Scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world’s harvests fail.
They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Bee-keepers claim that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - had hit Britain as well.
The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees’ navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.
From UK's The Independent:
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive’s inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.
The alarm was first sounded in 2006, but has hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.
CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. John Chapple, one of London’s biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.
Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: “There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK.”
No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks. The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world’s crops depend on pollination by bees.
But surely all bees do is make honey?
Far from it. They certainly do make honey, but more importantly, they are an essential agent of pollination for a vast range of plants, many of which are important human foodstuffs. Without the presence of bees, much of agriculture would be impossible, and this is a sobering thought right now, as feeding the world is suddenly becoming more difficult because of rising demand and the transfer of much crop production into biofuels, especially in the US.
Most of the pollination for more than 90 commercial crops grown throughout the United States is provided by Apis mellifera, the honey bee, and the value from the pollination to agricultural output in the country is estimated at $14.6bn (£8bn) annually. In Britain alone, pollination by bees of a suite of just 10 crops, ranging from apples and pears to oilseed rape, was calculated to be worth £165m per annum in 2007.
Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared,
“Man would have only four years of life left”.
From The Discovery Channel:
Honeybees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops we have. Among them: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers. And lots of the really sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons.
In fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees. So if the collapse worsens, we could end up being "stuck with grains and water," said Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for USDA's bee and pollination program.
"This is the biggest general threat to our food supply," Hackett said.
Pulitzer Prize-winning insect biologist E.O. Wilson of Harvard said the honeybee is nature's "workhorse — and we took it for granted."
"We've hung our own future on a thread," Wilson, author of the book "The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth," said.
From Discovery Channel
And from Australia . . .
Bees play a big role in the food supply chain. From www.sciencedaily.com
“In the big scheme of things, honey's a bit of a minor product, really,” NSW Department of Primary Industries apiarist Dr Doug Somerville said.
“Roughly one-third of the food we eat relates back to bee pollinated crops, so most of the benefits of honeybees actually come from pollinations.
“About 90 fruit and vegetable crops, including melons, pumpkins, and even cotton are more productive with their help.
“And almond crops rely entirely on honeybees for pollination and Australia’s young almond industry is booming right now in the tri-State region.”
Since varroa mite and other bee diseases hit America and wiped out huge numbers, US beekeepers have also relied on NSWgrown stock to help pollinate their almond trees.
In 2006, Australian beekeepers cashed in, shipping export package bees worth $3-4 million to America.
However, this is in contrast with the rest of the local industry, beset by poor yields and low prices, brought on by the drought.
“The bee industry had a reasonable summer honey crop, but domestic prospects for the next two years look very bleak,” Dr Somerville said.
“There will be very few eucalypt flowerings in the next 12 months, which will lead to a yield well below average in the Australian honey crop over the next 12 months to two years.”
All sections of the local industry accept that the arrival of destructor in Australia is a matter of when, not if, and its effects would be far more dramatic than a wide incursion of Apis cerana.
Bees drop like flies but mobile phone toll unlikely
Speculation but no defined cause surrounds a massive die-off of bee hives in the US.
Between 25 and 80 per cent of colonies in apiaries have just disappeared, says NSW DPI apiarist Dr Doug Somerville, describing a phenomenon that North American beekeepers have called Colony Collapse Disorder.
“This is causing major concern in the US almond industry, because well over one million bee hives are required to pollinate this crop every February,” Dr Somerville (pictured) said.
He told ABC-TV’s 7.30 Report the collapse has caused US beekeepers to escalate their prices for pollination fees for a range of crops, including almonds and blueberries.
“At this stage, the same collapses have not been reported by Australian beekeepers.”
Mobile phone waves are amongst factors reported as possible causes of collapse in the US but Dr Somerville is dubious this is the cause.
“You would probably expect a lot more colony deaths in urban areas than rural, and this has not been the case,” Dr Somerville said.
“Their problems are likely to be a combination of factors,” Dr Somerville said.
Pesticides residues in the environment from a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, used variously as seed treatments, on cut flowers, stone fruits, cotton aphids and locusts have not caused any problems in Australia but are now under the spotlight in the US, according to CSIRO entomologist Denis Anderson.
Varroa mites, poor nutrition and generally stressed bees compromising the immune system of the others in hives are also postulated as causes.
Dr Somerville says 30 per cent of beekeepers have exited the US and New Zealand industries since varroa mites arrived because they found managing the pest too hard.
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