Department of Scary, Underreported News

[akirlu]

So, how many staple food crops can you think of that aren't dependent on insect pollinators, especially bees? The only ones I can think of are tubers, particularly potatoes, and peanuts. Any others? Seaweed, maybe?

So what happens if we have a sudden, sharp drop-off in the bee population, nationwide or worldwide?

Seems to me that the potential for worldwide famine is worse even than that posited in No Blade of Grass. That was 'just' a blight on grains, after all...

Comments

[autopope.livejournal.com]

So, how many staple food crops can you think of that aren't dependent on insect pollinators, especially bees?

Bananas.

(Although they're not doing so well ...)

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yes, bananas have troubles of their own, bigtime. Do bananas not flower? I feel sure the ones my mother grew did.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Off the top of my head: corn, wheat, most grains in fact, peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers. Some of these are wind pollinated (corn), others are self-pollinated. Then there are all the veggies where we're not eating the fruits, hence no pollination needed: lettuce, chard, spinach, mustard, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, celery, carrots, beets, etc.

Fruit trees, now there's a problem.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

There was a huge die-off of the honeybee population on the West Coast a couple of years ago that was caused by a mite of some kind. From my own casual observation of my raspberries, their niche was filled by a much hairier bee that seemed like a cross between a honeybee and a bumblebee. Anyway, this die-off is much more serious, but while the wild bees may have been diminished, they haven't actually disappeared completely.

Ah, I see that page 2 of the story you linked to mentions the mite as an ongoing problem. It also suggests that the East Coast is in much better shape than the rest of the country, with 90 percent of pollination carried out by wild critters.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

That hairier bee (and suddenly I'm seeing an aerial attack of harrier bees) is probably the mason bee, complete with apron, trowel, and fanatic hatred of the Pope.

(Kate wanders off to soak her head, obviously suffering from associative fugue...)

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Why must you harry the Pope, Kate?

But I thank you for the bee name. It looks like it could be what I've seen in the raspberries, and I'll try to look more closely this year now that I've seen pictures of various mason bees on the intarweb.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Pope Kate. Pope Kate. It has a certain ringo to it.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

We will aerially harry the hairy Pope Kate ...

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yes, but in that case we would have to keep you and Charlie Stross carefully separated forever.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Having looked at a bunch more pictures since this discussion began, I'm now wondering if they aren't really a variety of bumblebee, since they seem to have more yellow-gold in them than the mason bees I've seen in pictures -- but not as much black as the classic bumblebees of my youth. Actually, I think it's probably more than one type of bee. Can't wait for them to show up again now! The ceanothus out front also draw a lot of happy, humming bees when they bloom. (My neighbor claims that bees are particularly attracted to blue flowers.)

[albionwood.livejournal.com]

Bees don't see flowers the same way we do - they see a different spectrum, including the ultraviolet. Even ordinary-looking white flowers can look to bees as if they have neon signs saying "Get it Here!" where the nectar and pollen are located.

[albionwood.livejournal.com]

I can't think of many "staple" food crops that are dependent on the honeybee. Corn (maize) and corn (grains) and rice are the staples for much of the world, and none of those depend on honeybees.

The problem is largely economic and largely of our own making, having developed a type of agriculture that depends on shuttling the poor bees around the country all the time. We could grow pretty much all the "bee-dependent" crops, like almonds and apples, without honeybees - if we planted them in smaller blocks, surrounded by habitat for native pollinators like bumblebees. But that's less efficient, as long as we can truck honeybees in when we need them.

(I grow apples and pears. A neighbor keeps honeybees, and in warm springs - like this one - they pollinate my trees very well. In cold springs, like last year, the honeybees don't get out much and I have to rely on the natives. Last year I ended up with a pretty decent crop of apples, despite the cold, rainy, haily weather through most of the bloom. We have a LOT of bumblebees, and at least a half-dozen other kinds of bugs that feed on nectar and/or pollen.)

The honeybee problem has been developing for years, with one disease or parasite after another causing greater and greater harm to the domesticated varieties of Apis mellifera. About ten years ago the Varroa mite pretty much wiped out the "wild" honeybees in North America, but managed hives were protected by medication (Apistan). That was kind of a warning signal - a sign that we were too dependent on a population with too little genetic diversity. Now another threat has emerged, one we don't even understand yet.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, I've been wondering how high the price of oil has to go before it's noticed that our overall food supply is a manufacturing industry whose raw material is petroleum . . .
This goofy ethanol distraction is already messing with food supplies . . . (e.g. “Moonshine”)