Carolyn Lochhead wonders "could strawberry ice cream disappear from our lives? What about vanilla Swiss almond?" in Un-busy bees a disaster for almost everyone (SF Gate, June 27).
She says that the people at Haagen-Dazs and other companies are alarmed at the "decline of honeybees and other
pollinators of strawberry plants, almond trees and the rest of the
roughly 90 percent of terrestrial plant life that needs pollination".
On the East Coast, she quotes Edward Flanagan, of Jasper Wyman & Son, a wild-blueberry grower in Maine who confirms "No bees, no blueberries".
Back in 1999, the NY State Agricultural Station at Cornell University explained that Honey Bees Deliver Beneficial Fungi to Strawberries and Increase Yield.
Rainy weather also added to delays in seasonal crops as Bainbridge Strawberries Slow to Hit the Stands highlights.
Melissa Waage on Switchboard (National Resources Defense Council) was one of the first to raise the bees and strawberries question (alarm?) in Does a world without honey bees mean a world without Haagen-Dazs? (February 26, 2008).
Jennifer Sass on the same Switchboard says That Bees need us to make a buzz for them! on June 27.
In a nutshell she reminds us that honeybees make the world go round.
What are your thoughts?
More alarmist news?
Hi Serge,
Re honeybee decline, it’s definitely not “alarmist” — beekeepers ’round the world are pretty freaked about it, and there’s no debate about how widespread colony collapse disorder has become. The cause of CCD is what’s less well understood.
NRDC’s mag, OnEarth, broke this story a couple years back. Check it out — it’s a great article.
http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/06sum/bees1.asp