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[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Save the bees.
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Bee Die-offs from Multiple Causes June 1, 2007 · Filed under Agriculture & 
Food, Environment & Wildlife by Craig Mackintosh



Seven weeks ago we did a reasonably comprehensive post on the mysterious bee 
die-offs afflicting beekeepers in the U.S. and many other countries around 
the globe. In that post I tried to express the concept that the so-called 
‘colony collapse disorder’ was a final worker’s strike from a creature 
that’s been doing hard labour under our modern production systems for too 
long. While many (scientists and lay-people alike) have been looking for the 
straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back, the article tries to focus on, 
and implicate, the load that was there in the first place.

Judging by the wealth of comments (111 to date), contributions and insights 
from beekeepers and other interested persons, many seem to agree with this 
philosophy.

Since publishing that article, we learnt (without surprise) that organic 
beekeepers didn’t seem to be suffering the problems of their industrial 
counterparts.

And, today, hot off the press at the San Francisco Chronicle, is a news 
report that further confirms our conclusions.


A team of entomologists and other scientists studying the alarming die-off 
of honeybees across the country is expected to report that there are 
multiple causes of the deaths, called colony collapse disorder. The finding 
compounds a crisis for growers of crops dependent on pollination, a Central 
Valley congressman said Thursday.

… The team of scientists now completing the report and recommendations for 
the USDA’s Agriculture Research Service is expected to conclude that there 
are many potential causes of colony collapse, including parasites, mites and 
diseases; known or unknown pathogens; poor nutrition and stress; lack of 
genetic diversity; and a combination of several factors.

If there is not a common thread, such as a pathogen seen in many of the 
affected colonies, Professor Eric Mussen of UC Davis said he is convinced 
that a nutritional deficit helps explain how the honeybees were weakened by 
the smorgasbord of potential causes of death. That is because dry 
conditions, certainly in California, did not produce flowers in which bees 
find their required mix of pollens, he said.

“I am pretty concerned about it this year because, at Davis, in January we 
only had 0.17 of an inch of rain and we should have had 4 inches. The early 
mustard — we never got it,” Mussen said.

“In many situations the bees were weakened by not being able to get a nice 
mix of nutrients that they needed from the pollens, and I think that 
weakened them,” he said. “Under those circumstances you can take all the 
other (causes), and there are plenty of them, and combine them together and 
down go the bees.” - San Francisco Chronicle

We have grown so accustomed to fixes-in-a-bottle. If we have a headache, 
rather than drink more water, open the window to inhale fresh air, and 
monitor our diet and exercise regime - we pop a pill. A visit to the doctor 
no longer involves questioning our lifestyle habits, but just a 
precautionary check on potential allergies for one proposed medication or 
another. This is the same mindset we’re dealing with in the industrial 
agriculture sector. Rather than examine root causes, we try to defeat the 
symptoms. But, there is no quick fix - no industrial, chemical, or 
genetically modified patch - to this problem. The only real ‘cure’ is 
prevention.

In a less industry-controlled world one could hope such experiences as these 
would lead to a resurgence of healthy agricultural systems - 
reducing/removing chemical inputs, and increasing the oh-so-stabilising 
bio-diversity we’re so desperately short of. I fear, however, we’ll end up 
offering our little black and yellow-jacketed workers just enough of a 
pay-rise to get them back to work, but no more.

http://www.celsias.com/blog/2007/06/01/bee-die-offs-from-multiple-causes/