Disappearance Of Honeybees Threat To Crops, Scientists Say

To bee, or not to bee? It is a question facing many farmers this summer.

A study released Wednesday said numbers of natural pollinators in the environment - such as honeybees - are rapidly declining. Managed or domestic bees are used to pollinate several crops in Washington state, including apple trees, alfalfa and cranberries.

“This is not an impending agriculture crisis; we are in the middle of it right now,” said Steve Buchmann, a scientist from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and co-author of a new book, “The Forgotten Pollinators.”

The 27 pollination scientists involved in the study concluded that domesticated bee colonies have diminished by 50 percent in the last half-century, threatening crop losses. Populations of wild bees, hummingbirds and other secondary pollinators are also declining. Buchmann attributes the trend to habitat loss, pesticides and parasitic mites.

“We used to rely on wild bees a lot more, but we can’t rely on them now,” said J. Wayne Jenson, secretary of the Alfalfa Seed Growers Association of Washington.

Alfalfa farmers have always used another species, the leafcutter bee, almost all of which are now imported from Canada. Wild bees living in natural habitats also help pollinate alfalfa.

But Jenson said wild bees have virtually disappeared from his Moses Lake farm over the past decade.

“We are importing more bees now than we ever have,” he said. “There are not as many areas left where forage hasn’t been removed. The more development we get, the less forage the bees have. Bees have to have a wild area where they can survive.”

“People are used to seeing their shrink-wrapped zucchini in the grocery store and not seeing any connection between how it got there,” Buchmann said.

“If managed honeybees continue to decline and if wild pollinators do not take up the slack, there could be a $5-8 billion increase (in food costs) passed on to the consumer.”

But some Washington farmers aren’t convinced a pollinator shortage exists. Ken Sebern, president of the Washington State Fruit Commission in Yakima, said the commercial honeybee business is a growing, not declining, industry.

“Fruit growers will spend lots of money on bees to pollinate their crops. The commercial bee industry is a very important and sophisticated industry,” he said. “It’s a growth industry. They are bigger and are very progressive with how they handle their hives.”

Patrick Batts, head of the Washington State Farm Bureau, isn’t aware of any pollinator problems.

“As far back as I can remember, farmers have always been bringing in bees from out of state for certain crops,” he said.

, DataTimes