that would probably cause "howls" from uppity urbanites about agricultural bloat and spending on the rural elite and <fill in more random stuff here>.

 

[Kaitzilla]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d...s-best-medicine-for-colony-collapse-disorder/

Wild bees are normally raised on honey, so there is no shortage of p-coumaric acid in their diets. But commercial colonies raised for agricultural pollination aren’t so lucky. To cut costs, many bee keepers harvest and sell the honey their bees produce and instead feed the growing bee babies high fructose corn syrup or other sweeteners. While nutritionally comparable, the researchers say these sugars lack essential chemicals like p-coumaric acid.

High fructose corn syrup, is there any evil to which you will not stoop?!!!

 

[Farm Boy]

It's a convenient punching bag for sure.

 

[peter grimes]

I agree with FarmBoy - a blanket ban sounds like a hasty gamble. Perhaps there are other reason why the EU policy makers wanted to try a 2 year ban, and this link was just one more reason?


In other news, it's now legal to keep bees within the 5 boroughs of New York City. I've heard of people keeping rooftop hives, but just the other day I saw a hive in a yard in Brooklyn. The owner had lots of flowering plants for them, and there were bees on the flowers in every yard I passed.

Bees generally won't sting you unless you're messing with their hive. Stay away from the hive and you'll be fine.

Hornets and some wasps, on the other hand... they'll hunt you down for sport.

 

[Borachio]

I'm rather confused. You seem to be all talking about honey bees being used for pollination.

As far as I know, honey bees can be used for pollinating, traditionally in orchards, I believe.

But bumble bees seem to be used more frequently, especially in green houses.

http://www.pollinator.org/Resources/BEEIMPORTATION_AUG2006.pdf

(I have never been hunted by a wasp or hornet. What reason would they have to do so?)

 

[Farm Boy]

I'm rather confused. You seem to be all talking about honey bees being used for pollination.

As far as I know, honey bees can be used for pollinating, traditionally in orchards, I believe.

But bumble bees seem to be used more frequently, especially in green houses.

http://www.pollinator.org/Resources/BEEIMPORTATION_AUG2006.pdf

The confusion about "agricultural collapse" as termed in the OP and sometimes in the media might come from misunderstanding around what crops are actually pollinated by honey bees. Which isn't all of them. Super basic overview on some different agricultural crops and the type of pollination they use if you are bored. http://sepdxseedbank.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/insect-and-wind/(which does support your assertions on bumblebees) Also the wiki entry on pollination is pretty good if you scroll down to the section on agriculture.

(I have never been hunted by a wasp or hornet. What reason would they have to do so?)

To satisfy the nefarious programming of the evil little brains behind those compound eyes.

 

[Farm Boy]

Had some time tonight and figured I would go into a little detail about what the theory specifically is that might be causing bee colony collapse. It has to do with the combination of a specific type of pesticide with a specific type of planter, both of which are common.

This is seed corn:

It is the color it is because it has been coated in a dual fungicide/insecticide(the purpleish is anyways, the white is talcum powder which is used as a lubricant so the seed flows evenly). The color is intentional to let you know it's been treated. The reason you do this is to kill fungus and bugs that destroy seed after it's been planted but before the plant germinates and breaks through the soil. This particular method is used because it is effective while actually using a very small amount of raw chemicals. The chemicals are relatively specific and they're exactly where and when you want to protect something. Alternative methods of control for the same pests would possibly have to be blanket sprayed at a different time of year to attempt to kill the same insects at a different point in their lifecycle - using far greater volume and more widely dispersed chemical application.

The potential problem for bees comes in when that seed is planted with one of these:

This is a vacuum planter(the very one we use, in fact!). Planting seeds needs to be relatively precise both in depth, location, and spacing. We aim for about 34,000 plants per acre so you plant 5-10% more seeds than that to account for loss and hope you wind up with about the right stand of plants come growing season. The way this planter achieves that precision is by creating 6-12 inches of water worth of suction from the hydraulically powered black fan system upon which the triangular slow-moving-vehicle sign is mounted(visible from the rear shot). It has tubes that then run down to each of the 8 seed boxes(8 in this particular planter), which hold the seed corn. Those tubes attach to the flat side of these plates:

The vacuum sucks one kernel at a time into the dimple on the other side and then the disk rotates past the vacuum tube and drops the seed into the ground at your calibrated rate.

Now the actual point - the vacuum pressure sucks just a little bit of that fungicide/insecticide dust off of the kernel as it passes through the plate. That dust then goes through the system and is vented at very low density. The theory is that the rate is low enough that we've never noticed that level of airborn chemical exposure from this particular insecticide having an adverse impact on bees but that perhaps we are wrong about that through year over year continued use. It's still just a theory, we haven't been able to replicate or prove it particularly with all of the compounding variables that could possibly be causing colony collapse instead.

Just a little more info about the topic at hand if you were bored enough to read!

 

[Borachio]

Yes. But. But. Corn is wind pollinated. As the crop matures there's really no forage available to a bee in a stand of corn. They're really not going to be in the area in significant numbers, are they?

Still, that's not to say there's no effect, of course.