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Bees, honey and our food supply

Article published in the Charlbury Chronicle June 2009

Bees, honey and our food supply

Do you realise that one third of the food we eat depends on pollination by insects and that 80% of insect pollination is by honey bees? Ninety crops are dependent on pollination, these include apples, pears, plums, soft fruit berries, nuts, cucumbers, runner beans, courgettes, melons, squash, rape and cotton and the seed production of cauliflowers, cabbages, onions and carrots. The countryside would originally have had lots of wild bees and other insects but modern agricultural monoculture, loss of hedgerows and pesticides have virtually destroyed wild pollinators and the world’s commercial food supply chain is now reliant on colonies kept alive by bee keepers. The value of pollination by honey bees is £190 million in the UK alone.

But here comes the catch - there is now a worldwide problem with honeybees dying out. In America there are serious problems with Colony Collapse Disorder where beekeepers are suddenly losing 90% of their hives and are having to buy in new colonies from Australia which is the only country free from the Varroa mite. The UK lost a third of its honey bees in 2008. This global environmental catastrophe is threatening to bring global agriculture to a standstill and is intricately tied to the way we have changed the planet.

The problem is that honeybees are under stress from several sources – climate change, pesticides and the Varroa mite which spreads disease. Geoff Burroughs from Halcyon Honey Farm in Charlbury says bees are getting confused by the unexpected weather patterns and changes to the timing of flowering that they are not used to. Our local bees are very dependent on the sycamore, chestnut and lime trees which are flowering 2-3 weeks earlier than they used to and the bees have to become active earlier to tie in with that. But warm early springs in March and April followed by drops in temperature in May can be disastrous for the bees. Queens start to lay early, hive populations rise quickly and the honey brought in during the early warm spell is quickly consumed and isn’t able to be replaced if the temperature is too cold for the workers to go out to forage.

The increase in systemic pesticides in agriculture means that seeds are treated with pesticides which are then present in the plant throughout its life cycle and inevitably get into the nectar and hence into the bees. Autopsies of bees in the USA found single bees containing 25 different agro-chemical pesticide, herbicide and fungicide residues. Chemicals are not tested for their effect in combination and are likely to affect the bees immune system as well as their lifespan. The long-term effect is pushing the bees over the edge.

Honey bees are like the canary in the coal mine, they are giving us an early warning about the state of the planet. Bees are not just about honey but about providing vital food sources for all of us. We need to change our own behaviour and create an environment not just for now but for generations to come, after all a world that is kind to honey bees has to be good for the rest of us too.


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